Child star Shirley Temple died of natural causes at 85 years old. Known in her private life as Shirley Temple Black, the ultra-adorable child star was an icon of depression era America, with her performances still enjoyed by audiences today. The star passed away on Monday night local time, at her home in San Francisco.
The dimpled, curly-haired Shirley Temple sang and danced into audiences hearts, playing cheerful girls who spread happiness wherever they went. Writer Charles Eckert said that Temple played characters whose “capacity for love was indiscriminate, extending to pinched misers or to common hobos. It was a social, even a political force on a par with the idea of democracy or the constitution.”
Even American President Franklin D. Roosevelt commented that it was “a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles.”
Shirley Temple began her career at just 4 years old and by the time she was 6, she had appeared in 20 films. In just a few years, her films made a phenomenal $US20 million. Shirley Temple has been credited with saving 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy with films including Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel. She even had a drink named after her, a popular cocktail of ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.
The star retired from film-making at just 21 years old and devoted much of her adult life to her family. As an adult, she became active in politics and held several diplomatic posts in Republican administrations, including ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the historic collapse of communism in 1989.
When Shirley Temple passed away she was surrounded by family members and caregivers. The family released a statement following her death, saying:
‘We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black.’
Explore the gallery below for some of Shirley Temple’s most iconic roles and lifetime achievements: