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Sally Field

Acting

Born November 6, 1946 · Pasadena, California, USA

Also known as Sally Margaret Field

Biography

Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and nominations for a Tony Award and for two British Academy Film Awards. Field began her career on television, starring in the comedies Gidget (1965–1966), The Flying Nun (1967–1970), and The Girl with Something Extra (1973–1974). In 1967, she was also in the western The Way West. In 1976, she attracted critical acclaim for her performance in the television film Sybil, for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Her film debut was as an extra in Moon Pilot (1962). Her film career escalated during the 1970s with starring roles in films including Stay Hungry (1976), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Heroes (1977), The End (1978), and Hooper (1978). During the 1980s she won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice for Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984), and she appeared in Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Absence of Malice (1981), Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), Steel Magnolias (1989), Soapdish (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Forrest Gump (1994). In the 2000s, Field returned to television with a recurring role on the NBC medical drama ER, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2001 and the following year made her stage debut with Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?. For her portrayal of Nora Walker in the ABC television family drama series Brothers & Sisters (2006-2011), Field won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She starred as Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln (2012), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she portrayed Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and its 2014 sequel, with the first being her highest-grossing release. In 2015, she portrayed the title character in Hello, My Name Is Doris, for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy. In 2017, she returned to the stage after an absence of 15 years with the revival of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, for which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 2014, she was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2019, she received the Kennedy Center Honor.

Awards & recognition

  • Kennedy Center Honors · 2019
  • National Medal of Arts · 2014
  • Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series · 2007
  • Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series · 2001
  • Crystal Award · 1986
Show all 14 awards →
  • Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year · 1986
  • Academy AwardBest Actress · 1985
  • Academy AwardBest Actress · 1980
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Academy AwardBest Supporting Actress · 2013 · nominated
  • Golden Raspberry AwardWorst Actress · 1992 · nominated
  • Academy AwardBest Actress · 1985 · nominated
  • Academy AwardBest Actress · 1980 · nominated

Filmography50+ titles

A Woman of Independent Means

as Bess Alcott Steed Garner

Remarkably Bright Creatures

2026as Tova Sullivan

Forrest Gump

1994as Mrs. Gump

Marty, Life Is Short

2026as Self (archive footage)

From the Earth to the Moon

1998as Trudy Cooper

ER

1994as Maggie Wyczenski

Night Gallery

1969as Irene Evans

The Larry Sanders Show

1992as Sally Field

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

2022as Jessie Buss

Spielberg

2017as Self

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

2008as Self

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962as Self

King of the Hill

1997as Junie Harper (voice)

Maniac

2018as Dr. Greta Mantleray

The Graham Norton Show

2007as Self

Mrs. Doubtfire

1993as Miranda Hillard

Steel Magnolias

1989as M'Lynn Eatenton

Places in the Heart

1984as Edna Spalding

Norma Rae

1979as Norma Rae

I Am Burt Reynolds

2020as Self (archive)

Brothers and Sisters

2006as Nora Walker

Where the Heart Is

2000as Mama Lil

Spoiler Alert

2022as Marilyn

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

1993as Sassy (voice)

Smokey and the Bandit

1977as Carrie 'Frog'

The Last Movie Stars

2022as Self

Saturday Night Live

1975as Self - Host

Lincoln

2012as Mary Todd Lincoln

The Dick Cavett Show

1968as Self - Guest

Gidget

1965as Frances Elizabeth 'Gidget' Lawrence

Dispatches from Elsewhere

2020as Janice

The Amazing Spider-Man

2012as Aunt May

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning

2008as Marina Del Ray (voice)

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

2004as Carrie 'Frog' (uncredited/archive footage)

Not Without My Daughter

1991as Betty Mahmoody

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

1967as Self

Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco

1996as Sassy (voice)

Absence of Malice

1981as Megan Carter

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

2014as Aunt May

The Kelly Clarkson Show

2019as Self

Hello, My Name Is Doris

2015as Doris Miller

Finding Your Roots

2012as Self

Shirley Maclaine: Kicking Up Her Heels

1996as Self (archive footage)

Eye for an Eye

1996as Karen McCann

Soapdish

1991as Celeste Talbert

Hooper

1978as Gwen Doyle

The Flying Nun

1967as Sister Bertrille

80 for Brady

2023as Betty

Murphy's Romance

1985as Emma Moriarty

Heroes

1977as Carol Bell