Shirley Temple, actress, singer, dancer, died at 85

  Dead Famous

Dead, Shirley Temple Black on February 10, 2014, she was an American film and television actress, singer, dancer and public servant, most famous as Hollywood’s number one box-office star from 1935 through 1938.

As an adult, she entered politics and became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia, and as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

In 1934, she found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents.

She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer to motion pictures during 1934, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s.

Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes and clothing.

Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence.

She made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released.

She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods and the National Wildlife Federation.

She began her diplomatic career in 1969, with an appointment to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California, she was the daughter of Gertrude Amelia Temple, a homemaker, and George Francis Temple, a bank employee.

The family was of English, German and Dutch ancestry. She had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley.

On September 19, 1945, when Temple was 17 years old, they were married before 500 guests in an Episcopal ceremony at Wilshire Methodist Church in Los Angeles.

On January 30, 1948, Temple gave birth to their daughter, Linda Susan.

Agar became a professional actor and the couple made two films together: Fort Apache (1948, RKO) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949, RKO).

The marriage became troubled, and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949.

In January 1950, Temple met Charles Alden Black, a WWII United States Navy intelligence officer and Silver Star recipient who was Assistant to the President of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

Conservative and patrician, he was the son of James B. Black, the president and later chairman of Pacific Gas and Electric, and reputedly one of the richest young men in California.

Shirley Temple was without doubt the most popular and famous child star of all time.

She got her start in the movies at the age of three and soon progressed to super stardom.

Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in her films and they ultimately bought millions of dollars worth of products that had her likeness on them.

Dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, whatever it was, if it had her picture on there they bought it.

She was supposed to play Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), and there are several stories about why she didn’t.

One is that 20th Century-Fox refused to lend her to MGM. Another was that MGM considered her singing talent “insurmountable”. In either case, Judy Garland got the part.