Sally Field is a famous actress who has won an Academy Award, an Emmy, and a Golden Globe. She is well-known for her performances in movies and shows like “Forrest Gump,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Lincoln,” and “Steel Magnolias.” At 76 years old, she started her acting career in 1965 when she played the lead role in “Gidget.” Over the years, she has been in many TV series, films, and even Broadway productions. Sally has also shared her personal struggles, including her experiences with sexual abuse from her stepfather and her battles with depression, self-doubt, and feeling lonely, in her 2018 memoir titled “In Pieces.”
The Beginning of Her Career
Sally Field was born on November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, California. Her dad, Richard Dryden Field, worked as a salesman, and her mom, Margaret Field, was an actress. After her parents split up, her mom married Jock Mahoney, who was both an actor and a stuntman. Sally has a brother named Richard Field and a half-sister named Princess O’Mahoney.
Her Personal Life
Sally Field got married to Steven Craig in 1968, and they had two sons named Peter and Eli. They ended their marriage in 1975, and then she married Alan Greisman in 1984. Together, they had a son named Samuel, but they divorced in 1994. From 1976 to 1980, she was in a relationship with Burt Reynolds, which she describes as challenging in her memoir. She talks about how he was controlling and even persuaded her not to go to the Emmy awards when she won for her role in “Sybil.” Sadly, Reynolds passed away just before her book came out, and in his own memoir, he referred to their breakup as “the biggest regret of my life” in his 2015 book “But Enough About Me.”
Fields mentioned that they hadn’t talked in 30 years before he died. She said, “Being around him wasn’t good for me at all. He convinced himself that I meant more to him than I really did, but that wasn’t true. He just wanted something he couldn’t have, and I didn’t want to handle that situation.”
Looking back, Field saw similarities between her relationship with Reynolds, which she called “confusing and complicated, filled with love and care but also really hurtful,” and her relationship with her stepdad. In her memoir, she shares her experiences of her stepfather’s abuse, recalling how he would often summon her to his room when she was just 14. “I felt like a child, powerless, yet also not a child,” she expressed. “It was a feeling of power. I had that power. But deep down, I just wanted to be a kid — and yet.”
Field discovered that her mother had been aware of the abuse the whole time, but her husband had deceived her by claiming it only happened once when he was drunk. Field explained that it occurred “all through my childhood” and decided to write a memoir after her mother passed away. She said, “Writing was the only way I could find the parts of my mother that I couldn’t understand. Until I figured that out, I couldn’t forgive her, and I really wanted to forgive her or at least make sense of her actions. So, I wrote the book to help me forgive her.”
Sally Field Today
Nowadays, Sally Field has her Oscars and Emmys displayed in a TV room where she enjoys playing video games with her grandchildren. It looks like she’s not planning to retire anytime soon, especially with her new movie “Spoiler Alert” coming out next week and “80 for Brady” set to release in 2023.
Steven Spielberg, who directed “Lincoln” and is her friend, said, “As an actress, she challenged this town not to put her in a box, and she pushed past all the old rules to carve out her own path. It wasn’t about becoming a superstar, which I think she would reject, but about landing amazing parts in fantastic movies and shows. With her great taste and strong determination, she has thrived in our constantly changing world, proven her worth over the years, and secured a unique spot in history.”
