Hollywood legend Shirley Temple has died aged 85. Rising to fame at just five years old, she was one of the first child star triple threats – with the ability to sing, dance and act. After doing a series of small roles, supplemented by appearing in cereal adverts, her role in Stand Up And Cheer! In 1934 solidified her status as a bona fide star. Fox Films paid her $1250 (£760) a week, which is $22,000 (£13,000) in today's money. Later that year, the song On The Good Ship Lollipop, which featured in her film Bright Eyes, sold 500,000 sheet-music copies, the equivalent of going gold. She was literally cemented in history in 1935, when her hand and footprints were cast outside Los Angeles’ Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
The curly haired dimple-faced actress became such a powerhouse – Twentieth Century Fox’s biggest asset – that a team of writers were put together to make films for her – making 11 original stories and adapting other films just for her to star in – and the Oscars created a Junior Oscar, a miniature statuette and award, just so it could be given to her. Merchandise of the child star was hugely successful, with dolls of her topping $45m (£27m) in sales by 1941. And, how's this for a tidbit: Oscar-winning actress Shirley Maclaine, born in 1934, was named after her. Not good enough? Well, becoming the biggest cinema draw for four years running, at a time when 90 million cinema tickets were sold every week in the US, is pretty good going.
The hope and optimism of her characters – normally orphaned and great at fixing older people’s problems – came to be seen as a symbol for post-Depression America. ‘It is 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,' is how president Franklin D. Roosevelt put it. After churning out about 41 films between 1934 and 1937, the prolific actress’s star started to wane. Releasing a couple of films a year, they weren’t such commercial successes, and her parents bought her out of her contract aged 12 and sent her to an exclusive LA school. Within a year she was back, though, signing to MGM. However, this was also flop.
After a few more films, her career stalled, and she retired at 22. Shirley went on to occasionally present and act in a variety of shows. By the mid-70s, however, she moved on to politics. Following an unsuccessful bid to become a Republican congresswoman, she was appointed as the US ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1989. She also sat on various boards for places lie UNESCO, The Walt Disney Company and Del Monte Foods.
She died of natural causes 'surrounded by family and caregivers', according to a family statement. 'We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat and, most importantly, as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for 55 years of the late and much-missed Charles Alden Black.'
Once divorced and once widowed, she leaves behind three children, Linda, Charles and Lori.
Picture: Getty
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.