Legendary child star Shirley Temple Black passed away.
Her publicist confirmed her death stating she passed away from natural causes Monday night in her home in Woodside, California. She was 85.
“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 of fifty-five years,” said the statement.
Shirley Jane Temple was born in Santa Monica, California on April 23, 1928. Her mother put her in dance classes by the age of 3 where she was noticed by a talent scout who put her in a variety of short films. Hollywood took notice and launched the starlets career.
Temple Black tap danced her way to fame and into people’s hearts back in 1930. She starred in movies like Bright Eyes, The Little Princess and Heidi and won an honorary Academy Award in 1935.
From 1935 to 1939 she was arguably the most famous person in the world being photographed more than President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Temple Black has starred in over 40 motion pictures before retiring from the big screen at the age of 22.
She made a comeback, not as an actress but as a diplomat in 1960s. President Richard M Nixon appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1969. From there she went on to become the US ambassador to Ghana, was President Gerald Ford’s chief of protocol, and President Georg H.W. Bush’s ambassador in Czechoslovakia.
Temple is ranked 18th on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female American screen legends of all time.
She is survived by her children Susan, Charlie Jr, and Lori, her granddaughter Teresa and her great-granddaughters Lily and Emma.
