Shirley Temple Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics

Shirley Temple was a talented American actress, singer, dancer, businesswoman, and diplomat. She was known as the favorite child actress from 1935 to 1938 featuring in films like The Red-Haired Alibi, Little Miss Marker, Now I’ll Tell, Baby Take a Bow, Now and Forever, Bright Eyes, Wee Willie Winkie, Heidi, Little Miss Broadway, The Little Princess, and Susannah of the Mounties. Some of her awards and honors include the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

Birth Date

Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928.

Died

Shirley Temple died aged 85 on February 10, 2014, in her home in Woodside, California. According to her death certificate, she died due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Sun Sign

Taurus

Distinctive Features

• Signature curly hair
• Dimpled smile

Brand Endorsements

Shirley Temple had either endorsed or appeared in the commercials for brands like –

• Royal Crown Cola (1946)
• Wheaties and Bisquick (1935)
• Dodge autos (1936)
• Sperry Flour (1936)
• Ireland’s Health Service Executive “National Smokers’ Quitline” (2010)

Best Known For

• Being Hollywood’s favorite child actress from 1935 to 1938, drawing an extensive box-office collection having featured in numerous films including Bright Eyes (1934) as Shirley Blake, Curly Top (1935) as Elizabeth Blair, and Heidi (1937) as Heidi Kramer
• Her diplomatic career as she represented the United States on various occasions in numerous positions such as the United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, Chief of Protocol of the United States, and for appearing at the United Nations General Assembly having worked at the U.S. Mission under Ambassador Charles W. Yost

As a Singer

She has performed many songs in numerous films including In Our Little Wooden Shoes and Holy God, We Praise Thy Name in Heidi (1937), Auld Lang Syne in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), The Gospel Train and Hey, What Did the Blue Jay Say? in Dimples (1936), Animal Crackers in My Soup and When I Grow Up in Curly Top (1935).

First Film

In 1932, she made her theatrical debut in the drama film Red-Haired Alibi as Gloria Shelton.

First TV Show

In 1954, she made her first TV show appearance as ‘Herself’ on the musical comedy series The Ed Sullivan Show.

Shirley Temple Facts

1. In 1932, at the age of 3, she began her film career.
2. Her 2nd husband Charles Blake, while courting her had admitted that he had never seen any films of her.
3. Her daughter Lori Black aka Lorax played bass guitar for the rock band The Melvins.
4. There were many reasons for her backing out from playing the lead character of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939) – one being that 20th Century-Fox didn’t want to lend her to MGM and other, that Judy Garland (who was ultimately cast as Dorothy) had a better singing voice.
5. At the age of 7, her life was insured with Lloyd’s of London, and one of the conditions of the contract was that in case of her death or injury while intoxicated, benefits would become unpayable.
6. Her daughters were both born in the same hospital in Santa Monica, California, and were also delivered by the same doctor who delivered Shirley.
7. Her mother, Gertrude Temple, did her hair curls for each movie and the hairstyle had precisely 56 curls.
8. She was given the recognition of Dame of Malta, from a non-Roman Catholic-unaffiliated entity.
9. Singer and filmmaker Shirley MacLaine both inherited their names after her.
10. She has been featured on the cover of The Beatles’ album Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
11. She auditioned twice to be in the 1930’s popular series Our Gang but failed the first audition, and though she made it in the 2nd audition, director Robert F. McGowan refused Shirley’s mother’s request for a star billing for Shirley, and ultimately she didn’t get in.
12. Entertainment Weekly has voted her as the 38th “Greatest Movie Star of all time”.
13. In her teenage days, she had a bodyguard named Louis Dean Palmer, whom she called Palmtree.
14. When Shirley received one of the first juvenile Academy Award in 1935, the awards was presented towards the end of the show at about 10:00 PM leaving her exhausted and after having received her award from actor/writer Irvin S. Cobb, she turned to her mother and asked, “Mommy, can I go home now?”
15. Premiere magazine in “Our Constellation” feature in 2005, included her as #33 on their list of “Greatest Movie Stars of All Time”.
16. The American Film Institute listed her as the #18 actress in their list of “50 Greatest Screen Legends”.
17. In 1939, she presented Walt Disney with his special honorary Academy Award, which was a standard-sized Oscar with seven little Oscars for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
18. As a child, she idolized Bill Robinson (aka Bojangles Robinson) and even got to work with him in 4 films.
19. She was known to be one of the youngest presenters at the Oscar awards having presented the “Best Actress” award to Claudette Colbert, at just the age of 6, in 1935.
20. She has a non-alcoholic cocktail named “The Shirley Temple” created in her honor, and it consists of ginger ale (or 7-Up), grenadine and orange juice, garnished with a maraschino cherry and a slice of lemon.
21. While running for Congress as a Republican in 1967, she voiced strongly on the point that more US troops should be sent to Southeast Asia.
22. She was able to give natural birth to her first daughter but had to opt for a Caesarean section for her son and her second daughter.
23. On February 8, 1960, she received her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
24. After chairing the program division of the San Francisco Film Festival from 1964, she resigned in 1966 objecting to the “p*rnographic” content of Mai Zetterling’s Night Games (1966).
25. In 1969, President Richard Nixon included her as the delegate to the United Nations.
26. It was while serving as the Special Assistant to the Chairman of the President’s Council on Environment that she underwent a radical mastectomy.
27. In May 1974, she was inducted as one of the members of the board of directors for Walt Disney Productions.
28. In 1974, she took over the role of American Ambassador to Ghana and served there for 2 years.
29. On Easter Sunday in 1936, Shirley received a live bunny as a gift from Joel McCrea.
30. She was a member of the Girl Scout.
31. Buddy Ebsen considered Shirley as his best friend, who was also his dancing partner.
32. In 1989, she was appointed United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
33. In 1998, she was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.
34. Animal trainer Ralph Helfer’s baby alligator once bit her finger.
35. She was included in the Legends of Hollywood ‘forever’ USA commemorative postage stamp series issued on April 18, 2016.
36. She became attached to actor Will Rogers after signing with Fox and was grief-stricken for days when Will died in a plane crash.
37. When studio chief Joseph M. Schenck who was in England then, learned how Shirley was affected by Will Rogers’s death, he bought her a pony and had it shipped to the US on the Queen Mary.
38. In the 1930s, she and Jackie Cooper were the most popular child stars.
39. The Blackfoot tribe presented her with the Indian name Bright Shining Star during her filming of Susannah of the Mounties (1939).
40. Her parents and 20th Century-Fox did not reveal to Shirley her actual age which was reduced by 2 years, and later when she found out the truth, Shirley was angry with her parents, causing a rift in the Temple family that never got resolved.
41. Actress portrayed her in the film J Edgar (2011).
42. In 1938, Congressman Martin Dies of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) wrongly accused Shirley Temple, who was just 10 years of age then and was at the peak of her fame, as being an unwitting agent of the Communist Party. However, with the timely intervention of the Roosevelt Administration, the false accusation soon died down.
43. Shirley Temple was featured as a caricature in Disney’s Donald Duck short film The Autograph Hound (1939).
44. Shirley stated that at the age of 6 years, she stopped believing in Santa Claus as when she and her mother went to meet Santa Clause in a department store, he asked for her autograph.
45. Her merchandise items included dolls, dishes, phonograph records, mugs, hats, and clothing, among others.
46. As she grew older, her popularity as an actress faded and between the ages of 14 to 21, she only featured in 14 films thereby prompting her retirement from films at the age of 22 in 1950.
47. She published her autobiography, Child Star in 1988.
48. Her hero was aviator Amelia Earhart.
49. Shirley was one of the first celebrities to talk about her breast cancer treatments in 1972 openly, thereby reducing the stigma behind the disease and in aiding in improving breast cancer awareness.
50. Her first on-screen kissing scene in the film Miss Annie Rooney (1942) engendered some fans.
51. She had also served as board of directors for Del Monte Foods, Bank of America, Bank of California, BANCAL Tri-State, Fireman’s Fund Insurance, United States Commission for UNESCO, United Nations Association, and National Wildlife Federation.
52. Some of the rumors that circulated around her stated that she actually wasn’t a child, but a 30-year-old dwarf with stocky body type, prompting the Vatican to dispatch Father Silvio Massante to investigate the matter as the rumor was very prevalent in Europe.
53. Visit her official website @ shirleytemple.com.
54. She wasn’t active on social media.

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