Sally Field is an American actress, singer and producer. Sally started her acting career in the 1960s and went on to become one of the most beloved and acclaimed actresses of her generation. With a career that spans over five decades, she has received numerous awards and accolades for her work, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award.
Sally grew up in a show business family, with her mother, Margaret Field, being a film star in the 1940s and 1950s. Despite her mother’s success, Sally struggled with a difficult childhood, marked by her parents’s divorce and her struggle with dyslexia. Despite these challenges, she discovered her love for acting at an early age and pursued it with determination.
Sally made her television debut in the 1960s, appearing in several popular shows such as “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun.” However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that Sally really made a name for herself. She starred in the hit television series “The Girl with Something Extra,” which earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. This success established her as a talented and versatile performer and opened the door for her to move into film.
Sally’s big-screen debut came in 1976 with “Stay Hungry,” in which she starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over the next few years, she starred in several films, including “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Heroes” and “Norma Rae,” which earned Sally her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Her powerful performance in the film established her as a leading lady, and she went on to win two other Academy Awards for her role in the film “Places in the Heart” and “Lincoln” in 2012. This made Sally only the fourth person in history to have won three competitive Oscars.
Sally was born on Nov. 6, 1946, and has had an enduring career, not only in television and film but also on the stage, earning a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway production of “The Glass Menagerie.” In addition to her acting career, Sally has been a passionate advocate for various social and political causes, including literacy, children’s health and animal welfare.
She continued gracing the screen with roles in “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Forrest Gump,” and later returned to television – earning Emmys for her work in “ER” and “Brothers & Sisters.” To this day, Sally is still one of the most recognizable actresses in the industry.
Sally’s personal life has been just as busy as her career. She first married Steven Craig in 1968. The couple has two sons – Peter Craig and Eli Craig – who followed in their mother’s footsteps into show business. Peter is a novelist and screenwriter, while Eli is an actor and director. Field and Steven later divorced in 1975 after being separated for two years.
Sally began dating her “Smokey and the Bandit” co-star, Burt Reynolds, a few years later. They appeared in several other films together and seemed like a match made in heaven. Sally described her relationship with Reynolds in her 2018 memoir “In Pieces” as a “perfect match of flaws.” The actress later married Alan Greisman in 1984. They had one son named Sam Greisman before divorcing in 1994.
Sally has never remarried but found satisfaction in being a doting mother to three sons, and a grandmother to five children, all of whom she told Closer Weekly were her whole “existence.” She added:
“I’m not married; I’m not the kind of person that has a life separate from them. That’s my family. That’s my everything.”
Sally is fiercely protective of her children and backs them when they need her most. When her youngest, Sam, came out as gay, Sally had her son’s back every step of the way.
“It’s important to have a parent speak about raising a magnificent, proud, intelligent, funny, lovable, sexy gay son,” she said in 2012. “There are so many parents who are frightened of that and who don’t embrace their children as they struggle to… embrace who they are, what nature intended them to be.”
When Sam presented his mother with the Ally for Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign Gala in 2012, he said, “When I came out, she didn’t bat an eye,” he remarked. “In fact, she was overjoyed. Being gay was just one more thing she loved about me. She couldn’t be more supportive of me; if anything, I wish she was a little less supportive of me,” he joked.
In February 2023, Sam penned a heartfelt letter in tribute to his mother published by People. He wrote:
“I’ve always been a momma’s boy — painfully, occasionally ashamedly so. Perhaps too obsessed with her. … Maybe it’s because I was a shy little kid and my mom was a safe space; a hip I was attached to. Maybe it’s because gay men feel a certain undeniable affection for award-winning actresses. Who knows! Whatever it is, we have always been incredibly close.”
“She has given me the chance to see her as a woman and an artist, always striving to be better, always looking around the next bend, willing to be vulnerable. She’s taught me what it means to have passions, how to dedicate yourself to a craft — to be willing to care, no matter how much you achieve, even if it breaks your heart,” Sam wrote.
With such an illustrious career, it’s no wonder the Screen Actors Guild has named Sally the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. The award, which recognizes the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” goes to a true icon of American entertainment. With her talent, versatility and determination, Sally has earned a place among the great actresses of her generation.
While she has accomplished so much in the professional sphere and is still going strong, her family remains her proudest achievement in life.
“The three things I’m most proud of in my life are my sons,” Sally told Closer Weekly. “They are kind, loving, productive people. Each with their own list of talents and accomplishments.”
Not only are Sally’s children the apples of her eye, but she has also been blessed with five grandkids – Isabelle, Sophie, Ogden, Noah and Colin.
In 2018, Sally sat down with Live Talks LA to chat about her memoir “In Pieces,” and revealed the ups and downs of her love life have caused her to “examine that pattern,” Closer Weekly reported her as saying. She added she, however, had no regrets and wouldn’t turn back the clock.
“I’m really happy with how I am, and I really don’t want to pick up your underwear in the morning, you know?” she said and added she’s realized she doesn’t “want to start again. I really like not worrying about someone else’s dinner.”
She shared her time unattached had taught her to love herself more. “Ultimately, what we have is just aloneness, and that sounds terrible, but it’s really glorious. Because if you are all together inside yourself, owning yourself, and all the pieces are put together, you keep great company with yourself. You’re not alone in your aloneness — you’re together with yourself,” she explained.
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