Shirley Anne Field obit

Shirley Anne Field, The Entertainer and Alfie actor, dead at 87

English actor rose to prominence after starring opposite Laurence Olivier in 1960’s ‘The Entertainer’ 

She was not on the list.

Shirley Anne Field, the English actor known for her film roles in The Entertainer and Alfie, has died aged 87, her family has announced.

A statement shared by her representative from her family said: “It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday 10 December 2023, surrounded by her family and friends.

“Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.”

Shirley Broomfield was born in Forest Gate, Essex (now in the London Borough of Newham) on 27 June 1936. She was the third of four children, with two elder sisters and a younger brother, Earnest "Guy" Broomfield (c. 1939–1999). Her brother was murdered, in 1999, by Harry Dalsey, the son of Adrian Dalsey.

At the age of six, Shirley was placed in the National Children's Home at Edgworth, near Bolton, Lancashire and four years later was moved to another children's home in Blackburn, where she attended Blakey Moor School for Girls. She subsequently returned to Edgworth until she was 15, when she moved to a children's home hostel in London, training as a typist while still attending school.

Her first appearance in a film was as an extra in Simon and Laura (1955). She had small parts in All for Mary (1955), Lost (1956), Yield to the Night (1956) (directed by J. Lee Thompson), It's Never Too Late (1956), It's a Wonderful World (1956), The Weapon (1956), Loser Takes All (1956), The Silken Affair (1956), Dry Rot (1956), The Good Companions (1957) (again for Thompson), Seven Thunders (1957), and The Flesh Is Weak (1957). She was in episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane (1957) and International Detective.

 

Filmography

Lost (1955) as Taxi driver's daughter (uncredited)

Dry Rot (1956) as Waitress in Cafe (uncredited)

Loser Takes All (1956) as Girl at Roulette Table

It's a Wonderful World (1956) as Pretty Girl

The Flesh Is Weak (1957) as Susan

The Good Companions (1957) as Redhead

Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) as Angela Banks

Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)

Jungle Street (later renamed Jungle Street Girls) (1960) as Jaqui

Man in the Moon (1960) as Polly

Beat Girl (1960) as Dodo

Once More, with Feeling! (1960) as Angela Hopper

And the Same to You (1960) as Iris Collins

Peeping Tom (1960) as Diane Ashley

The Entertainer (1960) as Tina Lapford

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) as Doreen

Lunch Hour (1962) as Girl [20]

The War Lover (1962) as Daphne

The Damned (1963) as Joan

Kings of the Sun (1963) as Ixchel

Doctor in Clover (1966) as Nurse Bancroft

Alfie (1966) as Carla

A Touch of the Other (1970) as Elaine

House of the Living Dead (1974) as Mary Anne Carew

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) as Rachel

Getting It Right (1989) as Anne

Shag (1989) as Mrs. Clatterback

The Rachel Papers (1989) as Mrs. Smith

Hear My Song (1991) as Cathleen Doyle

Loving Deadly (1994) as Madame

Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (2000) as Mary, the Mother of Christie

The Kid (2010) as Margaret

The Power of Three (2011) as Jenni

Selected television appearances

Santa Barbara

Monarch of the Glen

Where the Heart Is

The Bill

Dalziel and Pascoe episode "Recalled to Life"

Murder, She Wrote

Never the Twain

Upstairs, Downstairs

Last of the Summer Wine

Shoestring

Doctors

Bramwell, season 1, episode 2 ("The Threat of Reprise") as Peggy Heart