Before Gidget, She Was Sally of the Valley

Although Sally Margaret Field was born in Pasadena on Nov. 6, 1946, she grew up in Encino and attended Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, where she was a member of the cheering squad and participated in school productions. Junk-bond wizard Michael Milken and entertainment executive Michael Ovitz were her classmates.

After graduating in 1964, she landed the part of TV’s most wholesome teenager, “Gidget.” The series lasted only one season (1965-66), as did her next show, “Hey, Landlord” (1966-67). But it was the next role, as Sister Bertrille in “The Flying Nun,” which ran from 1967 to 1970, that made it difficult for Hollywood to take her seriously.

In 1976, Field’s career turned around with her Emmy Award-winning performance in the title role of “Sybil,” based on an actual case of a woman with 16 personalities.

When she won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as union organizer “Norma Rae” in 1979, she established her status as a film star. But her second Oscar, for “Places in the Heart” in 1985, seemed to astonish her greatly; her memorable “You like me” speech has become a cliche in conveying sincerity and emotion.

Her extensive film credits include “Steel Magnolias,” “Absence of Malice,” “Murphy’s Romance,” “Soapdish,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Forrest Gump” and “An Eye for an Eye.”

The early roles of cheerful, vivacious girls had developed into serious, strong and sometimes vengeful women.

Field has two grown sons by a previous marriage and now lives in Brentwood with her son by a second marriage (to Alan Greisman). She runs her own production company, Fogwood Films. Field produced her first film, “Dying Young,” in 1991, and made her directorial debut in last December’s TV movie, “The Christmas Tree,” which she also wrote.