Shirley Jane Temple: April 23, 1928–February 10, 2014

✪ Shirley Jane Temple was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat, who was America’s number-one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. She was later named the United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Temple began her film career in 1931 when she was only three years old. She became well known from her performance in Bright Eyes, which was released in 1934. In February 1935, she won a special Juvenile Academy Award for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer in motion pictures during 1934. She continued to appear in popular films through the remainder of the 1930s, although her subsequent films became less popular as she grew older. She appeared in her last film, A Kiss for Corliss, in 1949.

Temple began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S. Mission under Ambassador Charles Yost.

Temple was born on April 23, 1928 at Santa Monica Hospital (now the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center) in Santa Monica, California. She was the third child of homemaker Gertrude Temple and bank employee George Temple. Her family was of Dutch, English and German ancestry. She had two brothers: John and George, Jr.

Temple’s mother encouraged her to develop her singing, dancing, and acting talents early. While she was in dance school, Temple was spotted by Charles Lamont, who was a casting director for Educational Pictures. She hid behind a piano while he was in the studio. Lamont liked Temple and invited her to audition. He signed her to her first contract in 1932. Educational Pictures launched its Baby Burlesks, 10-minute comedy shorts satirizing recent films and events, using preschool children in every role.

In 1933, Temple appeared in Glad Rags to Riches, which was a parody of the Mae West feature She Done Him Wrong, with Temple’s role as a saloon singer. That same year, she appeared in Kid ‘in’ Africa as a child imperiled in the jungle and in Runt Page, a pastiche of the previous year’s The Front Page.

Temple soon became the breakout star of this series, and Educational promoted her to 20-minute comedies in the popular Frolics of Youth series.

Temple and her child costars often modeled for breakfast cereals and other products to fund production costs. She was lent to Tower Productions for a small role in that studio’s first feature film, The Red-Haired Alibi (1932) and in 1933 to Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Pictures for various parts.

After viewing one of Temple’s Frolics of Youth films, Fox Film Corporation songwriter Jay Gorney saw Temple dancing in the theater lobby. Recognizing her from the screen, Gorney arranged a screen test for Temple for the film Stand Up and Cheer! (1934). Temple auditioned on December 7, 1933 and won the part. She was signed to a $150-per-week contract that was guaranteed for two weeks by Fox. The role was a breakthrough performance for Temple. Her charm was evident to Fox executives, and she was ushered into corporate offices almost immediately after finishing “Baby, Take a Bow.” a song-and-dance number.

On March 14, 1935, Shirley left her footprints and handprints in the wet cement at the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. She was the Grand Marshal of the New Year’s Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, California three times: in 1939, 1989 and 1999. On February 8, 1960, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, she received the Kennedy Center Honor for her achievement in film.

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Biographer John Kasson writes:

“In almost all of these films, she played the role of emotional healer, mending rifts between erstwhile sweethearts, estranged family members, traditional and modern ways, and warring armies. Characteristically lacking one or both parents, she constituted new families of those most worthy to love and protect her. Producers delighted in contrasting her diminutive stature, sparkling eyes, dimpled smile, and 56 blond curls by casting her opposite strapping leading men, such as Gary Cooper, John Boles, Victor McLaglen, and Randolph Scott. Yet her favorite costar was the great African American tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, with whom she appeared in four films, beginning with The Little Colonel (1935), in which they performed the famous staircase dance.“

Biographer Anne Edwards wrote about the tone and tenor of Temple’s films:

“This was mid-Depression, and schemes proliferated for the care of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen. But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number. Shirley offered a natural solution: to open one’s heart.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised her performances, saying, “It is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, Americans can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget their troubles.“

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Film critic John Kasson states:

She was also the most popular celebrity to endorse merchandise for children and adults, rivaled only by Mickey Mouse. She transformed children’s fashions, popularizing a toddler look for girls up to the age of 12, and by the mid-1930s, Ideal Novelty and Toy Company’s line of Shirley Temple dolls accounted for almost a third of all dolls sold in the country.

After the success of her first three films, Temple’s parents realized that she was not being paid sufficiently. Her image also began to appear on numerous commercial products without her legal authorization and without compensation. To regain control over the use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple’s parents hired lawyer Lloyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, Temple’s contractual salary was raised to $1,000 per week (equivalent to $22,776 in 2023), and her mother’s salary was raised to $250 per week (equivalent to $5,694 in 2023), with an additional $15,000 (equivalent to $341,642 in 2023) bonus for each finished film. By the end of 1935, Temple’s salary was $2,500 per week (equivalent to $55,558 in 2023).

As her contract with 20th Century-Fox came to a close in September 1939, Temple’s mother applied her for entrance into the Westlake School for Girls. There, Temple enrolled as a seventh grader. Temple noted that she had difficulty adapting to a school environment after having spent much of her youth with adults and private tutors. However, her classmate June Lockhart described her as having “integrated herself right away” and seemed “delighted to be there.” Temple frequently attended school dances and extracurricular activities; and according to Lockhart, “students did not treat her differently despite her successful film career.” Temple graduated from the school in May 1945.

She did not formally announce her retirement from full-length films until 1950.

Temple also briefly had her own radio variety series on CBS. Junior Miss debuted March 4, 1942, in which she played the title role. Junior Miss was sponsored by Proctor & Gamble. The series ended on August 26, 1942.

Temple was also active in television. From 1958 until 1961, Temple was the hostess, narrator, and an occasional actress on an anthology series of fairy tale adaptations called Shirley Temple’s Storybook. During 1958, the hour-long program was aired as a series of specials on ABC. Starting in 1959 the series began airing every third Monday night, alternating with Cheyenne. In 1960 the series moved to NBC, where it was broadcast under the title of The Shirley Temple Show until September 10, 1961.

At the height of her popularity, Temple became the subject of many myths and rumors, with several being propagated by the Fox press department. Fox publicized her as a natural talent with no formal acting or dance training.

False claims also circulated that Temple was not a child, but a 30-year-old dwarf, due in part to her stocky body type. The rumor was so prevalent, especially in Europe, that the Vatican dispatched Father Silvio Massante to investigate whether she was indeed a child. While acting, she wore dental plates and caps to hide the gaps in her teeth.

Another rumor was Temple’s trademark hair was actually a wig. On multiple occasions, fans yanked her hair to test the rumor. She later said she wished all she had to do was wear a wig.

Temple was active in the California Republican Party. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California’s 11th congressional district after eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger died of leukemia.

Temple was extensively involved with the Commonwealth Club of California, a public-affairs forum headquartered in San Francisco. She spoke at many meetings throughout the years, and served as the club’s president for a period in 1984.

Temple began her foreign service career in 1967 after her failed run for Congress when Henry Kissinger overheard her talking about South West Africa at a party. He was surprised that she knew anything about it. She was appointed as a delegate to the 24th United Nations General Assembly (September – December 1969) by President Richard M. Nixon and United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford. She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977).

Temple also served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush and was the first and only woman to hold this job. Temple bore witness to two crucial moments in the history of Czechoslovakia’s fight against communism. She was in Prague in August 1968, as a representative of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, and was going to meet with Czechoslovakian party leader Alexander Dubček on the very day that Soviet-backed forces invaded the country.

She later reported that it was from there she saw an unarmed woman on the street gunned down by Soviet forces, the sight of which stayed with her for the rest of her life.

Later, after she became Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, she was present during the Velvet Revolution, which brought about the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. Temple openly sympathized with anti-communist dissidents, and assisted their efforts. She was ambassador when the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the newly elected government led by Václav Havel. She took the unusual step of personally accompanying Havel on his first official visit to Washington, travelling on the same plane.

In 1943, 15-year-old Temple met 22-year-old John Agar, whom she married two years later in 1945, at age 17. In 1948, she gave birth to Linda Susan Agar in 1948. Agar was reportedly an abusive alcoholic who had extramarital affairs. Temple divorced Agar in 1950 on the grounds of mental cruelty.

Temple later was married to Charles Alden Black from 1950 until his death on August 4, 2005. The couple had two children together; a son and daughter.

At age 44, in 1972, Temple was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, cancer was typically discussed in hushed whispers. Temple’s public disclosure was a significant milestone in improving breast cancer awareness and reducing the public stigma around the disease.

Temple died at age 85 on February 10, 2014, at her home in Woodside, California. According to her death certificate released on March 3, 2014, the cause of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Temple was a lifelong cigarette smoker but avoided displaying her habit in public because she did not want to set a bad example for her fans. She is interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park. ✪