---
name: "Shirley Anne Field"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/shirley-anne-field"
fi1m_id: "shirley-anne-field"
imdb_id: "nm0276043"
tmdb_id: 83909
wikidata_id: "Q531414"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "27 June 1938"
died: "10 December 2023"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 81
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-07T10:27:50.933307+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Shirley Anne Field

## Identity

Shirley Anne Field

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/shirley-anne-field
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** shirley-anne-field
- **IMDb ID:** nm0276043
- **TMDB ID:** 83909
- **Wikidata ID:** Q531414
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Anne_Field, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q531414, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276043/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/83909

Actor. Born 27 June 1938 in Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK. Died 10 December 2023.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 27 June 1938, Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK
- **Died:** 10 December 2023
- **Active:** 1960–1991
- **Also known as:** Shirley Ann Field
- **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 80 (2), 1980s 85 (1), 1990s 78 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 81 to 76 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 4 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Comedy 3, Drama 3, Romance 3
- **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $21m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Anne_Field, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q531414, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276043/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/83909

## Fi1m on Shirley Anne Field

> Shirley Anne Field gave vulnerable women intelligence and a distinctive husky voice. We value her warmth in supporting roles, though the films too often gave her less to do than the early promise deserved.

Shirley Anne Field could make a young woman seem vulnerable and still capable of sizing up the person opposite her. Her husky voice was distinctive, but the intelligence behind it mattered more than the sound. Her 1960 breakthrough came with Tina in *The Entertainer* and Doreen in *Saturday Night and Sunday Morning*, opposite Laurence Olivier and Albert Finney respectively. Those parts placed her in the British New Wave, where she could be appealing without seeming easily fooled.

*Lunch Hour* (1962) gave her a sustained part as a young woman in a clandestine affair, with room for more emotional detail. Substantial film roles became scarcer after the mid-1960s, and she was largely absent from major films in the 1970s. The return to character parts from the mid-1980s brought opportunities to work within ensembles. We would have liked more films to give her the space that *Lunch Hour* did.

In *My Beautiful Laundrette* (1985), she plays Rachel, the mistress of Saeed Jaffrey's character. We were moved by Field's Rachel: her warmth makes the mistress worth caring about in a film with plenty of other people competing for our attention. Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi make the desire for money as understandable as the desire for love, and Field fits their generous view of people. The crowded subplots occasionally get in the way, but the performances make the extra company welcome.

In *Hear My Song* (1991), her Cathleen Doyle gives us another reason to look beyond the early ingenues. It is a substantial later role in Peter Chelsom's generous comedy about the search for a singer, though our enthusiasm for the film rests chiefly on Adrian Dunbar's nerve and Ned Beatty's steadiness. Chelsom pushes the sentiment too hard, and we would not recommend it without that warning. Start with *My Beautiful Laundrette*, then try *Lunch Hour* to see what happens when she is given more time.

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Hear My Song* (1991), Fi1m 78, as Cathleen Doyle — [page](https://film.one/film/hear-my-song.md)
- *My Beautiful Laundrette* (1985), Fi1m 85, as Rachel — [page](https://film.one/film/my-beautiful-laundrette.md)
- *Alfie* (1966), Fi1m 79, as Carla — [page](https://film.one/film/alfie.md)
- *Saturday Night and Sunday Morning* (1960), Fi1m 82, as Doreen — [page](https://film.one/film/saturday-night-and-sunday-morning.md)

## Complete filmography (56)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Beautiful Relics* (2014), as Evie
- *The Power of Three* (2011), as Jenni
- *The Kid* (2010), as Margaret
- *Waking the Dead* (2001), series, as Monica Reynolds
- *Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry* (2000), as Mary the Mother of Christie
- *Monarch of the Glen* (2000), series, as Sadie
- *Madson* (1996), series, as Elaine Dews
- *Dalziel and Pascoe* (1996), series, as Cissy Kohler
- *Bramwell* (1995), series, as Peggy Heart
- *Loving Deadly* (1994), as Madame
- *U.F.O. The Movie* (1993), as Supreme Commander
- *Lady Chatterley* (1993), series, as Mrs Ivy Bolton
- *Anna Lee: Headcase* (1993), as Mrs. Westerman
- *Hear My Song* (1991), as Cathleen Doyle — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/hear-my-song.md)
- *El C.I.D.* (1990), series, as Dolly
- *The Rachel Papers* (1989), as Mrs. Seth Smith
- *Getting It Right* (1989), as Anne
- *Shag* (1989), as Mrs. Clatterbuck
- *My Beautiful Laundrette* (1985), as Rachel — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/my-beautiful-laundrette.md)
- *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Anne Gillen
- *Santa Barbara* (1984), series, as Pamela Capwell Conrad
- *Never the Twain* (1981), series, as Stephanie
- *Buccaneer* (1980), series, as Janet Blair
- *Shoestring* (1979), series, as Barbara Knight
- *Risking It* (1977), as Joanne Clewes
- *House of the Living Dead* (1974), as Mary Anne Carew
- *Centre Play* (1973), series, as Joanne Clewes
- *Last of the Summer Wine* (1973), series, as Eva
- *A Touch of the Other* (1970), as Elaine
- *Hell Is Empty* (1967), as Shirley McGee
- *Shotgun* (1966), as Madeleine
- *Five More* (1966), series, as Madeleine
- *Alfie* (1966), as Carla — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/alfie.md)
- *Doctor in Clover* (1966), as Nurse Bancroft
- *The Wedding March* (1966), as Laure
- *Kings of the Sun* (1963), as Ixchel
- *The Damned* (1962), as Joan
- *The War Lover* (1962), as Daphne Caldwell
- *Lunch Hour* (1962), as Girl
- *Man in the Moon* (1960), as Polly
- *Saturday Night and Sunday Morning* (1960), as Doreen — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/saturday-night-and-sunday-morning.md)
- *Beat Girl* (1960), as Dodo
- *The Entertainer* (1960), as Tina Lapford
- *Peeping Tom* (1960), as Pauline Shields
- *Once More, with Feeling!* (1960), as Angela Hooper
- *And the Same to You* (1960), as Iris Collins
- *Upstairs and Downstairs* (1959), as Arriving Passenger 2 (uncredited)
- *Horrors of the Black Museum* (1959), as Angela Banks
- *Seven Thunders* (1957), as Prostitute
- *The Flesh Is Weak* (1957), as Susan
- *The Good Companions* (1957), as Redhead - Three Graces
- *Loser Takes All* (1956), as Attractive Girl in Salle Rivée (uncredited)
- *The Weapon* (1956), Actor
- *Lost* (1956), as Girl Working at Taxi Garage
- *All for Mary* (1955), as Young Woman on Aeroplane
- *Simon and Laura* (1955), as Minor Role

## Gallery

- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-4e2c0840bffc.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Jack1956, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Shirley_Ann_Field.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Shirley Anne Field in trailer for Kings of the Sun (1963). (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-32eefaae646c.jpg) Shirley Anne Field in trailer for Kings of the Sun (1963). (2015) — Shirley Anne Field in trailer for Kings of the Sun (1963), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Shirley-ann-field-trailer.jpg/1280px-Shirley-ann-field-trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-c5581bff804f.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-32d830e260a1.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-e3fea306918a.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-938674170ac9.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-8b7932a4a347.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB
- ![Shirley Anne Field](https://film.one/media/person/79828/gallery-7366b1ca3b30.jpg) Shirley Anne Field — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/shirley-anne-field