“Sally is a massive star with a working actor’s ethos—just keep doing the work, being as good as you can,” former SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said of Field, a two-time Oscar winner and four-time Emmy winner, in 2023.“Sally is a massive star with a working actor’s ethos—just keep doing the work, being as good as you can,” former SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said of Field, a two-time Oscar winner and four-time Emmy winner, in 2023.
Sally Field is a veritable American icon, with two Oscars, four Primetime Emmys—including the one she picked up on Monday for best lead actress in a limited series for her performance in Remarkably Bright Creatures—and a résumé of extraordinary variety and depth to her credit. It’s little wonder that she was tapped to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award in 2023, joining a prestigious group of past honorees that includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White. (Andrew Garfield, the Peter Parker to Field’s Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man, was on hand to present her with the honor.)
“Sally is a massive star with a working actor’s ethos—just keep doing the work, being as good as you can,” former SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in 2023. “Every stage of an actor’s life brings different opportunities, and you just need to keep working. Sally does not stop and we hope she never does.”
In honor of Field’s latest accolade, Vogue is taking a fond look back through the photographic archives at her earliest days on the scene. Below, revisit 19 charming vintage pictures of the great Sally Field.
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Photo: Getty Images 1/191965
Born and raised in southern California, Field made her television debut at 18 in the sitcom Gidget, starring as a boy-crazy beach bunny.
1967
Field’s next lead television role was as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun (1967–1970).
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Photo: Getty Images 3/191967
With actor Chris George at the 19th Primetime Emmy Awards.
1970
Dining with Dustin Hoffman at Sardi’s.
1971
In the made-for-television crime drama Mongo’s Back in Town, co-starring Telly Savalas, Joe Don Baker, and Martin Sheen.
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Photo: Getty Images 6/191972
With Jessica Walter, Jill Haworth, and Eleanor Parker in the TV slasher film Home for the Holidays.
1976
In a tight spot with Arnold Schwarzenegger, her co-star in the com-dram Stay Hungry.
1976
For her performance in the made-for-television drama Sybil, about a young woman with dissociative identity disorder, Field earned her first Primetime Emmy Award. (In later years, she would win two more for her work on ER and Brothers & Sisters.)
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Photo: Getty Images 9/191977
With Burt Reynolds—whom Field dated on and off from 1976 until 1982—in Smokey and the Bandit.
1977
Field with Peter Craig, one of her sons with her first husband, Steve Craig, at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
1979
Promoting Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Photo: Getty Images 12/191980
At the 52nd Academy Awards, where Field claimed the best-actress Oscar for her performance in Norma Rae.
1981
Wearing a jaunty knit vest as she sat for a 20/20 interview.
1985
In a promotional still for the Martin Ritt rom-com Murphy’s Romance.
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Photo: Getty Images 15/191985
Accepting her second Oscar, for the drama Places in the Heart, Field famously effused, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me—right now, you like me!”
1989
Posing with her Steel Magnolias co-stars Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, and Daryl Hannah in Los Angeles.
1990
At a performance of Twelfth Night with Tom Hanks (Field’s co-star in 1988’s Punchline and, later on, 1994’s Forrest Gump), Rita Wilson, and Field’s second husband, Alan Greisman.
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Photo: Getty Images 18/191994
In layered neutrals at the First Annual Revlon Walk for Breast Cancer Research in Rancho Park, California.
1996
Field made her directorial debut with the 1996 television film The Christmas Tree, starring Julie Harris (at Field’s left) and Andrew McCarthy.
