Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Facts
| Sign | Taurus |
| Born |
Apr 23, 1928 Santa Monica, CA |
| Died |
Feb 10, 2014 Woodside, CA |
| Age | Died at 85 |
| Total Facts | 42 |
Bill Robinson (aka "Bojangles Robinson") was her idol when she was a child, and she got to work with him on four pictures.
11/1/06: She broke her wrist in a fall at her northern California home.
1936: She received a new contract from 20th Century-Fox, retroactive on September 9, paying her over $50,000 per film.
2005: Premiere Magazine ranked her as #33 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature.
A close friend and supporter of Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
A soft cocktail - Shirley Temple - was created in her honor consisting of, Ginger Ale (or 7-Up), Grenadine and Orange Juice, topped with a Maraschino Cherry and a slice of lemon.
A vocal supporter of the Vietnam War, when running for Congress as a Republican in 1967 Temple consistently argued that the US needed to send more troops to South East Asia.
According to author Garry Wills in "John Wayne's America", director John Ford had serious issues with women, which carried over onto his sets. When he made Wee Willie Winkie (1937) with Shirley, she was a child as well as the top box office star in America and he treated her well. When she was cast in Fort Apache (1948), she was a young woman and he did not. Like her role in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), she played the "cute but unmanageable troublemaker at the post" who is befriended by and relies on an avuncular sergeant, both times played by Victor McLaglen. McLaglen had been blackballed by Ford for the previous seven years, but was brought back into the Ford stock company with this film. When Ford met Shirley, whose husband John Agar he had also cast in the picture, he rudely asked her, "Now where did you go to school, Shirley? Did you graduate?".
Actresses Shirley Jones and Shirley MacLaine were both named after her.
Appears on sleeve of The Beatles's "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
At age six she became the first recipient of the juvenile academy award.
At the age of 6, she was the youngest presenter at the Oscars ever. She presented the "Best Actress" award in 1935. The winner was Claudette Colbert.
Auditioned twice to be in "Our Gang" / "The Little Rascals." She apparently failed the first audition, and made the second while she was appearing in the "Baby Burlesks" series. "Our Gang" director Robert F. McGowan refused to agree to Shirley's mother's request that Shirley receive star billing with "Our Gang," so she didn't get in.
Aunt of Marina Black.
Became a Dame of Malta, although NOT from the officially recognized Roman Catholic order -- but rather from a non-Roman Catholic unaffiliated entity.
Briefly considered for the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but it was determined that her singing limitations were "insurmountable," and Judy Garland, MGM's first choice, was cast instead.
Charles Black, the San Francisco businessman she married after divorcing John Agar, admitted to her while they were courting that he had never seen any of her movies.
From the late 1960s onward she was increasingly active in Republican Party politics. She served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and held other government-related positions.
Has three children: Linda Susan Agar, whom Charles Black later adopted, (b. January 30, 1948), Charles Alden Black Jr. "Charlie" (born in Bethesda, Maryland, April 24, 1952) and Lori Alden Black (b. April 9, 1954). Both daughters were born in Santa Monica, California, at the same hospital, not to mention delivered by the same doctor, as Shirley had been years before.
Her childhood home is located at 231 Rockingham Avenue, Brentwood, California.
Her daughter "Lorax" (Lori Black) was the bass player for the rock band The Melvins .
Her mother, Gertrude Temple, did her hair in pin curls for each movie. Every hairstyle had exactly 56 curls.
Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 1500 Vine Street.
In a 1988 interview with Larry King, she stated that out of the $3 million she generated for 20th Century Fox she only saw $45,000 in her trust fund.
In recent years she openly admitted to a mastectomy operation, perhaps the first public figure ever to do so, and she encouraged other women who required the surgery to follow her example without fear.
Is portrayed by Ashley Rose and by Emily Hart in Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001) (TV)
Measurements: 35-24-35 (as an adult), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Mother, with John Agar, of daughter Linda Susan Agar (born on January 30, 1948).
Mother, with Charles Black, of son Charles Black Jr. (born on April 28, 1952) and daughter Lori Black (born on April 9, 1954).
Second husband Charles Black was a businessman and maritime issues consultant. He served on a Commerce Department advisory committee and several National Research Council panels. He also co-founded a Massachusetts-based company that developed unmanned deep-ocean search and survey imaging systems. He died of bone marrow disease at age 86. It had been diagnosed three years earlier.
She calls it corny but she admitted that she fell in love with Charles Black at first sight. They met while she was in Honolulu. He was working for a shipping company there at the time.
She learned her trade at Meglin's, a popular talent school. Judy Garland was once a fellow "Meglin Kiddie".
She presented Walt Disney with his special Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was a standard-sized Oscar with seven little Oscars.
She was supposed to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but 20th Century Fox refused to lend her to MGM, so Judy Garland was cast in the role.
She was voted the 38th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Was named #18 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
Was pregnant with daughter Linda Susan "Susie" Agar (later changed to Black), during the filming of That Hagen Girl (1947).
When Gary Cooper first met Shirley Temple on the set of their movie Now and Forever (1934) he asked for her autograph.
When she was a teenager her bodyguard was Louis Dean Palmer, who she called "Palmtree".
When she was seven years old, her life was insured with Lloyd's of London, and the contract stipulated that no benefits would be paid if the child film star met with death or injury while intoxicated.
When she was to play the part of Beauty in a production of "Beauty and the Beast", she was amused when her then very young daughter remarked, "Gee, Mom, you'll make a swell Beast!".
While her first daughter was delivered naturally, her son and her second daughter Lori were delivered by Cesarean.