Image via Kevin Paul / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Sally Field speaking at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in August 2025.
Sally Field turns 80 today. She was born on November 6, 1946, and she has been acting since she was a teenager. Sixty years on, she is still working, and she is still winning awards.
Just this year, at 79, she won her fourth Emmy for the Netflix film Remarkably Bright Creatures. That made her the oldest person ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. She has two Oscars on the shelf already. Not a bad way to head into your 80th birthday.
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Sally Margaret Field |
| Born | November 6, 1946, Pasadena, California, USA |
| Age | 80 (as of November 6, 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac | Scorpio |
| Height | 5 ft 2½ in (1.59 m) |
| Profession | Actress |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Parents | Margaret Field (mother, actress); Richard Dryden Field (father) |
| Siblings | Richard Dryden Field Jr. (brother) |
| Spouses | Steven Craig (1968–1975); Alan Greisman (1984–1994) |
| Children | 3 sons: Peter Craig, Eli Craig, Samuel Greisman |
| Net worth | About $50 million (estimate) |
The surfer girl who got stuck in a habit
Field grew up in Pasadena, California. Her mother, Margaret Field, was an actress. Her father worked as a pharmacist and served in the Army in the Second World War. Her parents split up when she was small, and her mother later married actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney.
She was still at school when television came calling. At 18, she landed the lead in Gidget, a sitcom about a boy-crazy surfer girl. It ran for one season in 1965–66, then found its audience in summer reruns. ABC wanted more, so they put her in a nun's habit next. The Flying Nun ran for three seasons, from 1967 to 1970, and made her famous. She has said since that she hated the show. The directors treated her badly, and the role boxed her in for years.
After that, good parts were hard to find. She did guest spots and TV films through the early 1970s. Then she went to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. He became her mentor, and he helped her shake off the girl-next-door image for good.
Sybil, and the role that changed everything
The break came in 1976. Field played the title role in Sybil, a TV film about a young woman with dissociative identity disorder. It was a huge, demanding part, and she nailed it. She won her first Emmy for it in 1977.
Image via Lorimar Productions/NBC, public domain (via Wikimedia Commons). Sally Field with Joanne Woodward in Sybil (1976).
Film stardom followed fast. In 1977 she starred with Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, one of the biggest hits of the year. Then came Norma Rae in 1979. She played a mill worker who stands up and organises her fellow workers into a union. The film won her the Best Actress prize at Cannes and her first Oscar.
Her second Oscar came five years later, for Places in the Heart (1984). She played Edna Spalding, a widow trying to hold on to her farm through the Great Depression. Her acceptance speech that night gave the world a line people still quote, and still misquote. What she actually said was: "And I can't deny the fact that you like me... right now... you like me!"
| Year | Show | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1965–1966 | Gidget | Gidget Lawrence |
| 1967–1970 | The Flying Nun | Sister Bertrille |
| 1976 | Sybil | Sybil Dorsett |
| 2000–2006 | ER | Maggie Wyczenski |
| 2006–2011 | Brothers & Sisters | Nora Walker |
| 2018 | Maniac | Dr. Greta Mantleray |
| 2020 | Dispatches from Elsewhere | Janice Foster |
The nineties, and the roles everyone quotes
Field spent the late eighties and nineties playing the parts people still bring up first. She was M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias (1989), the mother at the centre of the film. She was Miranda Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), opposite Robin Williams and Pierce Brosnan. A year later she played Tom Hanks's mother in Forrest Gump, even though she is only ten years older than him.
Television kept calling too. She won an Emmy in 2001 for playing Maggie, the mother of Dr. Abby Lockhart, on ER. She came back to the show twice more. Then in 2006 she took over as Nora Walker, the matriarch of Brothers & Sisters, and won another Emmy for it in 2007.
She also moved behind the camera. She directed the TV film The Christmas Tree in 1996, an episode of the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon in 1998, and the feature film Beautiful in 2000.
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Smokey and the Bandit | Carrie ("Frog") |
| 1979 | Norma Rae | Norma Rae Webster |
| 1981 | Absence of Malice | Megan Carter |
| 1984 | Places in the Heart | Edna Spalding |
| 1985 | Murphy's Romance | Emma Moriarty |
| 1989 | Steel Magnolias | M'Lynn Eatenton |
| 1993 | Mrs. Doubtfire | Miranda Hillard |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | Mrs. Gump |
| 2012 | Lincoln | Mary Todd Lincoln |
| 2012 | The Amazing Spider-Man | Aunt May |
| 2015 | Hello, My Name Is Doris | Doris Miller |
| 2023 | 80 for Brady | Betty |
| 2026 | Remarkably Bright Creatures | Tova Sullivan |
Family, and a life of her own
Field has been married twice. Her first husband was Steven Craig, whom she married in 1968. They had two sons, Peter and Eli, and split up in 1975. Her second husband was film producer Alan Greisman, whom she married in 1984. They had a son, Samuel, and divorced in 1994. Her long relationship with Burt Reynolds, her Smokey and the Bandit co-star, ran from 1976 to 1982.
All three of her sons work in film in one way or another. Peter Craig is a screenwriter and novelist. Eli Craig is a director. Samuel Greisman is a writer and producer.
Her memoir, In Pieces, came out in 2018. It looked back at her whole life, including hard years at home as a girl, and the bouts of depression she lived with in her late teens. She has said acting classes helped her through that time. She has also spoken in public about an abortion she had at 17, and she campaigns for women's rights. In 2019 she was arrested at a climate protest in Washington, D.C., alongside Jane Fonda.
In 2005 she was diagnosed with osteoporosis. She went on to front a bone-health campaign, urging women to get checked early.
80, and still going
Field has never really slowed down. She played Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), which brought her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man films. She took the title role in Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015), a small comedy that critics loved. On stage, she played Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway in 2017, and picked up a Tony nomination for it.
Image via Rhododendrites / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sally Field at BookExpo America in New York, June 2018.
In 2023 she starred with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in 80 for Brady. That same year she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She had already been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014, the National Medal of Arts in 2014, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2019. The Kennedy Center Honors 2026 will name a new group of honorees this year, seven years after Field took hers.
Then came Remarkably Bright Creatures, the Netflix film that arrived in May 2026. Field plays Tova, a night cleaner at an aquarium who is grieving her son and her husband. She won the Emmy for it later in the year, at 79. Her co-star was Lewis Pullman, and the film gave her a fourth Emmy to go with her two Oscars.
She has said she has no big plans for turning 80, apart from getting through the day. She joked in one interview that she might climb Mount Everest. Knowing her, she will find something worth doing instead. She always has.
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Primetime Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Special Program | Sybil | Won |
| 1980 | Academy Award | Best Actress | Norma Rae | Won |
| 1980 | Cannes Film Festival | Best Actress | Norma Rae | Won |
| 1985 | Academy Award | Best Actress | Places in the Heart | Won |
| 2001 | Primetime Emmy | Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series | ER | Won |
| 2007 | Primetime Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Brothers & Sisters | Won |
| 2013 | Academy Award | Best Supporting Actress | Lincoln | Nominated |
| 2017 | Tony Award | Best Actress in a Play | The Glass Menagerie | Nominated |
| 2026 | Primetime Emmy | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie | Remarkably Bright Creatures | Won |
What is Sally Field's net worth?
Her net worth is estimated at about $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. That figure covers more than sixty years of film and television work, plus her directing and her memoir. Other sites put the number a little higher, so treat $50 million as an estimate, not an exact figure.
FAQs
How old is Sally Field?
Sally Field was born on November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, California. She turns 80 on November 6, 2026.
Who is Sally Field's husband?
She is not married now. She was married twice: to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975, and to Alan Greisman from 1984 to 1994. She also had a long relationship with Burt Reynolds from 1976 to 1982.
How many Oscars has Sally Field won?
Two. She won Best Actress for Norma Rae (1979) and for Places in the Heart (1984). She was nominated a third time, for Best Supporting Actress, for Lincoln (2012).
What was Sally Field's first movie?
Her first film roles came in the late 1960s, but her first big film was Stay Hungry in 1976, the same year Sybil made her a star on television. Smokey and the Bandit followed in 1977.
What is Sally Field doing now?
Her latest film is Remarkably Bright Creatures, which came to Netflix in May 2026. She won an Emmy for it later that year, at 79.
Field played Aunt May in Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man films, and the Marvel universe keeps growing, with Avengers: Doomsday on the way.
Read More: Pierce Brosnan Biography, Age, Height, Net Worth, Wife & Movies
Post a Comment