Shirley Anne Field 1936-2023

 Shirley Anne Field, who died 10 December, 2023, aged 87, was an actress of stage and screen.

She was once talked of as Britain’s answer to Marilyn Monroe; a noted beauty, she appeared in some of the most popular films of the 1960s, among them The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Alfie.

She was born 27 June, 1936, as Shirley Broomfield, daughter of a cockney lorry driver. On 7 July 1967, Field married the aristocratic RAF pilot and racing driver Charles Patrick Colum Henry Crichton-Stuart (1939–2001), scion of the Marquesses of Bute, son of Lord Patrick Crichton-Stuart (1913-56), and his first wife Jane von Bahr, and a grandson of the 4th Marquess of Bute. The marriage ended in divorce. The couple had a daughter, Nicola Jane Crichton-Stuart.

The stage and screen actress came to prominence in the 1960s following her role as Tina Lapford in The Entertainer opposite Laurence Olivier. She went on to feature in films including the comedy Alfie alongside Sir Michael Caine and the kitchen sink drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning with Albert Finney. 

After her appearance alongside Olivier, her reputation grew and she went on to star in a string of films, television series and stage productions. Among the hit films in which she featured were 1962’s The War Lover alongside Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner and the 1985 romcom My Beautiful Laundrette with Daniel Day-Lewis.

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