Full Name: Shirley Temple Black
Profession: Actress and Diplomat
Biography: Shirley Temple was Hollywood's most famous child star. In films such as "Bright Eyes" (1934), "Curly Top" (1935) and "Heidi" (1937) she dominated the box office in the 1930s. From 1935-1938 she was the leading Hollywood star.
Other films followed included "The Little Colonel" the first of four films with famed tap dancer Bill Robinson. Their famous staircase dance made them Hollywood's first interracial dance duo.
Temple retired from films aged 22. As an adult she developed a television career before becoming active in the Republican Party. Temple became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana, and later to Czechoslovakia.
She also served as the first female Chief of Protocol of the United States and was in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter's inauguration.
Temple is also remembered as one of the first women to speak publicly about breast cancer, calling a press conference from her hospital bed and writing about it in "McCall's" Magazine.
- 1945-09-19 Actress Shirley Temple (17) weds actor John Agar (24) in an Episcopal ceremony at Wilshire Methodist Church
- 1950-12-16 American child actress Shirley Temple (22) weds 2nd husband US naval officer Charles Alden Black (31), at his parents' home, Del Monte, California
- 1933-12-21 Fox Films signs Shirley Temple aged 5, to a studio contract
- 1934-04-19 Shirley Temple appears in her 1st feature length film, "Stand Up & Cheer"
- 1934-12-28 Film "Bright Eyes" premieres starring Shirley Temple and featuring the song "On the Good Ship Lollipop"
- 1935-02-22 "The Little Colonel" premieres starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, featuring famous stair dance with Hollywood's first interracial dance couple
- 1949-01-20 J. Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
- 1950-12-16 Child star Shirley Temple announces her retirement from films aged 22