Shirley Temple became an Hollywood star before she was 10 years old.
Hollywood’s shining child star has gone dim.
Shirley Temple, whose charming smile and cheerful voice made her a superstar before she was 10, died Monday at the age of 85, her agent said in a statement.
The “Bright Eyes” and “Wee Willie Winkie” star died of natural causes at her home in California.
“She was surrounded by her family and caregivers,” the statement said, according to the BBC. “We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and... our beloved mother, grandmother (and) great-grandmother.”
MARK J. TERRILL/AP
Actress and former diplomat, Shirley Temple Black, accepts the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 12th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2006 at the age of 77.
Temple began entertaining audiences when she was 2, and appeared in her first feature film in 1932's "Red Haired Alibi." By the end of the 1930s she appeared in nearly 40 films, including "Dimples," "Curly Top" and "The Little Princess."
Her celebrity ebbed during the 1940s as she grew into a teenager, however.
Temple married twice in her lifetime. Her first marriage to Army Air Corp private John Agar lasted just four years, but resulted in the actress's first child.
She then wed Charles Alden Black in 1950, and took on his name. The couple had two children and remained together until his death in 2005.
Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero in the classic 1937 film, ‘Wee Willie Winkie.’
Shirley Temple Black departed the silver screen only to eventually take a place on the political stage, a move she insisted was quite rewarding.
“It’s certainly two different career tracks, both completely different but both very rewarding, personally,” Temple said during a 1996 interview.
She twice served as a United States Ambassador under two different presidents, first in Ghana and later in Czechoslovakia. She also served as the Chief of Protocol in the State Department during President Carter's administration in the late 1970s
