Sally Field to be Honored with the SAG Life Achievement Award

SAG Award® and Oscar®-winning actress Sally Field has been named the 58th recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Field will be presented with the performers union's top honor at the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast live on Netflix’s YouTube channel, YouTube.com/Netflix, Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. 

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said, “Sally is an amazing actor with an enormous range and an uncanny ability to embody any character. I joyfully watched her early career when she portrayed Gidget and the Flying Nun and then, in ever more challenging roles, as Sybil and Norma Rae. She never stopped being extraordinary, including as recently as Winning Time in which she was simply sublime as Jessie Buss.

"She has an enduring career because she is authentic in her performance and always projects likability and humanity - she just connects. That’s part of why she has sustained her massive fandom and incredibly rich and layered career. Sally is a massive star with a working actor’s ethos - just keep doing the work, being as good as you can. Every stage of an actor’s life brings different opportunities, and you just need to keep working. Sally does not stop and we hope she never does."

Given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” the SAG Life Achievement Award will be the latest of Field’s impressive accolades resulting from her career, in which she has portrayed dozens of iconic roles on both large and small screens. She has previously received two Oscars, a SAG Award, three Emmys®, two BAFTA Awards, the New York Film Critics prize, the National Board of Review Award, the Los Angeles Film Critics Award, the National Society of Film Critics honor, Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and more. 

In 2012, Field was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2015 she was honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Arts. In 2019, she received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor. 

Field most recently appeared in director Michael Showalter’s Spoiler Alert and will star opposite Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in the upcoming comedy 80 for Brady.

Film

Field’s film career includes numerous accolades and memorable performances including Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart, for which she received both the Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae, receiving not only the Academy Award but also a Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics prize, the National Board of Review Award, the Los Angeles Film Critics Award, the National Society of Film Critics honor and Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

For her performance as Mary Todd in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, she was given the New York Film Critics prize for best supporting actress and was nominated for a Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA and an Academy Award. Field has also received Golden Globe nominations for her work in Smokey and the Bandit, Absence of Malice, Kiss Me Goodbye, Steel Magnolias and received both SAG and BAFTA nominations for her work in Forrest Gump.

Her other films include An Eye for An Eye, Mrs. Doubtfire, Soapdish, Not Without My Daughter, The End, Hooper, Stay Hungry (her first major film role) and Hello, My Name is Doris.

She starred in both Punchline and Murphy’s Romance, which were produced by her then production company, Fogwood Films.  

Television

Born in Pasadena, California and raised in a show business family, Field began her career in 1964 in the television series Gidget. She went on to star in The Flying Nun in 1967 and eventually starred in three television series by the age of twenty-five.  

She received Emmy Awards for her title role in the landmark miniseries Sybil, and for her performance as a bi-polar mother on ER.  For her role as “Nora Walker” on the ABC series Brothers & Sisters, which ran from 2006 to 2011, she received an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Golden Globe nominations.  

More recent television appearances include Winning Time, Maniac and Dispatches From Elsewhere.

Theater

In 2002, Field made her Broadway debut in Edward Albee’s The Goat and in 2004 received rave reviews for her role as “Amanda” in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie at The Kennedy Center.  In 2017, she revisited that role on Broadway under the direction of Sam Gold at which time she was nominated for a Tony.   

Field made her West End debut in 2019 to critical acclaim in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons opposite Bill Pullman at the Old Vic.

Philanthropy

Field is deeply committed to using her platform to support numerous charitable organizations and advocate for social change. Her activism placed a global spotlight on the alarming disappearances of young women in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, and on issues such as nuclear proliferation where she joined forces with Dr. Helen Caldicott and Lily Tomlin. She has fearlessly protested around the world for a variety of causes including climate change where she was arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building with her friend Jane Fonda. Having witnessed Save the Children’s work in Nepal, Field attended the historic women’s conference in Beijing on behalf of the organization in 1996.  

Additionally, Field has served on the board of directors of Vital Voice for 20 years, an organization that empowers and connects courageous women across the continents to break barriers and overcome challenges to fight the injustices. In 2012, Field received the Human Rights Campaign’s Ally for Equality Award, an award that recognizes the outstanding efforts of those who use their voice to publicly stand up for the LGBTQ community. 

Field has also been involved with the Sundance Institute for many years, supporting their mission to nurture independent artists and diverse voices in the film industry and was a creative advisor for the Sundance Labs advising young filmmakers. For 16 years, she served on the Board of Directors of The Sundance Institute and is currently an Emeritus Trustee. 

About SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.