Written By: Ben Cosgrove
Shirley Temple Black—known to millions as simply Shirley Temple, who acted in scores of movies and was arguably the greatest child movie star of all time—was a constant presence on the silver screen during the Great Depression, lighting up movies like Stand Up and Cheer! and Bright Eyes with her singing, dancing and her sharp (but never cloying) wit. She retired from the movies when she was just 21, in 1950, and continued with her remarkable life, shifting into the world of international politics. She held a number of diplomatic posts during her lifetime, including U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia during that country’s convulsive years in the late 1980s.
After her death, Temple Black’s family paid tribute to her in a statement that read, in part, “We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black.”
Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Shirley Temple arrived at the 20th Century Fox studio to celebrate her eighth birthday, 1936.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple celebrated her eighth birthday at 20th Century Fox in 1936, when, in the middle of the Great Depression, she was the biggest box office star in America.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple celebrated her eighth birthday, 1936.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple celebrated her eighth birthday, 1936.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple, 1936.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple, 1936.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple took pictures of famous sites in Washington, DC, from the window of a car, 1938.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple at the Lincoln Memorial, 1938.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover showed Shirley Temple how to ride a mechanical horse, 1938.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple, photographed as she was leaving the White House, 1938.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple walked on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple walked down stairs at the Bel Air Country Club at her 11th birthday party, 1939.
Peter Stockpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Shirley Temple with Sgt. John Agar, to whom she was married from 1945-1950.
Peter Stockpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
