| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Sally Margaret Field |
| Date of Birth | November 6, 1946 |
| Place of Birth | Pasadena, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actress, Director, Producer |
| Years Active | 1965 – present |
| Estimated Net Worth | $50 million (as of 2026) |
| Spouse | Steven Craig (m. 1968; div. 1975), Alan Greisman (m. 1984; div. 1994) |
| Children | Three sons (Peter Craig, Eli Craig, Samuel Greisman) |
| Most Known For | Gidget (1965), The Flying Nun (1967), Norma Rae (1979), Places in the Heart (1984), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Lincoln (2012) |
| Latest / Upcoming | 80 for Brady (2023), Tova in Remarkably Bright Creatures (Netflix, May 2026) |
Sally Field has a net worth of $50 million. Born November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, California, the actress built that figure through more than six decades of work in television, film, stage, and behind the camera as a director and producer. Her path started in light television roles and moved into parts that demanded more from her as time passed.
The money came from steady paychecks on series, bigger fees on hit movies, some real estate moves, and later executive work on shows. What stands out when looking at the full picture is how she kept finding ways to stay active even when the industry shifted around her.
Early Life in Pasadena
Field grew up in a household tied to show business from the start. Her mother, Margaret Field, worked as an actress. Her father, Richard Dryden Field, sold pharmaceuticals and had served in the army during the war. The parents split in 1950 when she was four years old. A year later her mother married stuntman and actor Jock Mahoney. The family included a younger brother, Richard Jr., who later became a physicist.
School days took place at Portola Middle School followed by Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, where she graduated in 1964. Classmates at the time included future finance figures and entertainment executives.
Those years held challenges at home that later came out in her writing, but at the time she focused on studies and cheerleading. Acting entered the picture early with a small extra job in the 1962 film Moon Pilot. That brief spot led to an agent and an audition circuit while she finished high school.
Television Roles That Launched Things
At age 17 Field landed the lead in the ABC sitcom Gidget, which aired from 1965 to 1966. She played a teenager who loved surfing and got into everyday adventures. The show lasted one season but found new life in reruns. Pay started at $500 a week, a solid sum for a newcomer fresh out of school.
Networks liked her look and energy, so NBC signed her next for The Flying Nun. The series ran from 1967 to 1970 across three seasons and 82 episodes. Field portrayed Sister Bertrille, a nun whose habit helped her lift off in the wind. She earned $4,500 per episode, which added up to roughly $370,000 for the full run. During the same period she cut a few records tied to the show, including singles that played on radio.
Another sitcom followed in 1973 and 1974 called The Girl with Something Extra, but it did not last long. These early jobs kept her on screen every week and paid the bills while she learned the pace of production.
Training That Changed Her Direction
By the mid 1970s Field wanted parts with more weight. She enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York and worked under Lee Strasberg. The classes pushed her to dig into character emotions in ways her sitcom work had not required. Around the same time her first marriage ended. She had wed Steven Craig in 1968 and they had two sons, Peter in 1969 and Eli in 1972.
The couple separated in 1973 and divorced in 1975. The training period overlapped with guest spots on shows like Alias Smith and Jones and Night Gallery. Then in 1976 she took the title role in the television movie Sybil. The part called for her to show a woman with multiple personalities, and the performance earned her first Primetime Emmy for lead actress in a limited series or movie in 1977. That award opened doors to feature films that asked more of her range.
Film Work in the Late 1970s
Field moved into movies with Stay Hungry in 1976 opposite Jeff Bridges. The story followed a young man who inherits money and gets involved with a gym and a bodybuilder. Her role added a romantic thread. Next came Smokey and the Bandit in 1977, a comedy chase film with Burt Reynolds. The picture ranked as the second highest grossing release that year and led to three more films together over the next few years.
Other titles from that stretch included Heroes in 1977, The End in 1978, and Hooper in 1978. These pictures paid better than television had, and the combination of box office returns and her growing name value started to build savings. During this time she also appeared in the 1977 western The Way West, though in a smaller capacity. The late 1970s marked a shift where she balanced commercial comedies with efforts to prove she could handle dramatic material.
Breakthrough With Norma Rae
In 1979 Field starred in Norma Rae. The film told the story of a textile worker in a Southern mill who organizes a union. She carried the sign that read UNION in one key scene, and the moment stuck with audiences. The role brought her first Academy Award for best actress at the 1980 ceremony. The Cannes Film Festival also gave her the best actress prize that year.
The picture itself later entered the National Film Registry. Earnings from the project sat around $400,000, according to production records from the time. The win changed how studios viewed her. Suddenly she had proof that audiences would show up for stories centered on working class women facing real problems. That recognition helped her ask for stronger scripts and better terms on future contracts.
Continued Momentum Into the 1980s
After the Oscar, Field returned to lighter fare with Smokey and the Bandit II in 1980. She then appeared in Absence of Malice in 1981 opposite Paul Newman. The story centered on a reporter whose article damages a businessman. Critics noted her work, and she picked up a Golden Globe nomination. Kiss Me Goodbye followed in 1982, another comedy that did not match earlier hits.
Then in 1984 she took on Places in the Heart. Field played Edna Spalding, a widow in 1930s Texas trying to hold onto the family farm after her husband dies. The part earned her a second Academy Award for best actress in 1985. During her acceptance speech she spoke about feeling liked by peers, a line that became part of pop culture talk for years afterward. Pay for that film reached about $1.5 million. The back to back Oscars gave her leverage in negotiations and let her pick roles that interested her rather than ones that simply paid.
Family Life and Relationships
Personal matters ran alongside the career. Field raised three sons. Peter and Eli came from her first marriage. After the divorce she dated Burt Reynolds from 1976 through 1980, with some on and off contact until 1982. They worked together on four pictures during that window. In 1984 she married Alan Greisman, a producer. Their son Sam arrived in 1987.
The second marriage lasted until 1994. Family demands sometimes meant turning down work, yet she managed to keep a steady output. A plane crash in 1988 involving the family happened at an airport in Colorado, but everyone walked away with only minor injuries. Those private events rarely made headlines at the time, yet they grounded her choices when scripts came in.
Roles That Kept Her Visible
The late 1980s brought Steel Magnolias in 1989. Field played M’Lynn, part of a group of women in a small Louisiana town. The ensemble cast included several other well known actresses, and the film did solid business. She received another Golden Globe nomination for the performance.
The 1990s opened with Not Without My Daughter in 1991 and Soapdish the same year. Soapdish poked fun at daytime television, and her part let her use comedy timing again. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey in 1993 gave her voice work as the cat Sassy, and the sequel followed in 1996.
Mrs Doubtfire in 1993 cast her as the ex wife of Robin Williams. Forrest Gump in 1994 put her on screen as the mother of the title character played by Tom Hanks. The movie became a major hit and earned multiple Academy Awards. Her pay for Forrest Gump came in at around $500,000. These pictures added to her earnings while letting her work with big names and reach wide audiences.
Television Return and Producing
Field went back to series work with a recurring spot on ER from 2000 to 2006. She played Maggie, the mother of one of the doctors. The guest appearances brought her two more Emmys, one in 2001 for outstanding guest actress in a drama series.
Then in 2006 she joined Brothers & Sisters as Nora Walker, the family matriarch. The show ran until 2011. Early episodes paid her $100,000 per show. Once she took on executive producer duties the figure rose to $200,000 per episode. That combination of acting and producing added noticeably to her income. She also directed a few projects, including the 1996 television film The Christmas Tree and the 2000 feature Beautiful, in which she had a small on screen part as well.
Stage Work and Later Films
Broadway called in the early 2000s. Field replaced another actress in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? in 2002. Later she played Amanda Wingfield in a 2017 revival of The Glass Menagerie and earned a Tony nomination for best actress in a play. The stage runs gave her a different rhythm from film sets and let her connect directly with live crowds.
On screen she took supporting parts in bigger releases. Legally Blonde 2 came in 2003. The Amazing Spider Man in 2012 and its sequel in 2014 cast her as Aunt May. Lincoln in 2012 had her as Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Daniel Day Lewis. That performance brought Oscar, Golden Globe, and other nominations for supporting actress. Pay for Lincoln sat around $1 million. Hello, My Name Is Doris arrived in 2015 and showed her in a lighter lead role again.
Advocacy and Public Causes
Field spoke out on several issues over the years. After an osteoporosis diagnosis in 2005 she started the Rally with Sally Foundation and worked with drug companies to raise awareness about bone health. She joined the board of Vital Voices, a group that supports women leaders worldwide, and co hosted events for the organization multiple times.
Abortion rights formed another area of focus, drawn from her own experience at age 17 when she traveled to Mexico for a procedure that was illegal in the United States at the time. Gay rights mattered to her as well; her son Sam is gay, and she accepted an ally award from the Human Rights Campaign in 2012. In 2019 she took part in a climate protest in Washington, D.C., alongside Jane Fonda and ended up arrested.
These activities took time away from acting but added another dimension to how people saw her. The work did not generate direct income yet it strengthened her public standing and sometimes led to speaking fees or partnerships.
Real Estate and Financial Moves
Part of the net worth figure comes from property. Field owned a large home in Malibu that she bought in the 1990s and sold in 2009 for $6.95 million after purchasing it earlier for less. In 2011 another Malibu property went for $5.51 million after she had paid $4.82 million for it in 2004. A smaller house in Pacific Palisades followed in 2012 with a $2.3 million price tag.
These transactions showed careful timing in the California market. No major business ventures outside entertainment turned up in records, so the bulk of wealth traces back to acting salaries, residuals from reruns and streaming, and the producing fees mentioned earlier. Estimates put total career earnings well above the current net worth number once taxes, agent fees, and living costs are taken into account.
Recent Activity and Outlook
Field turned 79 in 2025. She appeared in 80 for Brady in 2023 alongside other actresses in a story about friends who attend a football game. Work slowed compared with earlier periods, yet she stayed selective. In 2026 Netflix plans to release Remarkably Bright Creatures, a film based on a novel where she plays a widow who forms a bond with an octopus while solving a mystery. The part marks another lead at an age when many performers step back.
A memoir titled In Pieces came out in 2018 and detailed family matters and career choices; sales from the book added another revenue stream. Honors continued to arrive. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014, the National Medal of Arts the same year, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2019, and the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award in 2023.
How Choices Added Up
Looking across the timeline, Field moved from weekly television paychecks that covered rent and child costs to Oscar level fees that allowed property purchases and college funds for her sons. The early sitcom years gave her name recognition, which translated into film offers. Training at the Actors Studio let her handle the union organizer in Norma Rae and the widow in Places in the Heart. Those wins in turn opened doors to ensemble casts and supporting parts in hits like Forrest Gump.
Producing on Brothers & Sisters doubled her per episode income at a point when many actresses her age saw fewer leads. Real estate profits from California homes provided a cushion without relying on new roles every year. Advocacy work kept her connected to causes that mattered personally, and that connection sometimes influenced the kinds of scripts she accepted. The full picture shows someone who treated acting as a job that paid the bills while also letting her speak on topics she cared about.
Lasting Place in the Industry
Field never chased every trend that came along. She took parts in comedies when they fit and dramas when they challenged her. The result is a body of work that includes two Oscars, three Emmys, and steady television and film credits from the 1960s into the 2020s.
At 79 she still lands roles that interest her, and her net worth of $50 million reflects smart handling of earnings over time. The journey from Pasadena cheerleader to award winner to activist shows how one performer can adjust to changes in the business and still keep working. Fans who watched her on Gidget or in Smokey and the Bandit can now see her in a Netflix drama and know the same person has been on screen the whole time.