The Untold Truth Of Sally Field

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Born in Pasadena, California, on November 6, 1946, Field's parents divorced when she was just 4 years old. Field's mother, an actress, went onto remarry a stuntman named Jock Mahoney whom Field said she feared for much of her adolescence.

"He was really big and handsome—I was both terrified of him and madly in love with him," Field told Oprah Winfrey in 2007. "Unfortunately, that stayed with me as I grew up: I was attracted only to men I simultaneously feared and loved. My stepfather was both cruel and loving, and therefore our relationship was very confusing. I felt I was in danger all the time."

Still, despite being subjected to emotional and, on a couple of occasions, physical abuse, Field claims her stepfather actually helped save her life. "Even though my mother is a loving person, she and my real father were extremely passive and repressed," Field said. "My stepfather, on the other hand, created a situation in which my survival was dependent on getting angry. So when I was 14 or 15, I would literally stand on the coffee table to look this 65 man in the face and scream at him. During my adolescence, that was the only communication that could go on between us. I couldn't swallow my feelings, or something in me would have died. I fought for everybody else in the family, too, including my older brother."

Field also said that her unsafe upbringing led her to pursue acting in high school. "In high school, acting is what I did to stay sane. It wasn't about showing off; it was about revealing parts of myself that I couldn't reveal anyplace else," she said.

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