In 1997 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a reunion of past Oscar winners at their 70th annual awards presentation. There were many big stars there, from distinguished veterans like Sydney Poitier and Gregory Peck to the latest names on the scene like Mira Sorvino and a still teenaged Anna Paquin. By far the loudest and most sustained applause went to someone who hadn't made a movie in 48 years, and quit the business at the ripe age 22: Shirley Temple Black.
Shirley Temple is considered the first true child star, reining as the top box-office draw four years running in the mid-1930's when she was hardly out of diapers. Like many child stars that followed, she didn't make a successful transition to being an adult actor. By the time she quit Hollywood in 1950 she had a failed marriage to go along with her dead film career. Add to this that the vast majority of the 3.2 million dollars (in the 1950 money) that she had earned was lost due to her father's mismanagement. But in the bigger picture she made the transition to being an adult better than most actors who succeed in the business, let alone wash out young. She did some television work later on, but felt the calling to politics. After a failed congressional run in the late '60s she became a delegate to the UN, and later an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. The career diplomats scoffed at first, but she soon won their respect with her discipline and intelligence. She even headed up the training program for new diplomats, quipping, “We teach them how to get used to being called Ambassador and having Marines saluting. Then, on Day 3, we tell them what to do if they’re taken hostage.” She is also credited as being one of the first celebrities to raise awareness about the need for cancer screenings when she went public with her own battle with breast cancer in the early '70s, something almost unheard of at the time. Through these ups and downs she always maintained her equilibrium. According to her second husband of 55 years, Charles Alden Black who died in 2005, what you saw with Shirley was what you got. He stated that her down to earth nature, free of the psychological demons that haunt so many actors, "would be catastrophic for the psychiatric profession."
I was a little disappointed that the response to her death on Monday night was so muted. Or at least it seemed so to me. The more we know about her the more there is to admire. She didn't let stardom define her, living a full life beyond the silver screen. In some ways it's understandable that the public reaction would be less intense than for other stars. Her's was an unusual career, peaking before she was 10 years old almost eighty years ago, thus she out lived most of her original fans.
Still, I can't help contrast the coverage of Temple Black's death to that of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died ten days ago. I understand that on many levels we are dealing with apples and oranges. Hoffman was one of the top five or six actors working right now, in terms of talent and ability. He won an actual Oscar for acting, not an honorary statuette for "selling the most tickets," as her mother Gertrude quipped when Shirley asked if the honor meant that she was the best actor in the world (she often credited her mother for not letting the adulation go to her head). In our present pop culture Church of What's Happening Now Temple Black was an artifact from an ancient time; yesterday's goddess. Though undeniably talented, she wasn't a "serious" actress; just a bit of innocent eye candy that got people's minds off of the Great Depression. Hoffman was the artist, developing characters in ways that even the script writers didn't think of. And oh yes, the "demons" that drove him on, or so the myth goes. But the greatest contrast is that one showed us how to live fully, the other how to squander a great gift.
Lest you get the wrong idea, I come not to bury Philip Seymour Hoffman. I agree; he was probably the best pure actor America had to offer right now (Daniel Day Lewis was and still is the best in the English language overall). He should be mourned, and his acting achievements remembered. Before being an actor he was a human being. He had family, children and friends who loved him, and who are devastated by his death. He certainly deserves to be remembered for the good, and this is not the time savage him for his faults. I'm just not sure that he should be celebrated, or his death made out to be some noble act like Aaron Sorkin tries to in his Time Magazine obituary. Sorkin claims that his death saved ten lives; people who will think twice about shooting a possibly lethal dose after hearing about a famous person's death from same. I think that such a claim is wishful thinking, as well as a tad narcissistic. I don't know what was hounding Philip Seymour Hoffman, or what it's like to struggle with his addiction. All I know is that famous public figures from Jimi Hendrix to members of the Kennedy family have been dying from heroin related deaths for decades, and by some accounts the heroin problem is worse now than ever. In light of this the only thing we should be doing now is mourning the loss, remembering the positives and hold back on rationalizing the irrational.
I do hope that Philip Hoffman's death helps raise awareness of the dangers of heroin, and that addicts will use it as an impetus to seek help. But if so many high profile deaths before his haven't done anything to stem the overall tide of this drug's use, I don't have a lot of hope that his will either.
Yes, it's too bad that more will not be made of Shirley Temple Black's death from natural causes. Somehow, considering how gracefully she handled both fame and the lack of it, I'm not sure she'll mind. She seemed content to fade from the public scene, only emerging periodically for one salute or another. Her quiet passing, by show business standards, is our loss more than her's because her life had so much to teach us.
Every life is sacred, each one has infinite value. We should pray for the repose of the souls of both the Honorable Shirley Temple Black and Mr. Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, Oh Lord, and Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Them. May Their Souls, And All the Souls of the Faithful Departed, Through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace. AMEN
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