Former Hollywood child star Shirley Temple has died. She was 85.
Hollywood child star Shirley Temple. Photo: AFP (file)
Temple was one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood history, getting her first film role at the age of three.
She won a special juvenile Oscar in 1935 when she was six.
Her singing, dancing and acting won over fans worldwide.
She made 14 short films and 43 feature films - but found it difficult to sustain her career in adulthood and retired from films in 1949 at the age of 21.
Her family says she died at her California home from natural causes surrounded by family members and caregivers.
The BBC reports Temple was ranked as Hollywood's biggest draw for four consecutive years from 1935 to 1938 in an annual poll of US cinema owners.
Her rendition of the song On the Good Ship Lollipop in the film Bright Eyes was among her most famous performances.
Other films included Curly Top, The Littlest Rebel, Baby Take a Bow and Little Miss Marker.
When she came back into the public eye, it was in a new guise. Under her married name Shirley Temple Black, she ran as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1967 but lost.
President Richard Nixon later appointed her as a member of the US delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and President Gerald Ford named her the US ambassador to Ghana in 1974.
In 1989, she was made the US ambassador to Czechoslovakia shortly before the fall of the country's Communist regime.
She considered her background in entertainment an asset to her political career. "Politicians are actors too, don't you think?" she once said.
In a statement, her family said they saluted her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife of 55 years.
