Sally Field is an award-winning American actress born on November 6, 1946 in Pasadena, California. She was educated at Portola Middle School before going to Birmingham High School in California, where she became a cheerleader. Field got her first start in the entertainment industry by appearing on television. Her debut was in the mid-1960s surfer culture sitcom Gidget. She was popularly known for her role as Sister Bertrille in the TV show The Flying Nun. Her performance garnered her two Emmy awards and got her even more projects. She also appeared in films like The Girl With Something Extra and even managed to make a career for herself in singing. She released an album under Colgems Records in 1967. One of Sally Fields most acclaimed roles was her first dramatic one, being cast as the title character in the 1976 TV film Sybil. She studied acting under the famous Lee Strasberg, and her portrayal won her an Emmy Award the next year. During the 1980s, her career had an abundance of critical and commercial successes. She was in Smokey and the Bandit, and Norma Rae, which gave her breakout fame. She subsequently garnered the Best Female Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also seen in Mrs. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, and Steel Magnolias. Her television credits include a role on ER, as a recurring character for one year. She won an Emmy Award for her performance in 2001. She tried her hand at directing, and managed to come up with the television film The Christmas Tree, the feature film Beautiful and the short-lived series The Court. Field was added to the cast of the ABC drama series Brothers and Sisters, playing the matriarch Nora Holden Walker. This won her the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.