Shirley Temple and the Dark Side of Fame: Horrifying Death Threats, Money Woes and How She Was Dumped by a Major Hollywood Movie Studio
Shirley Temple's traumatic childhood has been revealed on what would have been her 97th birthday.
April 23 2025, Published 3:04 p.m. ET
Shirley Temple is best known for her dozens of films and hit song On the Good Ship Lollipop, but the actress' childhood in the golden age of Hollywood wasn't as sweet as it appeared, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Temple, who would have been 97-years-old on April 23, suffered death threats, predators, cruel abuse on set and lost her fortune due to her father's poor investments by the time she retired at age 22.
Temple starred in 40 films by the time she retired in her early 20s.
Following the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's infant son, Temple – who began working as a toddler – started receiving death threats.
The threats prompted her family to set up an elaborate security system including 24/7 security guards – and her father even purchased a gun.
But lunatics still found their way to Temple. In 1939, while promoting the film The Blue Bird at a Los Angeles theater, a woman in the front row of the audience stood up and pointed a gun at the 11-year-old actress.
Luckily, the woman was subdued, and Temple managed to escape the incident unharmed.
Unfortunately, Temple continued to face abuse.
Despite working long hours as a child, Temple and other child actors were often disciplined with cruel and unusual punishment when they acted out on set, including being forced to sit on a block of ice in a locked, windowless sound room.
In her memoir, she noted luckily, no one sustained lasting injuries, but the incident taught her "time is money."
She wrote: "Time is money. Wasted time means wasted money means trouble."
The child actress began receiving death threats after Charles Lindbergh's infant son was kidnapped in 1932.
While Temple earned her $3.2million by the time she retired at age 22, she discovered she only had $40,000 in her bank account.
Temple's father squandered away her fortune through a series of poor investments.
Author John Kasson – who wrote The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America – said: "Nighty-seven cents of every dollar she made was gone.
"But Shirley didn't blame him. She thought he was badly advised."
Temple's father lost almost all of her fortune due to poor investments.
Although Temple was one the top child actor for several years, bringing in millions for Fox Studios, her fame started to decline by the late 1930s.
In 1941, when she was 12-years-old, her contract with Fox Studios was terminated early due to low ticket sales.
She eventually moved on to MGM, but only made one film with the studio after experiencing a disturbing sexual advance from producer Arthur Freed, who unzipped his pants and exposed himself to her.
Temple recalled being kicked out of his office when she "reacted with nervous laughter."
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After retiring from acting, Temple worked in the Ford administration and became an international ambassador.
She went on to make a few more films in her teenage years but never saw the same amount of success that she did as a child.
After leaving Hollywood behind in 1950, Temple went on to become an international ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and served in the Ford administration.
Temple died aged 85 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in February 2014.
