The biggest Hollywood child star of all time, Shirley Temple Black, passed away last night at the age of 85. She was the top box office draw in the country at the height of the Great Depression, from 1935-38, at just 7-10 years old. Her best known hits were Little Miss Marker (1934), Curly Top (1935), Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Heidi (1938) and The Little Princess (1939). She left the movie business in her teens and as an adult served as the one-time U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She also received the Kennedy Center Honors, a SAG lifetime achievement award, and is named by the American Film Institute at #18 as one of the greatest female screen legends of all time.
If you want to watch one of her movies, I think Heidi is the one that holds up the best today, but here's the famous stair dance with the legendary Bill "Bojangles" Robinson from The Little Colonel (1935):
And this is from the movie that made her a star at age 6, singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop," from Bright Eyes (1934):
