Fields, Dame Gracie (1898-1979), an English actress and singer, won fame as a stage and film star in the music hall tradition. To people in England, she was known as “Our Gracie” because of her down-to-earth, humorous, and sentimental. Fields’s most famous song was “Sally,” the theme song of her first motion picture, Sally in Our Alley (1931).
Gracie Fields was born into a working-class family on Jan. 9, 1898, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Her original name was Grace Stansfield. She changed it to Gracie Fields when she was 13. She began her music hall career at the age of 15 as a comedian and singer with a touring company. She performed with the company for eight years. She became a star in 1924 in the revue Mr. Tower of London. She made more than 500 records and starred in several musical motion pictures in England during the 1930’s. Fields starred in two American movies, Holy Matrimony (1943) and Molly and Me (1945). She also appeared on radio and later on television. She retired to the island of Capri in 1950. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1979. She died on Sept. 27, 1979.
