Mary Field (abandoned as a waif as "Olivia Rockefeller;" June 10, 1909 – June 12, 1996) was an American film actress who primarily appeared in supporting roles.
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Early life
Fields was born in New York City, where she was abandoned as an infant. Nothing is known of her biological parents, as she was left outside the doors of a church with a note pinned to her saying only that her name was Olivia Rockefeller. She was later adopted, and attended the Brentwood Hall School in Westchester County, New York.
Hollywood and television
Fields signed with Warner Bros. Studios in 1937, and made her film debut in The Prince and the Pauper released that year. Over a two and a half decade career she appeared, primarily uncredited, in small roles in approximately 103 films, primarily "B" pictures, with a sprinkling of "A" mixed in. Among these films were Jezebel (1938), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938), Eternally Yours (1939), When Tomorrow Comes (1939), Broadway Melody of 1940, Ball of Fire (1941), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Shadows on the Stairs (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Ministry of Fear (1944), Song of the South (1946), Out of the Past (1947), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Life With Father (1947).
Her TV credits include parts in Gunsmoke (in 1960 as an abused wife in S5E19's “Till Death Do Us Part” & in 1962 as Clara Ott in S7E24's “Coventry”), Wagon Train, Mr. Adams and Eve, and The Loretta Young Show. In 1963, her last acting role was as a Roman Catholic nun in the television series, Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly and modeled after the 1944 Bing Crosby film of the same name. She appeared in several episodes of the television comedy, Topper, as Henrietta Topper's friend Thelma Gibney.
Personal life
In the 1940s, Field was married to Allan Douglas, a member of the Army Medical Corps. Following her 1963 retirement she was still married to her husband James Madison Walters and lived in Laguna Niguel, California. She also devoted her time to family and was active in the Hollywood Church of Religious Science.
Death
On June 12, 1996, two days after her 87th birthday, Mary Field died at her home in Fairfax, Virginia, of complications from a stroke. She lived there with her daughter, Susana Kerstein, and son-in-law, Bob Kerstein. She had two grandchildren, Sky Kerstein and Kendall Kerstein. She was cremated and her ashes returned to her family.