Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490579
sagaftra.org • SAG-AFTR A SPECIAL ISSUE 2023 • 70 in which she played a young woman with ESP, was enough goody-goody typecasting for Field, and she attempted a breakout via some dramatic turns in TV movies and guest appearances on shows like Night Gallery and Marcus Welby, MD. Finally, help came along, and at the insistence of her Nun costar, the iconic Madeleine Sherwood, Field showed up at the famed Actors Studio and soon began studying with legendary teacher Lee Strasberg, alongside contemporaries Jack Nicholson, Ellen Burstyn and others. She was determined to be taken seriously, and after years with Strasberg, who she credits as an essential influence, not only in the development of her craft but in her growth as a human, Field fought her way into her first significant dramatic role, the title character in NBC's television film Sybil. Starring opposite Oscar-winning legend Joanne Woodward, Field was not the favorite of producers, but after Woodward tested with Field, she told producers if they didn't cast the young actress, she would leave the project. Taking that ultimatum proved a wise choice. Field's harrowing portrayal of a young woman attempting to unravel years of confusion from an undiagnosed dissociative identity disorder (formerly referred to as "split personalities") with the help of a knowledgeable psychiatrist (Woodward) won her the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Special Program in 1977. Years later, Field recalled in an oral history with the Television Academy Foundation the impact of Sybil at the time, saying, "It was real landmark stuff for television. No one was doing anything about child abuse back then. We received so many letters from doctors and psychiatrists who said patients had come in with breakthroughs because of viewing the film. It had enormous power — and that is the power television can have if used correctly." To the surprise of critics NBC/PHOTOFEST Sybil (1976) with Joanne Woodward ABC/PHOTOFEST The Flying Nun (1967) as Sister Bertrille UNNIVERSAL PIC TURES/PHOTOFEST Smokey and the Bandit (1977) with Burt Reynolds