AceShowbiz - Shirley Anne Field has passed away at the age of 87. The actress shared screen with Sir Michael Caine in the 1966 comedy "Alfie" and before that alongside the late Albert Finney in the 1960 film "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" but her family announced on Monday, December 11 that she had passed away the day before.

"It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday... surrounded by her family and friends. Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen," her family said in a statement.

Following a modelling career in the 1950s, Shirley moved into acting and was cast in the comedy "Loser Takes All" and musical film "It's a Wonderful World" but her breakthrough role came when she was cast in the kitchen-sink drama "The Entertainer" opposite screen legend Laurence Olivier.

In 2012, the film star - who had daughter Nicola, 53, with late ex-husband Charles Crichton-Stuart - explained that she had been signed to the same agent as Dame Joan Collins, 90, early on in her career and that even though they were all "at risk" of predatory behaviour, she and her fellow actresses all aspired to be like the then-starlet who would go on to achieve major recognition for her role in "Dynasty".

She told The Yorkshire Post, "I was the youngest and Joan Collins was possibly the oldest. But we all wanted to be like her because she had a pink sports car, lived in Hollywood and earned £120 a week! It's a horrible experience being a teenager in the film industry: you're exposed to all the wrong influences. It was a very predatory world; you were always at risk."