Cue the nostalgic reminiscing: The Flying Nun debuted nearly 50 years ago, on Sept. 7, 1967. But one person who won't be indulging in a fond look back is Sally Field, who starred as the aerodynamic Sister Bertrille in the sweet-but-silly television series.
Field scored her first acting job—the starring role in 1965's TV series Gidget—after a casting agent spotted her at an acting workshop. Gidget lasted just one season but proved to be a great experience for the fledgling actress. "It was such bliss. I was in heaven, learning as much as I could learn. I loved, loved, loved every minute of it," Field told O, The Oprah Magazine in 2008.
A few small TV parts later, Field was offered The Flying Nun. She tried to turn it down, but hated to refuse work. "I didn't want to do it. I was trying to figure out who I was, but I knew who I wasn't: a flying nun. I was almost 19, and my sexuality needed to be explored," Field toldO. "So I said no, which I thought was incredibly brave. But my stepfather said, 'Don't get on your high horse. If you don't take this part, you may never work again.'"
The Flying Nun aired on ABC from 1967 to 1970 for a total of 82 episodes. The idea for the unlikely sitcom didn't come from a TV executive's fever dream; it was actually based on the 1965 book The Fifteenth Pelican by Tere Rios.
The show followed the mildly zany adventures of Sister Bertrille, née Elsie Ethrington, and her friends at the Convent San Tanco in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The combination of high winds, Sister Bertrille's large headpiece or cornette, and her weighing only 90 pounds enabled the nun to take flight. Or, as Sister Bertrille also explained, "When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, anything can fly."
The cast included Madeleine Sherwood as Reverend Mother Placido, Marge Redmond as Sister Jacqueline (also the narrator for each episode), Shelley Morrison as Sister Sixto, Vito Scotti as Captain Gaspar Fomento, a police officer, and Alejandro Rey as Carlos Ramirez, a local casino owner who was an orphan raised by the nuns and still maintained a friendship with them.
Initially a hit with viewers, ratings for The Flying Nun dropped steadily and ABC canceled the struggling show after three years.
But it was three years too many for Field, who longed to be taken more seriously as an actress. "I was suffering so badly, I was so depressed and I was 19 and I didn't want to be playing something called the Flying Nun, I did not want to be dressed as a nun all day long," Field explained.
To make matters worse, Field had married and was pregnant with her first child during the final year of the show's run. "You can only imagine what a pregnant flying nun looked like," Field has said. "I was a walking sight gag." The producers of The Flying Nun did what they could to hide her growing belly. As Time noted in its 2009 list of "Top 10 Pregnant Performers," "pregnant flights of fancy were obviously not written into the already unusual premise of the show. Instead, the producers relied on props and scenery to block view of Field's body below the chest."
After her pretend life at the convent ended, Field got her wish and left the perky roles behind. She embarked on a long career of acclaimed TV and film roles, notably Sybil (1976), Absence of Malice (1981), Steel Magnolias (1989), Forrest Gump (1994), Where the Heart Is (2000), and Lincoln (2012). Field received Oscars for her roles in Norma Rae (1979), Places in the Heart (1984), and won an Emmy in 2006 for her role on the television's Brothers & Sisters. Field is also known for box-office hits like Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
Field has been married twice, first to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975, with whom she has two sons, Peter and Eli. She was married to Alan Greisman from 1984 to 1993 and they have a son, Samuel. She also had a three-year relationship with Burt Reynolds.
Field readily admits she had self-confidence issues and suffered from depression while working on The Flying Nun. She had a difficult upbringing living with her mother, Margaret Field, and her stepfather, Jock Mahoney, a stunt man with a mercurial and sometimes volatile temperament. While she saw The Flying Nun as a career obstacle, the experience also helped her mature.
"Something in me started to take care of myself in a way that I hadn't been able to before. I started to change and heal. I grew up and moved out of the fog," Field said in 2008. "And ultimately, the experience of being on the series gave me tremendous strength. It made me want to be a real actor, no matter what."
