The former Hollywood star Shirley Temple has died aged 85. The actress found fame as a child star in 1930s movies such as 'Curly Top' and 'Heidi'.
Her family say she died at her home in California yesterday from natural causes.
"We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife of 55 years" a family statement said.
The actress, singer and dancer is perhaps best remembered for the 1934 film 'Bright Eyes' when she famously performed "On The Good Ship Lollypop".
She went on to star in dozens of films including 'The Little Colonel' and 'The Littlest Rebel', both in 1935.
In these she lined up alongside the black dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson - a pairing that was to create history.
She became the first white girl to appear on film dancing hand-in-hand with an African-American man. The scene caused controversy in a divided US and was cut out before distribution in the racially segregated South.
Temple won a special Academy Award in early 1935 for her "outstanding contribution to screen entertainment" in the previous year.
Her handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood
During her 30 year career in showbusiness, she starred in dozens of films and even had her own television show.
Her famous corkscrew curls were popular with little girls from the 1930s through the 1970s. A "Shirley Temple" cocktail was also named after her - the non-alcoholic drink consists of ginger ale with a dash of grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry.
In 1966 Shirley Temple-Black, as she became known, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California but stayed in politics - helping raise more than US$2 million for the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon.
She was later named in the US team to the United Nations and found her childhood popularity was an asset in her new career.
"Having been a film star can be very helpful on an international basis. Many people consider me an old friend".
Shirley Temple-Black (left), with Helena Z. Benitez of the Philippines, at a UN Conference in 1972
She successfully battled breast cancer with a mastectomy to her left breast in 1972.
Temple later took on more diplomatic roles, acting as the US Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana (1974-1976) and then-Czechoslovakia (1989-1992).
After her appointment as US ambassador to Ghana, she said "I have no trouble being taken seriously as a woman and a diplomat here. My only problems have been with Americans who, in the beginning, refused to believe I had grown up since my movies".
In 1995 she received the Kennedy Centre Honour for Lifetime Achievement in the performing arts, and in 2006 she was the recipient of a Screen Actors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Watch her perform "On the Good Ship Lollipop" from the 1934 film, 'Bright Eyes'.
