Sally Field

 While filming the scene in "Norma Rae" (1979) where she is dragged out to the police car, Sally Field struggled and kicked so hard that she broke the rib of one of the men playing a police officer.

"Norma Rae" is based on Crystal Lee Sutton's life as a textile worker in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, where the battle for the workers' union took place against a J.P. Stevens Textiles mill. Her actual protest in the mill is the scene in the film where she writes the sign "UNION" and stands on her worktable until all machines are silent. Although Sutton was fired from her job, the mill was unionized, and she later went to work as an organizer for the textile union. Director Martin Ritt once said of Sutton, "I've known a lot of women in my life, most of them much more educated and sophisticated, who would not have had the balls that she had."

Sutton was not happy with this film, and felt that the picture should have been a docudrama. According to a 1980 Washington Post article, Sutton received no profits from the movie.

Marsha Mason, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, and Jill Clayburgh all passed on the title role.Field did the film against Burt Reynolds' advice, and afterward ended their relationship. Field and Beau Bridges researched their roles by working in a factory.

Happy Birthday, Sally Field!