© Getty Images

A light at the end of the tunnel - President Franklin D. Roosevelt also stated: "When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."

© Getty Images

Hollywood's number one - From 1935 to 1938 (when she was between seven and 10 years old), Shirley Temple was America's number one box-office draw.

© Getty Images

Biggest littlest star - At under 10 years of age, she was a bigger star than Hollywood's great actors, including Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper, and Joan Crawford.

© Getty Images

International fame - Shirley Temple achieved international recognition in 1934 with 'Bright Eyes,' which was developed especially for her.

© Getty Images

One of America's richest people - At 10 years old (in 1938), the year 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' was released, her income was the seventh-highest in America. She was behind six industrialists.

© Getty Images

20th Century Fox's salvation - Her fame saved the film studio from bankruptcy.

© Getty Images

'Little Miss Marker' (1934) -

By the time of this film's release, Shirley Temple was already the symbol of family entertainment in America.

© Getty Images

'Be Optimistic' - In 'Little Miss Broadway' (1938), she sang the song 'Be Optimistic,' which perfectly captured her message to the American people.

© Getty Images

Biggest hit songs -

In 'Bright Eyes' (1934), Shirley Temple sings 'On the Good Ship Lollipop,' which is about a child dreaming of a candy shop.

© Getty Images

Biggest hit songs - Another of her big hits is 'Animal Crackers in My Soup' from 'Curly Top' (1935), which she sings in an orphanage.

© Getty Images

History in the making - Shirley Temple appeared in two 1935 films—'The Little Colonel' and 'The Littlest Rebel'—alongside Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, at a time when interracial pairing in Hollywood was unheard of.

© Getty Images

Talent meets professionalism - Director Allan Dwan, who worked with Shirley Temple in 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' and 'Heidi,' said she was "just absolutely marvellous, greatest in the world. You'd just tell her once and she'd remember the rest of her life. Whatever it was she was supposed to do, she'd do it."

© Getty Images

No one like her - Since the 1930s, America has produced great child stars, but none that have achieved so much success. Even today, Shirley Temple remains the most successful child star the country has even seen.

© Getty Images

Infamous review and lawsuit -

But not all critics loved her. In a review of 'Wee Willie Winkie' (1937) in the London weekly magazine 'Night and Day,' Graham Greene wrote: "infancy with her is a disguise, her appeal is more secret and more adult... her neat and well-developed rump twisted in the tap dance: her eyes had a sidelong searching coquetry... watch the way she measures a man with agile studio eyes, with dimpled depravity."

© Getty Images

Infamous review and lawsuit - Graham's implication that Shirley Temple acted in a sexual manner prompted 20th Century Fox to successfully file a lawsuit for libel.

© Getty Images

Infamous review and lawsuit - The judge assigned to the case sided with the studio and Temple, contending, "This libel is simply a gross outrage."

© Getty Images

Myth and rumors -

The suspicions arose from the fact that Temple never lost her teeth. The rumors prompted the Vatican to send Father Silvio Massante to investigate whether she was indeed a child.

© Getty Images

Myth and rumors - A star as big as Temple was bound to attract conspiracy theories. Rumors circulated that she was not a child, but a 30-year-old little person.

© Getty Images

False teeth - But the truth is, her baby teeth were falling out. She was just covering the gaps with false teeth.

© Getty Images

Hair - People also often pulled at her hair, in attempts to prove that her curls were just a wig. In her 1988 autobiography, Temple said she wish she could have worn a wig because maintaining her famous curls were hard work and often painful.

© Getty Images

End of acting career - Many believe Temple's career was over by the time she was 12, but that's simply not true. She starred in several successful films as a teenager and young adult.

© Getty Images

Retirement from acting - As Shirley Temple grew into a young woman, she transitioned into more mature roles, like the two 1944 films 'You Went Away' and 'I'll Be Seeing You.'

© Getty Images

First marriage -

In 1943, Temple (then 15) met John Agar, an Army Air Corps sergeant. He became an actor and starred alongside Temple in 'Fort Apache' (1948) and 'Adventure in Baltimore' (1949).

© Getty Images

The Agar's -

They married two years after they met and had one daughter. But in 1949, their marriage ended and Temple decided to retire from acting.

© Getty Images

Second marriage - In 1950, the same year her divorce to Agar was finalized, she met Charles Black, a wealthy businessman who had never seen any of her films. The two married that same year.

© Getty Images

Politics and social work - After raising three kids, she returned to the public eye, this time as Shirley Temple Black—the politician. She was active in the Republican Party in California and unsuccessfully ran for the US House of Representatives, before becoming US Ambassador to Ghana (1974-76) and White House Chief of Protocol (1976-77) under President Gerald Ford.

© Getty Images

Diplomacy -

Under President Ronald Reagan, with whom she was good friends after having costarred with him in 'That Hagen Girl' (1947), she served as foreign affairs officer with the state department.

© Getty Images

Diplomacy -

Under President George H. W. Bush she served as ambassador to then-Czechoslovakia.

© Getty Images

Cancer diagnosis and death -

Following her breast cancer diagnosis in 1972, Temple decided to undergo a mastectomy and announce it in the media, becoming one of the first public figures to speak openly about breast cancer.

On February 10, 2014, 85-year-old Temple died at her home in Woodside, California, inspiring a downpour of tributes across the country and the world.

Sources: (Biography) (The Hollywood Reporter) (Los Angeles Times) (The Independent)

See also: Then and now: Hollywood's most iconic child stars

© Getty Images