Sally Field made her first red carpet appearance after the death of Steel Magnolias costar Dolly Parton while attending the 2026 Emmy Awards.
Field, 79, stepped out for the event on Monday, September 14, at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles and was asked to share her favorite memory of working with Parton.
“Oh, boy, I don’t have one,” she said on E! Live From the Red Carpet: Emmys 2026 with host Keltie Knight. “Every minute of being with her. You can’t just have one.”
Field is nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category for her role in Remarkably Bright Creatures. The Beast in Me’s Claire Danes, Beef’s Carey Mulligan, Love Story’s Sarah Pidgeon and All Her Fault’s Sarah Snook also received nods for the same award.
Field’s appearance at the awards show comes after Parton died on August 25 following a brief battle with an undisclosed form of cancer. She was 80.
Field paid tribute to her former costar in August while sharing a throwback photo with castmates Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine and Julia Roberts.
“If there are truly angels on earth, then we have just lost one. Dolly Parton,” the actress wrote via Instagram at the time. “There will never be another. I adored her with all my heart and will always cherish our time together. Forever. Rest in peace beautiful Dolly.”
Steel Magnolias, based on Robert Harling’s 1987 play of the same name, followed a close-knit group of women in Louisiana who supported each other through life’s ups and downs. In the film, Parton starred as beauty salon worker Truvy opposite Field’s M’Lynn Eatenton — the mother of Roberts’ Shelby.
In a 1989 interview with Today, Parton shared that was not fazed by working with A-list actresses in Steel Magnolias and beyond.
“I feel very confident in who I am as a personality, and I’ve always been real sure of what I do in my world, and I assume when they asked me to do these parts, that they think that I can handle it,” she said at the time. “And I think that I can too. I’m not a great actress, but I’m not intimidated by these people.”
She continued, “I feel just fortunate to get the opportunity to work around them, and I learned something from all the people I’ve worked with. And I do work well with women, ‘cause I love my sisters and my aunts and have a lot of great friends.”
