Linda Susan Agar: The Private Life of Shirley Temple’s Daughter (2026)

Linda Susan Agar is an American private individual born on January 30, 1948, in Santa Monica, California, as the only biological child of Hollywood icon Shirley Temple and actor John Agar. She is alive as of 2026, living quietly in California under the name Susan Black.

Many readers searching her name encounter conflicting information — false death claims, mismatched names, and shallow profiles that raise more questions than they answer. This article corrects the record completely. It covers her true identity, family history, the adoption that changed her name, her siblings, her daughter Teresa Caltabiano, her confirmed status in 2026, and the real story behind who she chose to become.

Who Is Linda Susan Agar? The Woman Behind the Famous Name

Linda Susan Agar is best understood not as a celebrity but as a deliberate departure from one. Born into the most photographed household in 1940s Hollywood, she spent her entire adult life building an identity that had nothing to do with fame.

Her mother, Shirley Temple, was the highest-paid entertainer in America during the 1930s. Her father, John Agar, was a sergeant-turned-actor whose career peaked through his marriage to Temple. Susan entered a world already saturated with public attention — and walked away from it entirely.

That choice defines her more than any film credit or family connection ever could.

Quick Biography Facts — Linda Susan Agar at a Glance

The Three Names of One Woman — Linda, Susan, and Black

Susan’s life story is best understood through the three names she has carried. Each one marks a real shift in identity, circumstance, and choice.

Born Linda Susan Agar — The Hollywood Origin

She was born Linda Susan Agar at a moment when her mother, Shirley Temple, was still one of the most recognized faces on earth. Her father, John Agar, had just entered the film industry. Their first two films together — Fort Apache (1948) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949), both RKO productions — were released in the same years surrounding her birth.

Her arrival was treated as a Hollywood event. Newspapers covered it as the birth of royalty.

Raised as Susan Black — The Adoption That Changed Everything

When Shirley Temple and John Agar divorced in December 1949, Temple was awarded full custody. She remarried Charles Alden Black in 1950, a former Navy intelligence officer decorated with the Silver Star.

Black legally adopted Linda Susan, and she became Susan Black. This was not a quiet paperwork change. It was a full environmental shift — from a household defined by public performance to one structured around discipline, education, and privacy.

Known as Susan in Adulthood — A Name Carried With Purpose

By adulthood, she had fully embraced the Black surname. The name “Linda Susan Agar” existed primarily on her birth record and later her IMDb page, where she appeared billed as Susan Agar for two minor television roles.

In a 2018 interview with Closer Weekly, she spoke warmly about her mother: “Being a wife and mom is the greatest of her achievements. We were shopping and travel buddies and went to many places together. She was one of my very best friends.” That is the identity she built — daughter, mother, private person.

Early Childhood Inside the Black Household — Normalcy as a Deliberate Choice

Shirley Temple made a conscious decision that her children would not repeat her own childhood. Temple spent her early years working six-day workweeks at Fox Film Corporation from age three. She was managed by a studio system that controlled her earnings, her image, and her time.

She did not want that life for Susan.

What Shirley Temple Said About Raising Her Children

Temple described motherhood as the greatest of her three careers — ahead of acting and diplomacy. In multiple interviews, she and her children painted a picture of ordinary domestic life: dinner at the table every night, family routines, and no manufactured celebrity expectations.

Susan confirmed this directly. Her 2018 Closer Weekly remarks describe a mother who was “wonderful and normal” — a notable phrase from someone positioned to know the difference.

How the Black Household Differed From Temple’s Own Childhood

Charles Alden Black ran KABC-TV in Los Angeles. He brought structure and professional discipline to the household. The contrast with Shirley Temple’s own upbringing — governed by studio schedules, choreographers, and public appearances from age three — was total.

Susan grew up going to school. She ate dinner with her family. She was not groomed for a career.

Linda Susan Agar’s Parents — The Full Story of Shirley Temple and John Agar

John Agar — Actor, Father, and the Man Who Stepped Away

John Agar was born on January 31, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois. He served as a sergeant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II before entering acting through his marriage to Shirley Temple. Fort Apache (1948), directed by John Ford, launched his career.

His alcoholism, however, destroyed the marriage. Temple filed for divorce on December 5, 1949, and received full custody of Susan. Agar continued acting — building a cult following in 1950s B-movies and science fiction films — before his death on April 7, 2002.

Whether Susan maintained contact with her biological father after the divorce is not publicly documented.

Shirley Temple — Icon, Diplomat, and the Mother Susan Remembers

Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica. By the mid-1930s, she was the top box-office draw in America — ahead of Clark Gable and every adult star of the era. Films like Bright Eyes (1934), Curly Top (1935), and Heidi (1937) made her a global figure during the Great Depression.

After retiring from film, Temple became a diplomat. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana (1974–1976) and to Czechoslovakia (1989–1992), and held the position of U.S. Chief of Protocol. She passed away on February 10, 2014. Her estate was estimated at $10–$30 million.

Did Linda Susan Agar Become an Actress?

Susan had two brief television appearances on The Shirley Temple Storybook, her mother’s NBC anthology series. She played two separate characters across the show’s run. Her brother Charles Alden Black Jr. also appeared — playing a character named Andy.

Neither pursued acting beyond those appearances.

Susan’s IMDb page lists her as Susan Agar. Beyond that page, there is no professional entertainment record. Her decision to step away was consistent and never reversed.

Linda Susan Agar’s Siblings — The Full Black and Agar Family Tree

Susan grew up with two half-siblings on her mother’s side and one on her father’s.

Charles Alden Black Jr. was born April 28, 1952, in Washington, D.C. He briefly attempted acting before leaving entertainment entirely and moving into real estate.

Lori Black was born April 9, 1954. She became a bassist — first with Clown Alley, then with the band Melvins, where she performed under the name Lorax. She struggled with drug addiction for years, with Shirley Temple providing support during that period.

John G. Agar III is Susan’s paternal half-sibling through John Agar’s subsequent relationships — a family member almost absent from public coverage of the Agar-Temple story.

What Most People Get Wrong About Linda Susan Agar

The False “Died in 2000” Claim — Where It Comes From and Why It’s Wrong

Some online sources state that Linda Susan Agar died in 2000. This claim is false and unsourced. As of 2026, there are no credible records, obituaries, death certificates, or verified reports confirming her death. Multiple sources with 2026 publication dates confirm she is alive and living privately in California.

The “2000 death” figure appears to stem from a data error in aggregated celebrity biography databases — likely a misattributed entry or a confusion with another individual. It has since been copied without verification.

Readers who encounter this claim should disregard it entirely.

The Name Confusion — She Is Not “Linda Agar” in Daily Life

She is not known as Linda Agar, Linda Susan Agar, or Susan Caltabiano in everyday life. Her legal adult name is Susan Black — the name she took after Charles Alden Black adopted her in the early 1950s. “Linda Susan Agar” is her birth name and the name used in historical records and her IMDb listing.

The Myth That She Completely Disappeared From Public Life

Susan has not been absent. She contributed to retrospective coverage of her mother’s life and appeared in Closer Weekly in 2018 with direct quotes. Her appearances are rare and purposeful — she engages when the context involves honoring Shirley Temple’s legacy, not promoting herself.

Linda Susan Agar’s Marriage and Personal Life

Susan’s personal life is deliberately private. One source names her husband as Richard Caltabiano — consistent with her daughter’s surname, Teresa Caltabiano. Some aggregated databases list a “Burton James Tidwell” as her spouse, but this name appears in no primary or verified source and should be treated as unconfirmed.

What is clear: she married, raised a daughter, and maintained the same private posture in her personal life that she maintained in every other dimension.

Teresa Caltabiano — Susan’s Daughter

Teresa Caltabiano is Linda Susan Agar’s only known child. She is not a public figure. She does not appear in entertainment, politics, or media in any confirmed capacity.

According to reporting by Fabiosa, Shirley Temple was close to Teresa and had the opportunity to meet Teresa’s own daughter — making Temple a great-grandmother — before her death in 2014. Susan kept Teresa’s life as private as her own. The pattern is generational: fame arrived with Shirley Temple and deliberately ended there.

John Agar After the Divorce — An Untold Chapter

After losing custody of Susan in 1949, John Agar rebuilt his career independently. He became a recognizable face in 1950s and 1960s science fiction and Western films, developing a cult following despite never recapturing the mainstream attention his marriage to Temple had briefly provided.

He remarried and had other children, including John G. Agar III. He died on April 7, 2002, in Burbank, California, from pulmonary emphysema. Whether he maintained any relationship with Susan after the divorce remains undocumented — a gap in the public record that reflects how thoroughly Susan has protected her private history.

Shirley Temple’s Diplomatic Career and What It Meant for the Family

Shirley Temple’s transition from actress to diplomat is well-documented. Her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and to Czechoslovakia in 1989 — positions she held under two different presidential administrations — placed her at the center of Cold War-era international diplomacy.

By 1974, Susan was 26 years old and established in her own private life. Temple’s diplomatic postings did not reshape Susan’s upbringing — she was an adult — but they did shape the public context of the family during those decades. Temple’s role as Chief of Protocol under President Ford further elevated the family’s prominence at precisely the period when Susan was building the quiet life she had chosen.

Is Linda Susan Agar Still Alive in 2026?

Yes. As of 2026, Linda Susan Agar — known as Susan Black — is alive. She is 78 years old and living in California. No credible death report, obituary, or official record contradicts this. The false “died in 2000” claim circulating on some websites has no sourcing and should be disregarded.

She does not use social media. Her public appearances are limited to rare retrospective contexts tied to her mother’s legacy. Her absence from public life is a choice, not a circumstance.

Linda Susan Agar’s Net Worth — What the Estate Really Means

Shirley Temple’s estate at the time of her death in February 2014 was estimated at between $10 million and $30 million, accumulated through decades of acting royalties, diplomatic salaries, and investments managed by Charles Alden Black Sr. before his death.

Susan, as Temple’s biological daughter, was among the estate’s beneficiaries. The precise distribution has not been made public. California probate records are sealed or partially accessible, and no verified figure for Susan’s inheritance has appeared in confirmed reporting.

Her net worth remains undisclosed. Given her consistent rejection of public financial disclosure, it is likely to remain that way.

Linda Susan Agar’s Legacy — Why Choosing Privacy Is Its Own Kind of Statement

The dominant narrative about children of famous parents assumes that proximity to fame produces either a career built on it or a life destroyed by it. Susan Black fits neither category.

She inherited the most famous name in 1930s American entertainment and used it for nothing. That is not a passive outcome. It is a sustained, decades-long decision made consistently across every available opportunity for public engagement.

In doing so, she preserved something Shirley Temple herself said she valued most — the ordinary life of a mother and family. Susan is the proof that it was real.

Conclusion

Linda Susan Agar — known through most of her life as Susan Black — is the biological daughter of Shirley Temple and John Agar, born January 30, 1948, in Santa Monica, California. She is alive in 2026, living privately in California. Her story spans three names, a legal adoption, a brief television appearance, one daughter, and a lifetime of deliberate distance from the fame she was born into.

The most important thing her story confirms is this: privacy, when chosen consistently and without apology, becomes its own legacy. Susan did not disappear. She simply decided that her life belonged to her.

If you want to understand Shirley Temple’s private world more fully, start with the woman who knew her best — not as an icon, but as a mother. Susan’s few public statements tell that story more clearly than any biography has managed to capture.

FAQs

Q: Is Linda Susan Agar still alive in 2026?

A: Yes, Linda Susan Agar is alive as of 2026. She lives privately in California at age 78. No verified death record or credible obituary exists. The “died in 2000” claim found on some websites is unverified and inaccurate.

Q: Why do some websites say Linda Susan Agar died in 2000?

A: The claim is a data error with no sourcing. It likely originated from a misattributed entry in celebrity biography databases and was copied without fact-checking. No death certificate, obituary, or primary record supports it.

Q: Why is she called Susan Black instead of Linda Susan Agar?

A: After Shirley Temple divorced John Agar in 1949, she married Charles Alden Black, who legally adopted Susan. She took the Black surname and has used it throughout her adult life. The name Linda Susan Agar appears primarily in birth records and her IMDb listing.

Q: Did Linda Susan Agar pursue an acting career?

A: She appeared in two minor roles on The Shirley Temple Storybook, her mother’s NBC television series, billed as Susan Agar on IMDb. She never pursued further acting and chose a private life away from entertainment entirely.

Q: Who is Teresa Caltabiano?

A: Teresa Caltabiano is Susan’s only known daughter. She is not a public figure. Shirley Temple was reportedly close to Teresa and met Teresa’s own child before her 2014 death, making Temple a great-grandmother through Susan’s line.

Q: Did Shirley Temple’s diplomatic career affect Susan’s life?

A: By the time Temple served as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana (1974) and Czechoslovakia (1989), Susan was an adult with her own private life established. The postings shaped the family’s public profile but did not directly alter Susan’s upbringing, which ended well before Temple’s diplomatic appointments began.

Q: How much did Linda Susan Agar inherit from Shirley Temple?

A: The exact figure has not been made public. Shirley Temple’s estate was estimated at $10–$30 million at the time of her February 2014 death. As a biological daughter, Susan was among the beneficiaries, but California probate records have not confirmed a specific inheritance amount.

Q: Did Linda Susan Agar maintain a relationship with her biological father, John Agar, after the divorce?

A: This is not publicly documented. Shirley Temple was awarded full custody after the 1949 divorce. John Agar continued his acting career, remarried, and died on April 7, 2002. No confirmed account of contact between him and Susan after the divorce exists in the public record.