Happy birthday to Chip Fields, who turns 74 today! Perhaps best known for playing the abusive mother of Penny (Janet Jackson) on Good Times, Fields is the mother of actresses Kim and Alexis Fields.

Born Laverne Fields in New York, the actress-director began her career as a singer; when Ronnie Spector reformed her group, The Ronettes, in 1973, Chip was one of the two singers selected to replace the two other originals, who did not return to the group. She recorded two songs with the group before it disbanded in 1975. Her acting debut came in the 1974 film Claudine, where she can be seen as an extra, and she later played an unwed mother on the NBC soaper Days of Our Lives.

Fields also played the mother of Regine (played by her real-life daughter Kim) on TV’s Living Single, and was seen in a variety of other shows, including What’s Happening!, Hill Street Blues, Roc, and The Wayans Brothers. In addition to her career in front of the camera, Fields was a dialogue coach for the film Menace II Society and directed episodes on a variety of television shows, including Girlfriends, The Parkers, One on One, and Hannah Montana.

In recent years, Fields directed numerous episodes of the Tyler Perry show Young Dylan, which ran on Nickelodeon from 2020 to April 2025. She and her husband, Erv Hurd, have been married since 1994.

Many happy returns of the day to Chip Fields!