Valley of the Dolls

Patty Duke would remember the director, Mark Robson, as a tyrant who particularly enjoyed humiliating Sharon. Roman Polanski would say later that Robson told him, "That's a great girl you have there. Few actresses have her kind of vulnerability. She's got a great future."

The set of Valley of the Dolls was not a happy one. Patty Duke and Barbara Parkins were said to be jockeying for position, both feeling that this was an important film for them and could set the tone for the rest of their careers. According to costar Robert Viharo, Sharon alone was above the bickering. He described her as "the sweetest, purest, most open spirit." By the time filming was complete all three stars felt that the movie was unsalvageable.

The fears of Duke, Parkins and Tate were confirmed. The movie had unintentionally became a comedy. Afterwards Sharon gamely met with the press while some of her costars tried to avoid them. In later years Valley of the Dolls would come to be considered a camp classic. It has been remade for television, and stage. There are conventions and fan clubs. In that way it is the film that Sharon will probably most be identified with. If the current feelings of her costars, Patty Duke and Barbara Parkins are any indication Sharon herself would probably have come to view Valley of the Dolls with bemused affection.

As Sharon was filming Valley of the Dolls Roman was busy making Rosemary's Baby. Roman had initially wanted Sharon for the main role of Rosemary but felt it would have been presumptuous to put her forward himself. The role eventually went to Mia Farrow. Sharon visited Roman often on the set in New York, and became fast friends with Mia. Roman and Sharon accompanied Mia and Frank Sinatra to dinner on several occasions and it was on the set of Rosemary's Baby that Frank Sinatra served Mia with divorce papers. Mia would remember that Sharon and Roman took her in and made her part of their group of friends.

Of Sharon, Mia would say:
"She was like a princess in a fairy tale. As kind as she was beautiful."
"There was the perfection of her face-of course. And a radiance more usually found in children. There was a capacity for delight. And a directness to her comments. She was not a chatterbox. There was a kindness at the core. She somehow made her friends feel necessary-and they loved her."

Sharon had garnered favorable reviews for Don't Make Waves and Valley of the Dolls.
The Hollywood Reporter said of Sharon in Valley of the Dolls, "William Daniels' photographic caress of her faultless face and enormous absorbent eyes is stunning". In reality Sharon had made a favorable impression on critics and the movie going public but she had not had a breakthrough role that catapulted her into super stardom.