Sharon Tates life began on January 24, 1943, in Dallas Texas where she was raised by her mother Doris Tate, American activist for rights of crime victims, and Father Colonel Paul James Tate, Army officer who worked on setting up missile stations for NATO nations. From a young age, Sharon's beauty was noticed and acknowledged as early as six months old where she was named miss Tiny Tot of Dallas, to high school where she won both prom queen and homecoming queen. Due to her father's military career, she spent a majority of her youth moving around. In 1962, her father was stationed in Verona, Italy, where she began her work of film sets and her love for acting began. After being transferred back to the United States in 1963, Sharon began hitchhiking towards Hollywood where she quickly landed small roles in cigarette and automobile commercials. Her career quickly took off and she was featured in the shows and movies listed below:

• Barabbas, 1961, patrician in Arena
• Hemingway's adventures of a young man, 1962, burlesque queen
• The Beverly hillbillies, 1963-65, playing Janet Trego
• Mister Ed, 1963, playing the telephone operator
• The Wheeler Dealers, 1963, playing the bit part
• The Americanization of Emily, 1964, playing the beautiful girl
• The Man from U.N.K.L.E, 1965, playing the therapist
• The Sandpiper, 1965, playing the beautiful girl
• Eye of the Devil, 1966, playing Odile de Caray
• All eyes on Sharon Tate, 1967, playing herself
• The fearless vampire killers, 1967, playing Sarah Shagal
• Don’t make waves, 1967, playing Malibu
• Valley of the dolls, 1967, playing Jennifer North, nominated for the golden globe award for most promising newcomer - female (1968)
• The wrecking crew, 1968, Freya Carlson
• The Thirteen Chairs (also known as 12+1), 1969, playing Pat, released posthumously
• Ciao, Federico!, 1970, playing herself, released posthumously

During her life she fell in love with director Roman Polanski, and later married him in London. The ceremony was held at the Chelsea register office on January 20, 1968. She became pregnant with their first child, a son, in 1969.  

In the summer of 1969, Tate and Polanski were renting a house at an exclusive neighborhood in Los Angeles when cult leader Charles Manson ordered his follower Charles ("Tex") Watson to go to the house with three other members and kill everyone. On August 8, 1969, Sharon Tate was murdered alongside their friends Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring and a friend of the house's caretaker, Steven Parent. Before the year ended, the killers had all been arrested and the trial of Manson and his followers in 1970 gained national attention. They were all sentenced to life in prison in California in 1972. 

The violence of Tat's death influenced Polanski's film Macbeth (1971), a gory and artistically adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare. He also created a "For Sharon" on-screen dedication in his film Tess (1979). 


Sharon Tate's mother became a passionate activist in the victim's rights movement, founding both the Coalition on Victims Equal Rights in San Luis Obispo, and the Doris Tate Crime Victims Research Bureau in San Rafael. in 1982, her groups helped push through Californias Victim's Bill of Rights, which allowed the crime victims and their family members to read statements in court. She repeatedly read statements at the parole hearings of her daughter's killers.