Born Harriet Louisa Johnson in Allston, Massachusetts, she attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts. Field began her acting career on the stage. She made her Broadway debut at age 17 in 1918 in The Betrothal (1918). After appearing in various stage productions, Field made her film debut in the 1928 drama The Home Girl. Sylvia Field began appearing in guest spots on television in the late 1940s. In 1949, she starred in a locally produced sitcom about her life, The Truex Family. In 1952, she landed the role of Mrs. Remington in the sitcom Mr. Peepers. The show, which aired until 1955, co-starred Field’s real-life husband Ernest Truex. After the end of Mr. Peepers, Field continued to guest star on episodic television, including in roles on Producers’ Showcase, Star Tonight, General Electric Theater, and The Ann Sothern Show. In 1957, Field made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as defendant Belle Adrian in “The Case of the Angry Mourner.” In 1958, she played Aunt Lila in the Walt Disney serial Annette, starring Annette Funicello. In 1959, Sylvia Field began appearing as Martha Wilson in the CBS sitcom Dennis the Menace. Field’s character was written out of the series in 1962 owing to the death of Joseph Kearns, who portrayed George Wilson, Martha’s husband. Field continued in television guest spots during the 1960s, including on the ABC sitcoms Our Man Higgins with Stanley Holloway and Hazel. She made her final onscreen appearance in a 1975 episode of CBS’s Harry O starring David Janssen.

Field was married three times. Her first marriage was to Robert J. Frowhlich from 1924 to 1929. Her second, to Harold Moffat in 1930, produced one daughter. Moffat died in 1938. In 1941, she married actor Ernest Truex, to whom she remained married until Truex’s death in 1973. On July 31, 1998, Sylvia Field died at a nursing home in Fallbrook, California. She was 97.