Shirley MacLaine

Name: Shirley MacLaine
Date of Birth: April 24, 1934
Place of Birth: Richmond, Virginia, USA

Mini-bio: Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty) is an Academy Award-winning American actress, well-known not only for her acting, but for her devotion to her belief in reincarnation. She is also the wri...( read more)

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Shirley MacLaine (born April 24, 1934) is an American Academy Award-winning film and theater actress, dancer, activist, and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career.

Early life

Named after Shirley Temple, MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her father, Ira Owens Beaty,[1] was a professor of psychology, public school administrator and real estate agent, and her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia-born drama teacher; her grandparents were also teachers. Shirley MacLaine

Through her mother she is descended from the Scottish Clan Maclean. The family was devoutly Baptist.[2][3] MacLaine's father moved the family from Richmond to Norfolk, Virginia and then to Arlington, Virginia while she was still a child, then to Waverly, Virginia between 1932-1936, eventually taking a position at Arlington's Jefferson Middle School. The Beaty family lived in a house in the Western part of the county off Wilson Boulevard where it was said that Shirley and brother, Warren were known around their neighborhood as troublemakers in their pre-adolescent days. Her early childhood dream was to be a ballerina. She took ballet fervently all throughout her youth and never missed one class, and whenever they performed a piece, she would play the boy's role, due to being the tallest one there. Shirley MacLaine

She was so determined and so set on being a dancer that her recurring childhood nightmare was that she missed the bus to class. She finally got to play a respectable woman's role, the Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella," and while warming up backstage, she snapped her ankle. Many would bow out in this particular situation, but she was so determined that she simply tied the ankle ribbon on her toe shoes extra tight and went "on with the show." After it was over, she called for an ambulance. Eventually, MacLaine decided that professional ballet was not for her. She said that she did not really have the right body type and that she did not want to starve herself. Also, her feet were not "beautifully constructed" (without high arches and insteps). Nor was she of "exquisite beauty." At that point, she decided to switch her focus to acting. She attended Washington-Lee High School, where she was on the cheerleading squad and acted in the school's productions. The summer before her senior year, she went to New York to try acting on Broadway with some success. Shirley MacLaine

After she graduated, she went back and within a year she achieved her goal of becoming a star when she became an understudy to actress Carol Haney in The Pajama Game; Haney broke her ankle, and MacLaine replaced her. A few months after, with Haney still out of commission, director-producer Hal B. Wallis was in the audience, took note of MacLaine, and signed her to go to Hollywood to work forParamount Pictures. She would later sue Wallis over a contractual dispute, a suit that is credited with having ended the old-style studio system of actor management.[4]

Career

She made her debut in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Trouble with Harry in 1955, which won her the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress. In 1956, she took parts in Hot Spell and Around the World in Eighty Days. Shirley MacLaine & Audrey Hepburn

At the same time, she starred in Some Came Running; this film gave her her first Academy Award nomination - one of the film's five Oscar nods - and a Golden Globe nomination. She also starred in a lesser known film called "The Children's Hour" also starring Audrey Hepburn, based on the play by Lillian Hellman. She got her second nomination two years later for The Apartment, starring with Jack Lemmon. The film won 5 Oscars, including Best Director for Billy Wilder. She later said, "I thought I would win for The Apartment, but then Elizabeth Taylor had a tracheotomy." She was again nominated for Irma la Douce (1963), for which she reunited with Wilder and Lemmon. Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine

In 1975, she received a nomination for Best Documentary Feature for her documentary film The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir. Two years later, she was once again nominated for The Turning Point, along with co-star Anne Bancroft. In 1983 she won her first Oscar for Terms of Endearment. The film won five Oscars; one for Jack Nicholson and three for director James L. Brooks. In the awards season for films of 1988, she became the first actress since the inception of the Golden Globe Awards to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress (Drama)—for Madame Sousatzka—without getting an Oscar nomination for the same performance Jack Nicholson, Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine

Jack Nicholson, Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine

(Kate Winslet became the second for her performance in Revolutionary Road (2008)). MacLaine won her award for Madame Sousatzka in a three-way tie with Jodie Foster (The Accused) and Sigourney Weaver (Gorillas in the Mist). She went on to star in other major films, like Steel Magnolias with Julia Roberts. She made her feature-film directorial debut in the quirky film Bruno, written by then new-comer David Ciminello in his Disney-Meets-David Lynch style. MacLaine starred as Helen in this film, which was released to video under the title The Dress Code. In 2007 she completed Closing the Ring, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Christopher Plummer. Jennifer Aniston & Shirley MacLaine

Other notable films in which MacLaine has starred include "Being There" with Peter Sellers, "Used People" withJessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, "Guarding Tess" with Nicholas Cage, "Sweet Charity", "Rumor Has It" with Kevin Costner and Jennifer Aniston, and "In Her Shoes" with Toni Collette. MacLaine is also set to star in Poor Things, a drama. The production has been delayed due to Lindsay Lohan's stint in rehab. MacLaine has also appeared in numerous television projects including "Out on a Limb", an autobiographical miniseries based upon the book of the same name, "The Salem Witch Trials", "These Old Broads" written by Carrie Fisher and co-starring Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, and Joan Collins, Shirley MacLaine

and "Coco", a Lifetime production based on the life of Coco Chanel. She also had a short-lived sit-com called "Shirley's World". MacLaine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1615 Vine Street.

Personal life

Shirley MacLaine & daughter Sachi Parker

MacLaine was married to businessman Steve Parker until they divorced in 1982. They had a daughter, Sachi Parker (born 1956). MacLaine's interest in spirituality is very strong and long-lived. Many of her best-selling books, such as Out on a Limb and Dancing in the Light have it as their central theme. Her beliefs have compelled her to explore herself and the world. This includes walking El Camino de Santiago and working withChris Griscom.[citation needed] MacLaine found her way into many law school casebooks when she sued Twentieth Century-Fox for breach of contract. She was to play a role in a film titled Bloomer Girl, but the production was cancelled. Shirley MacLaine

Twentieth Century-Fox offered her a role in another film, Big Country, Big Man, in hope of getting out of its contractual obligation to pay her for the cancelled film. MacLaine's refusal led to an appeal by Twentieth Century-Fox to the Supreme Court of California in 1970, where the Court ruled against Fox. Parker v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 474 P.2d 689 (Cal. 1970).

She shares a birthday with Barbra Streisand which they celebrate together every year.

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Last update: Apr 5 2009, 6:13 PM EDT by DeeSnke (content history | content tools) (help)

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Shirley MacLaine Biography Shirley MacLaine Quotes Shirley MacLaine Best Movies and Characters

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mcpeli

hola shirley como estas sigo leyendo tus libros very good,me siento bien me dicen que no escribes a tus admiradores ,lo creo a eces somos pesados, buenosguire diciendote algo. besos

posted 551 days ago
ladysprinklenose

you amazing!

posted 716 days ago
ladysprinklenose

hello weezer!
you were hilarious in Steel Magnolia's! absolutly hilarious! i love all your lines. my favorite line n the whole world is "you are evil, and must be destroyed." ha ha ha!

posted 716 days ago
ilovelucy1951

Shirley MacLaine is a wonderful actress. The first movie I saw her in was The Children's Hour. That is not your everyday movie, but it was good. She did a wonderful job.

posted 845 days ago

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Shirley MacLaine Movies

Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (Unrated, 2009)
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: 1920s - The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical (Unrated, 2008)
Coco Chanel (Unrated, 2008)
Closing the Ring (R, 2007)
Rumor Has It (PG-13, 2005)
In Her Shoes (PG-13, 2005)
Bewitched (PG-13, 2005)
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (Unrated, 2004)
Carolina (PG-13, 2004)
These Old Broads (Unrated, 2002)

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Shirley MacLaine Trivia

Which actors are the only living siblings to have won Academy Awards? Answer »
Shirley MacLaine turned down the roll as Holly Golightly in the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's? Answer »
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