55 Facts About Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine was born on Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24,1934 and is an American actress and author.

Shirley MacLaine has been honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center Tribute in 1995, the Cecil B DeMille Award in 1998, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2012, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014.

Shirley MacLaine rose to prominence with starring roles in Around the World in 80 Days, Some Came Running, Ask Any Girl, The Apartment, The Children's Hour, Irma la Douce, and Sweet Charity.

Shirley MacLaine made appearances in several television series, including Downton Abbey, Glee, and Only Murders in the Building.

Shirley MacLaine has written many books regarding the subjects of metaphysics, spirituality, and reincarnation, as well as a best-selling memoir, Out on a Limb.

Shirley MacLaine's father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a professor of psychology, public school administrator, and a real estate agent.

Shirley MacLaine's Canadian mother, Kathlyn Corinne, was a drama teacher from Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Shirley MacLaine played baseball on a boys team, holding the record for most home runs, which earned her the nickname "Powerhouse".

Shirley MacLaine eventually was cast in a substantial female role as the fairy godmother in Cinderella and while warming up backstage, broke her ankle.

Shirley MacLaine tightened the ribbons on her toe shoes and completed the entire performance before calling for an ambulance.

Ultimately Shirley MacLaine decided against making a career of professional ballet because she had grown too tall and felt unable to perfect her technique.

Shirley MacLaine explained that hers was unlike the ideal body type, lacking the requisite "beautifully constructed feet" of high arches, high insteps and a flexible ankle.

Shirley MacLaine moved on to other forms of dancing as well as acting and musical theater.

Shirley MacLaine attended Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, where she was on the cheerleading squad and acted in school theatrical productions.

Shirley MacLaine played Ginny Moorehead, who falls in love with Frank Sinatra's character, Dave, in Vincente Minelli's adaptation of James Jones' novel Some Came Running, in the 1958 film of the same name.

Shirley MacLaine appeared with Dean Martin in Career, the third of their several films.

Shirley MacLaine appeared with Frank Sinatra in 1960's Can-Can, then made a cameo appearance in the Rat Pack movie Ocean's 11.

Shirley MacLaine would become an honorary member of the Rat Pack.

In 1960, Shirley MacLaine starred in Billy Wilder's romantic drama The Apartment.

Shirley MacLaine is attracted to the insurance company's elevator operator, who is already having an affair with Baxter's boss.

Shirley MacLaine starred in The Children's Hour, based on the play by Lillian Hellman, and directed by William Wyler.

In 1970, Shirley MacLaine published a memoir titled Don't Fall off the Mountain, the first of her numerous books.

Shirley MacLaine devoted some pages to a 1963 incident in which she had marched into the Los Angeles office of The Hollywood Reporter and punched columnist Mike Connolly in the mouth.

Shirley MacLaine was angered by what he had said in his column about her ongoing contractual dispute with producer Hal Wallis, who had introduced her to the movie industry in 1954 and whom she eventually sued successfully for violating the terms of their contract.

Shirley MacLaine next starred in seven roles as seven different women in Vittorio DeSica's episodic film Woman Times Seven, a collection of seven stories of love and adultery set against a Paris backdrop.

Shirley MacLaine followed that film with another comedy, The Bliss of Mrs Blossom in 1968.

In 1969, Shirley MacLaine starred in the film version of the musical Sweet Charity, directed by Bob Fosse, and based on the script for Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria which was released a decade earlier.

Gwen Verdon, who originated the role onstage, had hoped to play Charity in the film version; however, Shirley MacLaine won the role because her name was better known to audiences at the time.

Shirley MacLaine was top-billed in Two Mules for Sister Sara, in a role written for Elizabeth Taylor, who chose not to appear in the movie.

Shirley MacLaine then moved on to television, cast as a photojournalist in a short-lived sitcom, Shirley's World.

Shirley MacLaine put her career on hold as she campaigned for George McGovern during the 1972 presidential election, including the Democratic primaries.

Shirley MacLaine declined the part since she had recently appeared in another film about the supernatural, The Possession of Joel Delaney.

Shirley MacLaine started a career comeback with the drama The Turning Point, portraying a retired ballerina.

Shirley MacLaine was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award in 1978 for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

Shirley MacLaine received a British Academy Film Award, and Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance.

In 1980, Shirley MacLaine starred in two other films about adultery, A Change of Seasons alongside Anthony Hopkins and Bo Derek, and Loving Couples with James Coburn and Susan Sarandon.

Shirley MacLaine followed up her Oscar win with a role in Cannonball Run II.

Shirley MacLaine continued to star in films, such as the family southern drama Steel Magnolias directed by Herbert Ross.

Shirley MacLaine received a British Academy Film Award for her performance.

Shirley MacLaine starred in Mike Nichols' film Postcards from the Edge, with Meryl Streep, playing a fictionalized version of Debbie Reynolds from a screenplay by Reynolds's daughter, Carrie Fisher.

Shirley MacLaine received another Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance.

Shirley MacLaine continued to act in films such as Used People, with Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates; Guarding Tess, with Nicolas Cage; Mrs Winterbourne, with Ricki Lake and Brendan Fraser; The Evening Star ; Rumor Has It.

In 2011, Shirley MacLaine starred in Richard Linklater's dark comedy film Bernie alongside Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey.

Shirley MacLaine has appeared in numerous television projects, including a 1987 miniseries based upon her bestselling autobiography, Out on a Limb.

In 2016, Shirley MacLaine starred in Wild Oats with Jessica Lange.

Shirley MacLaine starred in the live-action family film The Little Mermaid, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, in 2018.

In 1959, Shirley MacLaine sued Hal Wallis over a contractual dispute.

In 1966, Shirley MacLaine sued Twentieth Century-Fox for breach of contract when the studio reneged on its agreement to star Shirley MacLaine in a film version of the Broadway musical Bloomer Girl based on the life of Amelia Bloomer, a mid-nineteenth century feminist, suffragist, and abolitionist, that was to be filmed in Hollywood.

Shirley MacLaine was married to businessman Steve Parker from 1954 until their divorce in 1982.

Shirley MacLaine told Winfrey that she often fell for the leading men she worked with, the exceptions being Jack Lemmon and Jack Nicholson.

Shirley MacLaine had long-running affairs with Lord Mountbatten, whom she met in the 1960s, and Australian politician and two-time Liberal leader Andrew Peacock.

Shirley MacLaine has gotten into feuds with such co-stars as Anthony Hopkins, who said that "she was the most obnoxious actress I have ever worked with", and Debra Winger.

Shirley MacLaine has a strong interest in spirituality and metaphysics, which are the central themes of some of her best-selling books, including Out on a Limb and Dancing in the Light.

Shirley MacLaine is godmother to journalist Jackie Kucinich, daughter of former Democratic US Representative Dennis Kucinich.

Shirley MacLaine denied this and called the book "virtually all fiction".