Best Known As: Oscar-winning star of Terms of Endearment
Name at birth: Shirley MacLane Beaty
Shirley MacLaine won a best actress Oscar for playing quirky matriarch Aurora Greenway in the tearjerker Terms of Endearment (1983, with Deborah Winger and Jack Nicholson). MacLaine got her start as a Broadway chorine in the 1950s, eventually moving to Hollywood to began a film career. She was most active in the 1960s, with roles ranging from a charming Parisian prostitute in Irma la Douce (1963, with Jack Lemmon) to a faux-nun in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1969, with Clint Eastwood). In the 1980s MacLaine became known for her faith in reincarnation, angels, the power of crystals and other unorthodox "New Age" beliefs. (As MacLaine has stated on her own website, "I believe that when we have shed a physical body, our spirit can re-visit the physical plane of existence.") She addressed these topics at length in her books Out On a Limb (1983) and Dancing in the Light (1986). In all she has been nominated five times for acting Academy Awards, for Some Came Running (1958), The Apartment (1960), Irma la Douce, The Turning Point (1977, with Anne Bancroft) and Terms of Endearment (her only win).
MacLaine was nominated for a best documentary Oscar as a producer and star of The Other Half of the Sky, her memoir of a trip to China... She is the older sister of actor Warren Beatty; their family name is spelled 'Beaty' with one 't'... MacLaine's Oscar acceptance speech for Terms of Endearment ended with the famously cheerful declaration: "I deserve this!"... The 1996 sequel to Terms of Endearment was titled The Evening Star... Among her other films is the 1969 Bob Fosse film Sweet Charity, with MacLaine in the role that Fosse's wife Gwen Verdon originated on Broadway... It's true: MacLaine has suggested that in a past life she had a love affair with the emperor Charlemagne.
Career Highlights: Terms of Endearment, The Apartment, Around the World in 80 Days
First Major Screen Credit: Artists and Models (1955)
Biography
A dancer, singer, highly regarded actress and metaphysical time traveler, Shirley MacLaine is certainly among Hollywood's most unique stars. Born Shirley MacLane Beaty on April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia, MacLaine was the daughter of drama coach and former actress Kathlyn MacLean Beaty and Ira O. Beaty, a professor of psychology and philosophy. Her younger brother, Warren Beatty, also grew up to be an important Hollywood figure as an actor/director/ producer and screenwriter. MacLaine's mother, who gave up her own dreams of stardom for her young family, greatly motivated her daughter to become an actress and dancer. MacLaine took dance lessons from age two, first performed publicly at age four, and at 16 went to New York, making her Broadway debut as a chorus girl in Me and Juliet (1953). When not scrambling for theatrical work, MacLaine worked as a model.
Interestingly, MacLaine's big break was the result of another actress's bad luck. In 1954, MacLaine was understudying Broadway actress Carol Haney The Pajama Game when Haney fractured her ankle. MacLaine replaced her and was spotted and offered a movie contract by producer Hal Wallis. With her auburn hair cut impishly short, the young actress made her film debut in Hitchock's black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955). Later that year, she co-starred opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the comedy Artists and Models. In her next feature, Around the World in 80 Days (1956), she appeared as an Indian princess.
MacLaine earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a pathetic tart who shocks a conservative town by showing up on the arm of young war hero Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (1959). She then got the opportunity to show off her long legs and dancing talents in Can-Can (1960). Prior to that, she appeared with Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford in Oceans Eleven (1960). MacLaine, the only female member of the famed group, would later recount her experiences with them in her seventh book My Lucky Stars. In 1960, she won her second Oscar nomination for Billy Wilder's comedy/drama The Apartment, and a third nomination for Irma La Douce (1963). MacLaine's career was in high gear during the '60s, with her appearing in everything from dramas to madcap comedies to musicals such as What a Way to Go! (1964) and Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity! (1969). In addition to her screen work, she actively participated in Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and served as a Democratic Convention delegate. She was similarly involved in George McGovern's 1972 campaign.
Bored by sitting around on movie sets all day awaiting her scenes, MacLaine started writing down her thoughts and was thus inspired to add writing to her list of talents. She published her first book, Don't Fall Off the Mountain in 1970. She next tried her hand at series television in 1971, starring in the comedy Shirley's World (1971-72) as a globe-trotting photographer. The role reflected her real-life reputation as a world traveler, and these experiences resulted in her second book Don't Fall Off the Mountain and the documentary The Other Half of the Sky -- A China Memoir (1975) which she scripted, produced and co-directed with Claudia Weill. MacLaine returned to Broadway in 1976 with a spectacular one-woman show A Gypsy in My Soul, and the following year entered a new phase in her career playing a middle-aged former ballerina who regrets leaving dance to live a middle-class life in The Turning Point. MacLaine was memorable starring as a lonely political wife opposite Peter Sellers' simple-minded gardener in Being There (1979), but did not again attract too much attention until she played the over-protective, eccentric widow Aurora Greenway in James L. Brooks' Terms of Endearment (1983), a role that finally won MacLaine an Academy Award. That same year, she published the candid Out on a Limb, bravely risking public ridicule by describing her experiences and theories concerning out-of-body travel and reincarnation.
MacLaine's film appearances were sporadic through the mid '80s, although she did appear in a few television specials. In 1988, she came back strong with three great roles in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989) and particularly Postcards from the Edge (1990), in which she played a fading star clinging to her own career while helping her daughter Meryl Streep, a drug addicted, self-destructive actress. Through the '90s, MacLaine specialized in playing rather crusty and strong-willed eccentrics, such as her title character in the 1994 comedy Guarding Tess. In 1997, MacLaine stole scenes as a wise grande dame who helps pregnant, homeless Ricki Lake in Mrs. Winterbourne, and the same year revived Aurora Greenway in The Evening Star, the critically maligned sequel to Terms of Endearment.
MacLaine's onscreen performances were few and far between in the first half of the next decade, but in 2005 she returned in relatively full force, appearing in three features. She took on a pair of grandmother roles in the comedy-dramas In Her Shoes and Rumor Has It..., and was a perfect fit for the part of Endora in the bigscreen take on the classic sitcom Bewitched.
For a long time, MacLaine did seminars on her books, but in the mid '90s stopped giving talks, claiming she did not want "to be anyone's guru." She does, however, continue writing and remains a popular writer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
(born April 24, 1934, Richmond, Va., U.S.) U.S. film actress. She worked as a dancer on Broadway. After replacing the injured star in The Pajama Game (1954), she was discovered by a film producer and made her movie debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955). Known for her deft portrayal of charmingly eccentric characters, she went on to play comic and dramatic roles in Some Came Running (1959), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963), Sweet Charity (1969), The Turning Point (1977), Terms of Endearment (1983, Academy Award), Madame Sousatzka (1988), and Mrs. Winterbourne (1996). She wrote several best-selling books, often about her mystical experiences, including Out on a Limb (1983) and Going Within (1989). She is the sister of Warren Beatty.
World-famous actress, dancer, movie star, and writer, whose books on her search for spiritual fulfillment have created widespread popular interest in psychic phenomena, channeling of spirit guides, and New Age teachings. She was born on April 24, 1934, in Richmond, Virginia, and attended high school in Washington, D.C. She began taking dancing lessons before she was three years old; by the time she was 16 she was a chorus girl in New York in a City Center revival of Oklahoma! Four years later, she was dancing in the chorus of Pajama Game and acting as understudy to Carol Haney, the show's leading dancer. When Haney injured her ankle soon after the show's opening, MacLaine replaced her in the lead. After enthusiastic reviews, the Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis signed her for a long-term film contract.
Her first motion picture role was in The Trouble with Harry, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Later, her performance in Irma la douce earned her a Golden Globe Award and the third of four Academy Award nominations. Honors for her acting have continued into the 1990s.
Apart from her acting, MacLaine has gained a considerable reputation as an outspoken political and humanitarian activist, notably for civil rights, women's rights, and environmental protection. During the Vietnam War, she supported George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign. She was the first woman ever to speak at the National Democratic Club, where she addressed the dangers of overpopulation. MacLaine's extensive travels have included such remote parts of the world as East Africa, where she lived among the Masai tribe, and the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where she was detained by border guards during a political crisis. When traveling in India, she became sympathetic to the plight of the "gutter babies" and helped to establish an orphanage for them in Calcutta. Her best-selling autobiography Don't Fall Off the Mountain (1970), which detailed her experiences in Africa, India, the Far East, and Hollywood, was translated into eight languages.
In 1973 MacLaine led a delegation of 12 American women, including filmmaker Claudia Weill, on a six-week tour of the People's Republic of China. With Weill acting as her co-director, MacLaine produced and wrote the narration for the film The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir, a documentary of the trip broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (1975). Her second autobiographical book, You Can Get There from Here (1975), discussed her China trip and her involvement with George McGovern's presidential campaign. In 1976, after a 20-year hiatus as an entertainer, she returned to the theatrical stage in A Gypsy in My Soul, which attracted rave reviews. By 1983 she had appeared in some 35 movies.
Her third autobiographical book, Out on a Limb (1983), described a spiritual odyssey that developed from her world travels. It is a heady exploration of New Age beliefs, including meditation, psychic healing, channeling of spirit guides, reincarnation, UFOs, extraterrestrials, and out-of-the-body travel. If at times the book appears naive, it is redeemed by its transparent honesty and sincerity and a deep desire for a spiritual framework to life. The book became the basis for a five-hour prime-time ABC-TV mini-series. Her inner search continued in her book Dancing in the Light (1985), in which she stated: "I like to think of Dancing in the Light as a celebration of all my 'selves.' It was a fulfilling and satisfying exploration of the promises I made to myself in Out on a Limb. In it I look with pleasure, humor and some contentment upon my experiences as a daughter, a mother, a lover, a friend, a seeker of spiritual destiny and a voice calling for peace in the world."
The book cites several channels from whom she received guidance, but her kindest words are reserved for J. Z. Knight, who channels an entity named "Ramtha" and has since attracted a large following.
In the late 1980s MacLaine emerged as a New Age teacher and leader of Higher Life Seminars. Profits from the seminars have funded several New Age centers. MacLaine has continued to write New Age books.
Sources:
MacLaine, Shirley. Dancing in the Light. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.
——. Don't Fall Off the Mountain. New York: W. W. Norton, 1970.
——. It's All in the Playing. New York: Bantam Books,1987.
——. Out on a Limb. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.
——. You Can Get There from Here. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.
Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark, and Aidan Kelly. New Age Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990.
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. Through her mother she is descended from the ScottishClan 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. Strongly motivated by ballet throughout her youth, she never missed a class. When a piece was performed, she would play the boy's role, being the tallest participant. 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 played 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.[citation needed]
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 was in New York to try acting on Broadway with some success. After she graduated, she returned 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, film producer Hal B. Wallis was in the audience, took note of MacLaine, and signed her to work for Paramount 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]
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 starred in The Children's Hour (1961) also starring Audrey Hepburn, based on the play by Lillian Hellman. She was again nominated for Irma la Douce (1963), for which she reunited with Wilder and Lemmon.
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 with Chris 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.
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).
MacLaine, Shirley (1970). "Don't Fall Off the Mountain". New York: W.W. Norton & Company Limited. ISBN 9780393073386.
MacLaine, Shirley (1972). McGovern: The Man and His Beliefs. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Limited. ISBN 9780393053418.
MacLaine, Shirley (1975). You Can Get There from Here. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Limited. ISBN 9780393074895.
MacLaine, Shirley (1983). Out on a Limb. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. ISBN 9780553050356.
MacLaine, Shirley (1986). Dancing in the Light. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553761962.
MacLaine, Shirley (1987). It's All in the Playing. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553052176.
MacLaine, Shirley (1989). Going Within: A Guide to Inner Transformation. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553678.
MacLaine, Shirley (1991). Dance While You Can. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553076073.
MacLaine, Shirley (1995). My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 9780553097177.
MacLaine, Shirley (2000). The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. ISBN 9780743400725.
MacLaine, Shirley (2003). Out on a Leash: Exploring the Nature of Reality and Love. New York: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. ISBN 9780743485067.
MacLaine, Shirley (2007). Sage-ing While Age-ing. New York: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. ISBN 9781416550419.
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