15.Can-Can
Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1960
Directed by: Walter Lang
14.My Geisha
Shirley MacLaine, Edward G. Robinson
Released: 1962
Directed by: Jack Cardiff
13.Some Came Running
Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1958
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli
12.My Geisha
Shirley MacLaine, Edward G. Robinson
Released: 1962
Directed by: Jack Cardiff
11.The Trouble with Harry
Shirley MacLaine, Alfred Hitchcock
Released: 1955
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
10.In Her Shoes
Cameron Diaz, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 2005
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
9.The Turning Point
Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft
Released: 1977
Directed by: Herbert Ross
8.Sweet Charity
Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis
Released: 1969
Directed by: Bob Fosse
7.Guarding Tess
Nicolas Cage, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1994
Directed by: Hugh Wilson
6.Irma la Douce
Shirley MacLaine, James Caan
Released: 1963
Directed by: Billy Wilder
5.Two Mules for Sister Sara
Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1970
Directed by: Don Siegel
4.Being There
Shirley MacLaine, Peter Sellers
Released: 1979
Directed by: Hal Ashby
3.The Children’s Hour
Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1961
Directed by: William Wyler
2.Terms of Endearment
Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito
Released: 1983
Directed by: James L. Brooks
1.The Apartment
Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon
Released: 1960
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Who Is Shirley MacLaine?
Shirley MacLaine began her career on Broadway and in the mid-1950s, she started working in film, with a decades-long career in classics like Can-Can, The Apartment, Sweet Charity, Irma La Douce and Terms of Endearment, for which she won an Oscar. She is also a prolific writer, having authored several books. In 2013 she received the Kennedy Center Honors.
Early Life & Brother
Born on April 24, 1934, in Richmond, Virginia, Shirley MacLaine has enjoyed an impressive career in film, television and the theater for more than six decades. She was originally named Shirley MacLean Beaty. Her first name was reportedly inspired by the famed child actress Shirley Temple. She later adapted her mother’s maiden name, “MacLean,” into her stage name of “MacLaine.”
The daughter of a drama teacher, she started out as a dancer. Her parents enrolled her in ballet when she was a toddler. MacLaine soon got a taste for performing at a dance school recital. Around this time, she became a big sister with the birth of her brother Warren Beatty. He would grow up to be a successful actor in his own right.
Movies and TV Shows
‘The Apartment’
In 1960, MacLaine delivered one of her best performances in The Apartment. She co-starred with Jack Lemmon in this Billy Wilder classic, playing a young elevator operator named Fran Kubelik who has an affair with the company’s big boss but later falls for Lemmon’s character. MacLaine picked up an Academy Award nomination for the film. The critical success of The Apartment helped propel her career as a dramatic actress, opening the door to such serious works as The Children’s Hour (1961) with Audrey Hepburn and Two for the Seesaw (1962) with Robert Mitchum.
‘Irma la Douce,’ ‘Sweet Charity’
MacLaine reunited with Wilder and Lemmon for the 1963 romantic comedy Irma la Douce. In the film, she plays the title character, a Parisian prostitute. MacLaine received her third Academy Award nomination for her work in the movie. In the musical Sweet Charity (1969), she plays another type of working girl — a taxi dancer. The production gave her a chance to return to her musical theater roots and to work with the legendary Bob Fosse. Richardo Montalban, Chita Rivera and Davis Jr. also appeared in the film.
In a 2014 interview, MacLaine recalled working with Wilder, “Billy was not exactly acquainted with feminist equality, let’s put it that way. He could be very harsh with women,” she says. “I think that’s one of the things that bothered Marilyn [Monroe, who Wilder directed in the comedy classic Some Like It Hot]. She was afraid of him, so she would be late and stuff like that.”
‘Terms of Endearment’
MacLaine continued to give strong performances in the 1970s and the 1980s. In The Turning Point (1977), she stars as a former dancer who gave up her career to have a family. Her daughter follows in her footsteps, and MacLaine’s character is forced to confront her old dance rival (Anne Bancroft). Once again nominated for an Academy Award, she went home empty-handed this time around.
‘Steel Magnolias’
MacLaine appeared in the 1989 ensemble drama Steel Magnolias with Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts. She tackled the role of one of her real-life contemporaries the following year. In Postcards from Edge, based on Carrie Fisher’s memoir, MacLaine plays actress Debbie Reynolds. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Reynolds gave MacLaine at least one critique of her performance. “She didn’t think I should have put vodka in the smoothie,” MacLaine said.
‘Bewitched,’ ‘Rumor Has It’
MacLaine tried to recapture the success of Terms of Endearment with the 1994 sequel The Evening Star, but without much success. She returned to comedy in 2005 with a trio of releases — Bewitched, Rumor Has It and In Her Shoes. She plays the witch Endora opposite Nicole Kidman’s Samantha in this adaptation of the classic television series. In both Rumor Has It and In Her Shoes, MacLaine plays the grandmother to the likes of such stars as Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette.
‘Downton Abbey’
MacLaine continues to seek out new roles and challenges. She played the legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel in the 2008 television movie Coco Chanel. In 2011 MacLaine co-starred with Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey in the light-hearted crime drama Bernie.
MacLaine moved to the small screen to join the cast of the much beloved British period drama Downton Abbey for its third season. MacLaine plays the American mother of Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, on the show. Viewers enjoyed watching her character match wits with the Dowager Countess of Grantham played by Maggie Smith. In 2013 MacLaine was recognized for her role in influencing American culture through her art by as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
Books
MacLaine has enjoyed a substantial second career as an author. She published her first memoir, Don’t Fall Off the Mountain, in 1970. Since then, MacLaine has chronicled her experiences and explored numerous aspects of her life in several more volumes. She wrote about her 1973 tour of China in You Can Get There From Here and delved into her New Age beliefs and reincarnation in 1983’s Out on a Limb.
More books soon followed, including Going Within (1989), in which she delves into her spirituality. She also explored her family life in Dance While You Can (1991) and her career in 1995’s My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir. In 2000 she shared her personal pilgrimage in Camino: A Journey of the Spirit. In her more recent works, MacLaine has given readers her perspectives as one of society’s more mature members. She penned Sage-ing while Age-ing (2007) and I’m Over All That (2011).
Personal Life
MacLaine was married to Steve Parker, a producer and businessman, from 1954 to 1982. The couple had a daughter, Stephanie, better known as Sachi. The pair had an unusual relationship with Parker spending much of his time living in Japan. Her daughter Sachi also spent part of her youth living abroad with her father.
In 2013, Sachi Parker shared her experiences as MacLaine’s daughter in the memoir Lucky Me: My Life With—and Without—My Mom, Shirley MacLaine. She claimed that her mother pressured her to lose her virginity as a teen and had a pair of sex therapists in the house during her first sexual experience, according to the New York Daily News. MacLaine has dismissed the book, saying “I’m shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction” in the same article.
PROCESSING BY MOVIES
