West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4608. Photo: Terb-Agency.
French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 742. Photo: Paramount, 1956.
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1633. Photo: Paramount.
Scrambling for theatrical work
Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in 1934 in Richmond, USA. She 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 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 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's 'Me and Juliet' (1953). The producer kept mispronouncing her name. She then changed her name from Shirley MacLean Beaty to Shirley MacLaine.
When not scrambling for theatrical work, MacLaine worked as a model. Her big break came in 1954 when she was a member of the chorus and understudy of Broadway actress Carol Haney in 'The Pajama Game'. Haney fractured her ankle, MacLaine replaced her and was spotted, and producer Hal Wallis offered her a five-year contract to Paramount Pictures.
Her film debut was Alfred Hitchcock'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 (Frank Tashlin, 1955).
In her next feature, Around the World in 80 Days (Michael Anderson, 1956), she appeared as an Indian princess.
The film was completed not too long before her daughter, Sachi Parker (born Stephanie), was born. Father was her husband Steve Parker, whom she had married in 1954 and would divorce in 1982.
Israelian postcard by Editions de Luxe, no. 118.
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/422. Shirley MacLaine in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (J. Lee Thompson, 1965).
Showing off her long legs and dancing talents
Shirley MacLaine earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a pathetic tart Ginny Moorhead who shocks a conservative town by showing up on the arm of young war hero Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1959).
In 1959 MacLaine sued Hal Wallis over a contractual dispute, a suit that has been credited with ending the old-style studio star system of actor management. MacLaine then got the opportunity to show off her long legs and dancing talents as Simone Pistache, the perky and vivacious owner of a Parisian cafe in Can-Can (Walter Lang, 1960), Cole Porter's Gay Paree musical about the introduction in Montmartre in 1896 of the notorious Can-Can dance.
Prior to that, she appeared in a bit part with Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford in Oceans Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 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 the third nomination for Irma La Douce (Billy Wilder, 1963), both opposite Jack Lemmon.
MacLaine's career was in high gear during the 1960s, with her appearing in everything from dramas to madcap comedies to musicals such as What a Way to Go! (J. Lee Thompson, 1964). In 1969, she brought her friend Bob Fosse from Broadway to direct her in Sweet Charity (1969), from which she got her signature song, 'If My Friends Could See Me Now'.
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.
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 311. Shirley MacLaine, Alain Delon, George C. Scott and Art Carney in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1964).
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 313. Photo: Alain Delon and Shirley MacLaine in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (Anthony Asquith, 1964).
Writing down her thoughts
Bored by sitting around on movie sets all day awaiting her scenes, Shirley 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 television series in 1971, starring in the comedy Shirley's World (1971-1972) as a globe-trotting photographer.
The role reflected her real-life reputation as a world traveller, and these experiences resulted in her second book 'You can get there from here' (1975) and the documentary The Other Half of the Sky - A China Memoir (1975) which she scripted, produced, and co-directed with Claudia Weill. For this film, she received an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
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 (Herbert Ross, 1977). It meant her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination.
MacLaine was also memorable starring as a lonely political wife opposite Peter Sellers' simple-minded gardener in Being There (Hal Asby, 1979), but did not again attract too much attention until she played the over-protective, eccentric widow Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983). After 20 years in the film industry, she finally took home the Best Actress Oscar for this role.
In 1983, she also published the candid 'Out on a Limb', bravely risking public ridicule by describing her experiences and theories concerning out-of-body travel and reincarnation.
Small Dutch collectors card.
French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane' no. 1067A. Photo: Paramount, 1959.
A strong come-back
Shirley 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 (John Schlesinger, 1988), Steel Magnolias (Herbert Ross, 1989) with Dolly Parton, Sally Field, and Julia Roberts, and particularly Postcards from the Edge (Mike Nichols, 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 1990s, MacLaine specialised in playing rather crusty and strong-willed eccentrics, such as her title character in the comedy Guarding Tess (Hugh Wilson, 1994). In 1997, MacLaine stole scenes as a wise grande dame who helps pregnant, homeless Ricki Lake in Mrs. Winterbourne (Richard Benjamin, 1997), and the same year revived Aurora Greenway in The Evening Star (Robert Harling, 1997), 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 (Curtis Hanson, 2005) and Rumor Has It... (Rob Reiner, 2005), and was a perfect fit for the part of Endora in the big-screen take on the classic sitcom Bewitched (Nora Ephron, 2005). For In Her Shoes (Curtis Hanson, 2005) with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, Shirley was nominated for a Golden Globe in the best supporting actress category.
In the coming years, McLaine would continue to give critically acclaimed performances in films like Coco Chanel (Christian Duguay, 2008), Valentine's Day, (Garry Marshall, 2010), and Bernie (Richard Linklater, 2011). Her role in the TV film Coco Chanel (2008), based on the life of pioneering French fashion designer Coco Chanel, earned her Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations.
She also appeared in the third and fourth seasons of the acclaimed British drama Downton Abbey as Martha Levinson, mother to Cora, Countess of Grantham (played by Elizabeth McGovern), and Harold Levinson (played by Paul Giamatti) in 2012–2013.
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." In 2015, she sparked criticism for her comments on Jews, Christians, and Stephen Hawking. In particular, she claimed that victims of the Holocaust were experiencing the results of their own karma, and suggested that Hawking subconsciously caused himself to develop ALS as a means to focus better on physics.
She continues to appear in the cinema. In 2016, MacLaine starred in the TV film Wild Oats (Andy Tennant, 2016) with Jessica Lange. Two years later she could be seen in the live-action fantasy-adventure The Little Mermaid (Blake Harris, 2018) inspired by the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name. Her most recent film is the Disney Christmas film Noelle (Marc Lawrence, 2019) starring Anna Kendrick.
Shirley MacLaine is grandmother to Frank Murray Jr. (born 1996) and Arin Murray (born 1998); the son and daughter of her daughter Sachi Parker.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 169/71. Photo: Steffen.
Big Dutch collectors card.
Sources: Jennifer Obakhume (IMDb), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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