Shirley MacLaine

In 1972, she was engaged in George McGovern’s campaign for presidency.

While promoting her book ‘I’m Over All That’, MacLaine revealed to Oprah Winfrey, that she was in an open relationship with her husband Steve Parker, whom she divorced, in 1982. She has a daughter, Sachi and two grandchildren.

Shirley MacLaine Beaty was born to Ira Owens Beatty, a professor of psychology and Kathlyn Corinne, a drama teacher. She was named after the actress, Shirley Temple. Both, Shirley and her brother were raised as Baptists.

Due to her weak ankles, her mother enrolled her to ballet classes when she was three years old. She was very fascinated by the dance form and never missed a single class. However, she quickly realized that she did not have the ideal build for ballet, since she was very tall and decided to act and learn other dance forms.

She studied at Washington-Lee High School, where she was cast in a number of school-productions and was also part of the cheer-leading group. Before getting into senior year, she experimented with Broadway in New York and was successful to some extent.

Upon graduation, she was given a role in ‘The Pajama Game’, a musical and was then subsequently signed up by Paramount Pictures.

Shirley Maclaine garnered her first Golden Globe Award for her debut role as ‘Jennifer Rogers’ in Alfred Hitchcock’s, ‘The Trouble with Harry’ in 1955. She also received a BAFTA nomination for the same.

In 1956, she was cast in ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, and received her first Academy Award nomination for ‘Some Came Running’, released the next year.

In 1960, she was cast opposite Jack Lemmon in ‘The Apartment’, a critical and commercial success that cemented MacLaine’s reputation as one of the leading and most versatile actors of her time. She then appeared in a number of films including, ‘The Children’s Hour’, ‘Irma la Douce’ and ‘Two Mules for Sister Sara’.

In 1975, she wrote, produced and directed ‘The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir’, which was nominated for Academy Award in the best documentary category.

The 80s saw MacLaine in a string of challenging roles which garnered critical and commercial success including, ‘A Change of Seasons’, ‘Terms of Endearment’ ‘Madame Souzsatzka’ and ‘Steel Magnolias’.

‘The Apartment’, released in 1960, was a critical and commercial success that amassed $25 million at the box office. For her performance as ‘Fran Kubelik’, she won a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and the Volpi Cup and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Her role as ‘Aurora Greenway’ in ‘Terms of Endearment’ in 1983 earned her several prestigious awards including an Academy Award. The movie collected a total of $108,423,489 in the United States alone.