Shirley MacLaine

Named after Shirley Temple.

Led a series of weekend-long higher-self seminars in the late 1980s teaching people about her views on many aspects of New Age practices and techniques.

Attended Washington-Lee H.S. in Arlington, VA.

Older sister of Warren Beatty.

Mother of Sachi Parker with former husband Steve Parker.

A frequent visitor to Houston, Texas, where she starred in Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star . At each visit, she goes to Tonys Restaurant, where she orders a complete souffl just for herself.

Born at 3:57 PM EST.

Sister-in-law of actress Annette Bening.

Is a horse lover.

Turned down the role of Diane Freeling in Poltergeist to play the Oscar-winning role of Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment .

Her childhood dinner for many years consisted of tabasco and saltine crackers (which often resulted in bad dreams--her missing the bus to ballet class).

Took ballet as a child and always played the boys role due to being the tallest in her class.

As of 2009, she is only one of six performers who won a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture Drama without being nominated for an Oscar for that same role (hers for Madame Sousatzka ). The others are Spencer Tracy in The Actress , Anthony Franciosa in Career , Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago , Jim Carrey in The Truman Show and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road .

Right before a performance of "Cinderella" with the Washington School of Ballet (she was dancing the role of the Fairy Godmother), she was warming up backstage when she broke her ankle. Instead of bowing out, she simply tied the ribbon on her toe shoes tighter and danced the role through. After the show was over, she called for an ambulance.

Was close friends with the members of the Rat Pack. She starred with all of them in Oceans Eleven . Other works with Rat Pack members include: Some Came Running , Cannonball Run II and Can-Can .

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967.

Close friends with actress Julie Christie , who lived with Shirleys brother Warren Beatty for over a decade.

Columbia originally wanted to cast her as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl . However, producer Ray Stark --who produced the Broadway show and was Brices son-in-law--insisted on Barbra Streisand repeating her Broadway role.

Her performance as Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment is ranked #81 on Premiere Magazines 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

She and Barbra Streisand celebrate their joint birthday together every year.

Attended the same high school, Washington-Lee High School, as Sandra Bullock. Both were also cheerleaders at the school. Her brother, Warren Beatty also attended this high school.

When writing The Exorcist , William Peter Blatty based the character of "Chris ONeil" on MacLaine, who was a friend of his.

Dropped out of the The Blue Bird before shooting began.

Father was a professor, then a real estate agent. Mother was a teacher.

About 1975, while starring in a special musical show that played at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA, she walked out on the show because of the poor acoustics and sound system. Chrysler Hall was well known for this problem at the time, and Miss MacLaine was not the only performer to complain about it. Years later, the theatre closed for a while and underwent extensive renovations to improve the acoustics, thanks in part to the stars vigorously vocal objections.

Friends with: Sally Field , Bea Arthur , William Peter Blatty , Debbie Reynolds , Julie Christie , Doris Roberts , Joan Collins , Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis Jr. , Dean Martin , Meryl Streep , Peter Sellers , Elizabeth Taylor , Julia Roberts , Maggie Smith , Billy Wilder , Carol Burnett , Jennifer Aniston , Geraldo Rivera , Jane Fonda , Bob Fosse , Kathy Bates and Barbra Streisand.

Grandmother to Frank Murray Jr. (born 1996) and Arin Murray ; the son and daughter of her daughter Sachi Parker.

In her book, "My Lucky Stars", MacLaine wrote that before production on My Geisha began, Yves Montand bet her husband, Steve Parker , that he could seduce her. Parker, whom MacLaine learned later, was having an affair at the time, took Montand up on the bet; Montand won.

Will receive the American Film Institutes Life Achievement award on June 7, 2012, in Los Angeles [October 9, 2011].

In her memoir "Im Over That And Other Confessions", she claims to have been intimate with Danny Kaye , and Robert Mitchum , among others. She told Oprah Winfrey in an April 2011 TV appearance that she was not attracted to Jack Lemmon because he was not "dangerous" and "complicated".

Her father was American, from Virginia, and her mother was Canadian, from Nova Scotia. She is of mostly English and Scottish descent.

Release of book, "Out on a Limb".

Release of the book, "Out on a Leash: Exploring the Nature of Reality and Love".

Release of book, "Shirley and Warren" by James Spada.

Release of the book, "My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir".

(January 2012) Starred in Award winning British Drama Downton Abbey played Hugh Bonnevilles characters Mother-In-Law.

(June 2002) Filming a movie about the Mary Kay Cosmetics founder, Mary Kay Ash , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The movie is called Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay .

Release of book, "Dont Fall Off the Mountain".

Release of book, "Dancing in the Light".

(June 2006) Completing filming for Closing the Ring in Northern Ireland and Canada.

Release of the book, "Dance While You Can".

Release of her book, "Sage-ing While Age-ing".

Release of book, "You Can Get There From Here".

Release of the book, "Its All in the Playing".

Initially she was cast as Bonnie Parker in her brothers film Bonnie and Clyde. When Warren Beatty decided to play Clyde himself, she was dropped.

Recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to American culture, in Washington, DC on December 8, 2013 (telecast on Dec. 29). Fellow honorees are Billy Joel , Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Martina Arroyo.

As of 2014, has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: the winners Around the World in 80 Days , The Apartment , Terms of Endearment and the nominated The Turning Point .

Was the 89th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Terms of Endearment at The 56th Annual Academy Awards on April 9, 1984.

Initially she was cast as Bonnie Parker in her brothers film Bonnie and Clyde. When Warren Beatty decided to play Clyde himself, she was dropped for obvious reasons.

Had an open relationship with ex-husband Steve Parker. He lived in Japan with their daughter Sachi Parker , while MacLaine focused on her career.

Is one of 11 actresses who won the Best Actress Oscar for a move that also won the Best Picture Oscar (she won for Terms of Endearment ). The others are Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night , Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld , Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind , Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver , Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest , Diane Keaton for Annie Hall , Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy , Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs , Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love and Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby .

As of 2016 she is the 5th earliest surviving recipient of a Best Actress Oscar nomination, behind only Olivia de Havilland , Leslie Caron , Carroll Baker and Joanne Woodward. She was nominated in 1958 for Some Came Running .

Quit smoking in 2016.

Is one of 16 actresses to have received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance where they acted out a labor and/or birth; hers being for Irma la Douce . The others in chronological order are Luise Rainer for The Good Earth , Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda , Eleanor Parker for Caged , Elizabeth Taylor for Raintree County , Leslie Caron for The L-Shaped Room , Vanessa Redgrave for Isadora , Genevive Bujold for Anne of the Thousand Days , Marsha Mason for Cinderella Liberty , Ann-Margret for Tommy , Ellen Burstyn for Same Time, Next Year , Jessica Lange for Sweet Dreams , Meryl Streep for Evil Angels , Samantha Morton for In America , Ellen Page for Juno , and Gabourey Sidibe for Precious (2009/II) .

Acting mentor of: Julia Roberts , who is her neighbor.

Played Tom Skerritt s wife in The Turning Point and his neighbor in Steel Magnolias . Both movies were made under the same director, Herbert Ross.

Some people think I look like a sweet potato, I consider myself a spud,with a heart of gold.

I had a video made of my recent knee operation. The doctor said it was,the best movie I ever starred in.

[on accepting her Oscar, 1983] I am going to cry because this show has,been as long as my career! I have wondered for 26 years what this would,feel like! Thank you for terminating the suspense.

. . . I was always a character actress and never a sex symbol. Even when I,was the leading lady, I was a character actor.

My first few weeks in New York were an initiation into the kingdom of,guts.

On mothering: If we can genuinely honor our mother and father we are not,only at peace with ourselves but we can give them birth to our future.

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.

I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed then absolutely anything is possible. And from that moment my life changed.

Someday change will be accepted as life itself.

Nothing should be permanent except struggle with the dark side within ourselves.

Maybe the tragedy of the human race was that we had forgotten that we are each divine.

The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.

Fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.

Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.

I could be whatever I wanted to be if I trusted that music that song that vibration of God that was inside of me.

The pain of leaving those you grow to love is only the prelude to understanding yourself and others.

If I could know me I could know the universe.

If anything interferes with my inner peace, I will walk away. Arguments with family members. All that stuff. None of it matters.