Trivia

Older sister of Warren Beatty.

Named after Shirley Temple.

Speaks Japanese fluently.

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

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

In her memoir "I'm 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".

She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Apartment (1960) and Being There (1979).

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 Ocean's Eleven (1960). Other works with Rat Pack members include: Some Came Running (1958), Cannonball Run II (1984) and Can-Can (1960).

Acting mentor of Julia Roberts, who is her neighbor.

Turned down the role of Diane Freeling in Poltergeist (1982) to play the Oscar-winning role of Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment (1983).

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

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

Close friends with actress Julie Christie, who lived with Shirley's brother Warren Beatty for nearly a decade.

In her book, "My Lucky Stars", MacLaine wrote that before production on My Geisha (1962) 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.

Her performance as Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment (1983) is ranked #81 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

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.

She has appeared in four films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Apartment (1960), The Turning Point (1977) and Terms of Endearment (1983). With the exception of The Turning Point, all the films won in the category.

When writing The Exorcist (1973), William Peter Blatty based the character of "Chris O'Neil" on MacLaine, who was a friend of his.

A frequent visitor to Houston, Texas, where she starred in Terms of Endearment (1983) and The Evening Star (1996). At each visit, she goes to Tony's Restaurant, where she orders a complete soufflé just for herself.

To date (2018) she has never appeared in a feature film with her brother Warren Beatty.

The only actress to be nominated for Best Actress Oscars twice for films in which her female co-star was nominated in the same category. She and Anne Bancroft were both Best Actress nominees for The Turning Point (1977), while she and Debra Winger were nominated for Terms of Endearment (1983). Her win for the latter film was also the only time a Best Actress nominee won the award when nominated with a co-star.

Quit smoking in 2016.

Sister-in-law of actress Annette Bening.

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.

Starred in Award winning British Drama Downton Abbey played Hugh Bonneville's character's Mother-In-Law. (January 2012)

Received an honorary degree from Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. (1999)

As of 2018, the only actress to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar twice for performances in Best Picture winning films. She was nominated for The Apartment (1960) and Terms of Endearment (1983), winning for the latter.

Her father was American, from Front Royal, Warren, Virginia, and her mother was Canadian, from North Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She is of English, Scottish, and more distant Irish, descent.

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

On August 24, 2019, she was honored with a day of her film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

Columbia originally wanted to cast her as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968). However, producer Ray Stark--who produced the Broadway show and was Brice's son-in-law--insisted on Barbra Streisand repeating her Broadway role.

Mother of Sachi Parker with former husband Steve Parker.

Is a horse lover.

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 star's vigorously vocal objections.

Grandmother to Frank Murray Jr. (born 1996) and Arin Murray (born 1998); the son and daughter of her daughter Sachi Parker.

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 (1988)). The others are Spencer Tracy in The Actress (1953), Anthony Franciosa in Career (1959), Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965), Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998) and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (2008).

Is one of 12 actresses who won the Best Actress Oscar for a movie that also won the Best Picture Oscar (she won for Terms of Endearment (1983)). The others are Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night (1934), Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind (1939), Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977), Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Frances McDormand for Nomadland (2020).

Played Tom Skerritt's wife in The Turning Point (1977) and his neighbor in Steel Magnolias (1989). Both movies were made under the same director, Herbert Ross.

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).

Got the role in What a Way to Go! (1964) after Elizabeth Taylor dropped out.

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

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

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.

Returned to work four months after giving birth to her daughter Sachi Parker to begin filming Hot Spell (1958).

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 (1958).

Will receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award on June 7, 2012, in Los Angeles. (October 9, 2011)

By her teens she spent every free moment around the Broadway theatres hoping for a break as a dancer.

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 (2002). (June 2002)

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