MacLaine, Shirley

orig. Shirley McLean Beaty

(born April 24, 1934, Richmond, Va., U.S.) U.S. film actress. She worked as a dancer on Broadway. After replacing the injured star in The Pajama Game (1954), she was discovered by a film producer and made her movie debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955). Known for her deft portrayal of charmingly eccentric characters, she went on to play comic and dramatic roles in Some Came Running (1959), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963), Sweet Charity (1969), The Turning Point (1977), Terms of Endearment (1983, Academy Award), Madame Sousatzka (1988), and Mrs. Winterbourne (1996). She wrote several best-selling books, often about her mystical experiences, including Out on a Limb (1983) and Going Within (1989). She is the sister of Warren Beatty.

MacLaine, Shirley (b. Shirley MacLean Beatty) (1934– ) movie actress, author; born in Richmond, Va. (sister of Warren Beatty). Having begun studying ballet at age two, she left for New York after graduating from high school; her first Broadway experience was in the chorus line of Me and Juliet (1953). Understudy to Carol Haney in The Pajama Game (1954), she replaced the injured Haney after the third performance and was almost immediately signed up by Hollywood, making her screen debut in The Trouble with Harry (1955). She proved to be a versatile actress in movies ranging from musicals such as Irma La Douce (1963) to sentimental dramas such as Terms of Endearment (1983), for which she won an Oscar as best actress. She led an equally varied career offscreen as an activist for liberal causes, leader of the first American women's delegation to China (which resulted in her documentary, The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir, 1975), a tireless tourer in her one-woman variety shows, and author of several best-sellers. She was also the butt of much teasing for her professed belief in reincarnation.