Shirley MacLaine is undoubtedly a Hollywood icon. The actress celebrates her 90th birthday on Wednesday.
She won the Oscar for best actress in “The Time of Tenderness”, filmed “The Trouble with Harry” with Alfred Hitchcock, starred alongside Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder’s classic “The Apartment” and she remains true to her profession even in old age and is currently filming a new film.
MacLaine’s latest role
She’ll be spending the milestone anniversary with some good friends and doing something she still enjoys – “making a new movie – what a wonderful way to celebrate!” MacLaine wrote in her most recent newsletter for April. In the newsletter to friends and fans, she further reports that in the film “People Not Places” she plays a sprightly woman who begins an unusual friendship with a homeless man while trying to mend a difficult relationship with her son. Brad Furman (“The Client,” “City of Lies”) is on board as director.
Chosen for you
She can currently be seen with “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage (54) in the tragic comedy “American Dreamer”, as a rich widow with a large villa who offers an underpaid professor a deal to move in with her and inherit the house . They got along very well straight away, MacLaine told the US show “Extra TV” in March. Dinklage raved about working with the film icon as one of the “greatest experiences” of his career.
The Oscar winner is one of the last Hollywood legends – quick-witted, talented, with a penchant for esotericism. Her once bright red hair has turned gray in recent years. The old star continues to get involved in front of the camera and also with discussions and ideas.
MacLaine often talks about aliens
MacLaine often talks about questions of meaning and aliens. “I read a lot about prophecies and how people perceive such predictions. I am just as interested in the phenomenon of UFOs and want to learn as much as possible about this reality,” she told the German Press Agency in 2011. “If I could wish for something for the future, it would be that we humans turn away from materialism and turn more towards nature again.” In her current April newsletter, she shares her thoughts on Earth Day, the healing power of nature, meditation and extraterrestrial creatures.
Chosen for you
The daughter of a psychology professor and an acting teacher, she took ballet lessons at an early age and was dancing on Broadway at 18. Her younger brother Warren Beatty (87, “Reds”) also became an Oscar-winning film star. MacLaine owed her first feature film role to Alfred Hitchcock. The legendary director had seen the then 20-year-old on Broadway and hired her for his black comedy “Always Trouble with Harry” (1955). In 1959 she received her first Oscar nomination with her first drama role alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in “Damn They All”.
In the 1960s, MacLaine was one of Hollywood’s most sought-after comedians. Under the direction of Billy Wilder, she made the romantic comedy “The Apartment” (1960) with Jack Lemmon, followed by the Wilder comedy “The Girl Irma La Douce” (1963). MacLaine shines as a naive prostitute in Paris with Lemmon as an ex-cop who unwillingly becomes her pimp.
Silver Bears
Her first Berlinale appearance in 1959 brought her a Silver Bear for Charles Waters’ comedy “Always the Darn Women”, and another followed in 1971 for her portrayal of an embittered wife in the psychodrama “Desperate People”.
Chosen for you
The actress had to wait a long time for an Oscar: after several nominations, she finally received this award in 1984 for the leading role as the prickly widow in “Time of Tenderness.” It was her fifth Oscar nomination as a leading actress. “I deserve this,” she said triumphantly on stage.
Oscar winner
At the Oscars in 2017, the actress was greeted with loud applause when she presented the trophy for Best Foreign Film alongside Charlize Theron. That year she demonstrated her skills wonderfully in “Last but not least”. In the comedy she turns into a beastly old lady who, shortly before her death, doesn’t want to leave anything to chance and commissions an obituary while she’s still alive. It’s just unfortunate that no one around her has anything good to say about the rich pensioner.
Chosen for you
In her 2011 autobiography, “I’m Through This: And More Confessions,” MacLaine spoke candidly about past affairs with actors, directors and politicians. Her marriage to producer Steve Parker, which ended in divorce in 1982, lasted almost 30 years, at least on paper. Their only child, daughter Sachi Parker, was born in 1956.
In the book “Lucky Me: My Life With – and Without – My Mom, Shirley MacLaine” (2013), the daughter complained about a lonely, loveless childhood and estrangement from her mother. At the time, MacLaine dismissed the account as “fictional” and regretted her daughter’s “dishonest” claims, People.com reported. The star left Hollywood early: MacLaine lives on a small farm near Santa Fe in the US state of New Mexico and in Malibu, California.