Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American film and theater actress, dancer, activist, and author.
The older sister of Warren Beatty, she made her screen debut in 1955, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry, and over the years she has appeared in such films as Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Apartment, Sweet Charity, Being There, and Steel Magnolias. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1983 for her role in Terms of Endearment, and has been nominated five other times. Offscreen, she is well-known for her beliefs in New Age spirituality and reincarnation, and has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs.
She played the character of Grande Dame Martha Levinson, mother of Elizabeth McGovern's Lady Cora Crawley, in the third season of ITV's Downton Abbey. The contrast between her and Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess Violet is generally considered priceless.
Shirley MacLaine roles with pages on TV Tropes:
- The Trouble with Harry (1955) as Jennifer Rogers
- Artists and Models (1955) as Bessie Sparrowbush
- Around the World in 80 Days (1956) as Princess Aouda
- Some Came Running (1958) as Ginny
- Ocean's 11 (1960) as Tipsy Woman (cameo)
- Can-Can (1960) as Simone Pistache
- The Apartment (1960) as Fran Kubelik
- The Children's Hour (1962) as Martha Dobie
- Irma la Douce (1963) as Irma la Douce
- What a Way to Go! (1964) as Louisa May Foster
- The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965) as Mae
- The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968) as Harriet Blossom
- Sweet Charity (1969) as Charity Hope Valentine
- Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) as Sara
- The Turning Point (1977) as Deedee Rodgers
- Being There (1979) as Eve Rand
- Terms of Endearment (1983) as Aurora Greenway
- Cannonball Run II (1984) as Veronica
- Steel Magnolias (1989) as Louisa Boudreaux
- Postcards from the Edge (1990) as Doris Mann
- Defending Your Life (1991) as Herself (cameo)
- Guarding Tess (1994) as Tess Carlisle
- Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) as Grace Winterbourne
- Bewitched (2005) as Iris Smythson/Endora
- In Her Shoes (2005) as Ella Hirsch
- Rumor Has It... (2005) as Katharine Richelieu
- Valentine's Day (2010) as Estelle Paddington
- Bernie (2011) as Marjorie Nugent
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) as Edna Mitty
- The Little Mermaid (2018) as Grandmother
- Noelle (2019) as Elf Polly
- Joan of Arc (1999) as Madame de Beaurevoir
- Downton Abbey (3 episodes, 2012–13) as Martha Levinson
- Glee (2 episodes, 2014) as June Dolloway
- Only Murders in the Building (2 episodes, 2022) as Leonora Folger/Rose Cooper
