Shirley MacLaine on a life in pictures

October 13, 2024 Benjamin Hughes

At 90 years old, veteran actor and Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine was in a spicy mood. Looking through photographs from her long career, captured mostly in black and white, she remarked, “Where are the nude ones?”

Of one picture of her seated on the hood of a Cadillac on the Paramount lot, she said, “Here, I’m just trying to be coy, on purpose. Jesus. What a jerk!”

shirley-maclaine-the-wall-of-life-cadillac-vertical.jpg — Actress Shirley MacLaine, photographed on the Paramount lot.

From “The Wall of Life”/Crown

And another: “Oh, there I wanted to see how my legs photographed.”

he couldn’t keep a straight face when she thanked him: “I have wanted to work with the comic chemistry of Jack Nicholson since his chicken salad sandwich scene in ‘Easy Pieces,’ and to have him in bed was such middle-aged joy!”

She never stopped inhabiting memorable characters. She found roles that suited her and her age in films like as “Steel Magnolias” and “Postcards from the Edge.” She was in her late 70s when she joined the cast of TV’s “Downton Abbey,” and she was in her 80s when she appeared on “Only Murders in the Building.”

For someone who famously claims to have lived several past lives, photos of her current life sure make it look spectacular. No wonder she believes people have come back from the beyond to talk with her about it, like Cecil B. DeMille, who died almost 40 years before she received the lifetime achievement award named after him: “I’m going to take this award home, and of course I will be speaking directly to Mr. DeMille later,” she said.

Photographic evidence of a remarkable life.

From “The Wall of Life”/Crown

MacLaine still lives in Santa Fe. She says she fits here: “I love the old antique-y, it’s-still-here feeling. It reminds me of myself!”

She’s well aware that time is running out to satisfy all her curiosities, but she has been very open about not being afraid of dying: “Oh, no. I’m kind of interested in going there,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being part of the heaven experience. I really am.”

But for now at least, Shirley MacLaine isn’t going anywhere.

For more info:

Story produced by Reid Orvedahl. Editor: Mike Levine.