At 90, Shirley MacLaine Finally Names the Co-Star She Hated Most

Shirley MacLaine is one of the most talented  actresses of her generation. She made her debut   in “The Trouble With Harry” in 1955 and she’s had  movie releases in 2022 and more upcoming projects.   Oh, and by the way, she’s approaching 90 and  she’s still acting! With a successful career   that’s lasted so long, it’s clear that she’s a  joy to work with on set. But – truth be told,   she didn’t always feel that way about some of  her co-stars. It didn’t affect her work and   she always gave a great performance, but man,  it’s a wonder she kept in the business even   with her bad experiences. What are the times  she absolutely hated her co-stars and this   caused tensions on the set? What was  her love life and personal relationships   like? Join us as At 90, Shirley MacLaine  Finally Names the Co-Star She Hated Most. Shirley Temple's Junior Named after child actress Shirley Temple, who was  six years old at the time, Shirley MacLean Beaty   was born on April 24, 1934, in Richmond, Virginia.  Her father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a professor of   psychology, public school administrator, and  a real estate agent. Her Canadian mother,   Kathlyn Corinne, was a drama teacher from  Wolfville, Nova Scotia. MacLaine's younger   brother is the actor, writer, and director  Warren Beatty, who changed the spelling of his   surname for his career. Both were raised by their  parents as Baptists. Her mother's brother-in-law   was A. A. MacLeod, a Communist member of the  Ontario provincial legislature in the 1940s. While MacLaine was still a child, Ira Beaty  moved the family from Richmond to Norfolk,   and then to Arlington, then to Waverly, and  then back to Arlington, where he worked at   Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in Arlington,  in 1945. MacLaine played baseball on a boys team,   holding the record for most home runs, which  earned her the nickname "Powerhouse". During   the 1950s, the family resided in the  Dominion Hills section of Arlington. As a toddler, she had weak ankles and fell over  with the slightest misstep, so her mother decided   to enroll her in ballet class at the Washington  School of Ballet at the age of three. This was   the beginning of her interest in performing.  Strongly motivated by ballet, she never missed   a class. In classical romantic pieces such as  “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Sleeping Beauty”,   she always played the boys' roles due to being  the tallest in the group and the absence of   males in the class. She eventually received a  substantial female role as the fairy godmother   in “Cinderella”; while warming up backstage, she  broke her ankle, but then tightened the ribbons on   her toe shoes and proceeded to dance the role all  the way through before calling for an ambulance.   Ultimately she decided against making a career  of professional ballet because she had grown too   tall and was unable to perfect her technique.  She explained that she didn't have the ideal   body type, lacking the requisite "beautifully  constructed feet" of high arches, high insteps   and a flexible ankle. She moved on to other forms  of dancing as well as acting and musical theater. MacLaine attended Washington-Lee  High School in Arlington, Virginia,   where she was on the cheerleading  squad and acted in school theatrical   productions. But would she go on to  have career success like her namesake? Broadway on Broad Daylight The summer before her senior year of  high school in Arlington, Virginia,   MacLaine went to New York City to  try acting and had minor success in   the chorus of a production of Oklahoma! that  toured the subway circuit. After graduation,   she returned and made her Broadway debut dancing  in the ensemble of the Broadway production of “Me   and Juliet” between 1953 to 1954. Afterwards  she became an understudy to actress Carol   Haney in “The Pajama Game”; in May 1954 Haney  injured her ankle during a Wednesday matinee,   and MacLaine performed in her place. A few months  later, with Haney still injured, Jerry Lewis saw a   matinee and urged film producer Hal B. Wallis  to attend the evening performance with him,   hoping to cast her in Artists and Models. Wallis  signed her to work for Paramount Pictures. MacLaine made her movie debut in Alfred  Hitchcock’s “The Trouble with Harry” in   1955. Her unique sexy tomboyish looks and her  ability to combine worldly experience with   an offbeat innocence caused her to be frequently  cast as a good-hearted hooker or waif—for example,   in such films as Vincente Minnelli’s “Some  Came Running” in 1958, an adaptation of   a James Jones novel, and Billy Wilder’s “The  Apartment” in 1960 and “Irma la Douce” in 1963,   romantic comedies that also starred Jack  Lemmon. Her performances in those films   earned MacLaine Academy Award nominations.  In 1969 she starred in Bob Fosse’s “Sweet   Charity”, portraying a taxi dancer who remains  optimistic despite a series of disappointments. As MacLaine aged, her characters grew more  cantankerous, and she often played a spirited,   sharp-tongued, frustrated, slightly over-the-top  woman. Rather than reduce these characters to a   cliché, however, MacLaine managed to humanize  them and make them believable. She was cast as   a former ballerina questioning her decision  to give up her career for her family in “The   Turning Point” in 1977, for which she received  her fourth Oscar nomination for best actress,   and she finally won the award for her portrayal  of a strong-willed compulsive mother in “Terms   of Endearment” in 1983. She later played grumpy  Ouiser Boudreaux in “Steel Magnolias” in 1989,   a feisty former first lady  in “Guarding Tess” in 1994,   and in 1996 she played a wealthy woman surprised  by her daughter-in-law’s mistaken identity   in “Mrs. Winterbourne”. In 2000 MacLaine  directed her only feature film, “Bruno”,   also released as “The Dress Code”, about  a young boy struggling to express himself. MacLaine continued to be a sought-after actress  into the early 21st century. In 2005 she appeared   in “Her Shoes”, portraying a grandmother who helps  her granddaughters patch up their differences,   and “Rumor Has It”, a comedy about the family  that was the inspiration for Charles Webb’s   novel “The Graduate” that was released in  1963. She later starred in “Bernie” in 2011,   a dark comedy based on the true story of a popular  funeral director who killed a wealthy widow,   and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”  in 2013. In “Wild Oats” in 2016,   MacLaine was cast as a widow who, after mistakenly  receiving a life insurance check for $5 million,   goes to the Canary Islands with her best  friend played by Jessica Lange. The film   underwent numerous production delays because of  financial difficulties, and MacLaine chronicled   the troubled shoot in the book “Above the Line:  My Wild Oats Adventure” in 2016. Her subsequent   movies included “The Little Mermaid” in 2018,  based on the Hans Christian Andersen story. Rarely able to exercise her considerable dancing  talent on film, MacLaine often appeared on   television variety specials, winning several  Emmy Awards, and in 1976 and 1984 she returned   to Broadway in, respectively, “A Gypsy in My  Soul” and “Shirley MacLaine on Broadway”. Her   other notable TV credits included the  British drama series “Downton Abbey”. In 1970 MacLaine published “Don’t Fall off the  Mountain”, which turned out to be the first in a   series of best-selling memoirs describing not only  her life in movies and her relationships including   that with her brother, but also her search for  spiritual fulfillment. In 1987 she co wrote,   produced, directed, and starred in a television  adaptation of one of her autobiographies, “Out   on a Limb”, which had been published in 1983. She  also directed "The Other Half of the Sky” in 1976,   which received an Oscar nomination for best  documentary; it was about life in China. MacLaine was the recipient of numerous honours.  She received the Cecil B. DeMille Award,   a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement, in 1998  and was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2013. Shirley, The Rat pack and their love for acting In 1958, veteran MGM director Vincente  Minnelli decamped to Madison, Indiana,   along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and  24-year-old Shirley MacLaine to make the   familial drama Some Came Running. MacLaine  shared a house with Rat Packers Sinatra and   Martin during the filming. “How many  times did I answer the door because   the cannolis had arrived by private  plane from Hollywood?” she laughed. MacLaine’s first film, Alfred  Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry,   had opened three years earlier, after Paramount  producer Hal B. Wallis spotted her in The   Pajama Game on Broadway—as a last-minute  replacement for the musical’s injured star. The screen test, which earned  MacLaine a Paramount contract,   turned out to be the first of its kind.  “What scenes do you want to do?” director   Daniel Mann—commissioned to run the test by  producer Hal B. Wallis—asked MacLaine. He was   accustomed to actors reading lines. “I have no  idea—I don’t know how to act,” MacLaine replied,   with the camera rolling. She noticed  a stool nearby, and covered it with a   scarf. “Just let me talk around the stool—and  sometimes I’ll sit down, and sometimes I’ll do   a little movement,” she suggested. “Because  I don’t know anything about what you want.” Mann agreed. While MacLaine moved, he asked about  her life—where she went to school, how she learned   to dance. “All those questions were personality  questions, so they were spontaneous and without   any forethought at all,” she explained.  “That’s where the Personality Test was born.” By the time MGM reached the Indiana set  of Some Came Running, a new kind of movie   star was maturing. Sinatra requested that  MacLaine be “lent out” to MGM for the film,   based on James Jones’s novel about a  disillusioned writer who returns to his   hometown in the company of a girl he met on the  bus. Torn between her and a professor’s daughter,   he befriends a gambler and lives on the  wrong side of the small town’s tracks. The movies themselves were also covering  new ground. Though produced in MGM’s lavish   palette—which Minnelli was using for the musical  Gigi at almost the same time—Some Came Running   was freewheeling film noir, prompted, to some  extent, by its spontaneous stars. Sinatra and   Martin liked to ad-lib, just as MacLaine had  done, by chance, in her Personality Test. “They   did exactly what came to them at the moment, and  if they all acted like that at the same time, it   was very humorously chaotic,” MacLaine recalled.  “They loved it when things would go wrong,   and then they could really be themselves, to  show the audience that they actually were real.” They were also responsible for their careers.  “I want her to be dead, because I want her to   get an Oscar nomination,” Sinatra told studio  executives of MacLaine’s character in the movie.   A carnival was the set for one of the climactic  scenes, with a Ferris wheel in the background,   which was slightly out of focus. Instead  of asking his crew to move the camera,   Minnelli—true to grand MGM tradition—asked  them to move the Ferris wheel. “That is when   Dean and Frank said, ‘Oh yeah, well,  screw this,’ and they got on a plane.   They left—they went to the airport!”  MacLaine recounted. When they returned,   studio head Sol Siegel was with them,  making sure filming could resume. In the end, more than just the Ferris wheel had  shifted. MacLaine got an Academy Award nomination,   with her dramatic death scene, and she would  later sue Hal Wallis over her stringent,   seven-year contract. “He kept sending  me ridiculous scripts,” she said. “And   every one I turned down, he extended the  contract.” It eventually ended. Stars,   not studios—and empowered actors’ unions—were now  having their say in Hollywood. “I was the last of   the contract players,” MacLaine remarked. “And  I might have won the battle, and lost the war.” MacLaine, now seven decades into her  career and showing no signs of stopping,   is both critical and nostalgic about the  Hollywood she first encountered. “Those   guys were so in love with movies,” she said  of the great studio personalities. “I mean,   come on, the brand now is so corporate.  Everything is the corporate brand and   blah-blah-blah. Nothing is about  this insane love for movies. I mean,   they didn’t even care whether the public  would like it or not, they loved what they   were doing. The scripts they chose, the casts  they chose, the way they handled temperament,   the way they handled people with fame. It’s not  like today. That’s why I miss those old days.” Had Her ways in Relationships She used to find men intriguing. She had  many affairs and an odd 28-year marriage   to film producer-turned-businessman  Steve Parker - they weren't really   together for a lot of it. There was an intense  three-year affair with Robert Mitchum. There   was Danny Kaye and Yves Montand, and she  always had a fascination for politicians,   including Andrew Peacock, who at the  time was Australia's foreign minister. Her search for the definition  of love was quite thorough. Shirley MacLlaine was married for 28 years from   1954 to 1982 and she says an open  marriage is the key to success. "No one understood it, we did. He lived in Japan  basically, I lived in America working, and this   and that," she told People magazine of her time  with producer Steve Parker before the two split in   1982. They have a daughter, Sachi. Their daughter  said that when she was in her late twenties, her   mother revealed her belief that an astronaut named  Paul was Sachi's real father, not Steve Parker. He died in 2001. "We'd meet up, always great  friends, and travel sometimes together," she said. In April 2011, while promoting  her new book, I'm Over All That,   she revealed to Oprah Winfrey that she had  had an open relationship with her husband. She added,   "I guess you would say 'practiced an open  marriage' in 1954, which was another lifetime.” MacLaine was adamant that being open  is why her marriage lasted so long. "I think that's the basis for a long-lasting  marriage, if you really want to do such a   thing," she said. "I would say it's better  to stay friends and we don't have enough time   to talk about the sexuality of all. I was  very open about all of that and so was he.” A Lawsuit Pioneer In 1959, MacLaine sued Hal Wallis over a  contractual dispute. The lawsuit has been   credited with ending the old-style studio  star system of actor management. In 1966,   MacLaine sued Twentieth Century-Fox for breach  of contract when the studio reneged on its   agreement to star MacLaine in a film version  of the Broadway musical “Bloomer Girl” based   on the life of Amelia Bloomer, a mid-nineteenth  century feminist, suffragist, and abolitionist,   that was to be filmed in Hollywood. Instead,  Fox gave MacLaine one week to accept their offer   of the female dramatic lead in the “Western Big  Country, Big Man” to be filmed in Australia. The   case was decided in MacLaine's favor, and affirmed  on appeal by the California Supreme Court in 1970.   The case is discussed in many law-school textbooks  as an example of employment-contract law. Shirley MacLaine has a complicated relationship  with her only daughter, Sachi Parker. MacLaine wed film producer Steve Parker in  1954, and the couple welcomed their first   and only child, Sachi, born Stephanie Sachinko  Parker, two years later in 1956. After almost 30   years of what the actress described as an “open  marriage,” MacLaine and Parker divorced in 1982. MacLaine and Sachi have had their ups and  downs at times, as explored in Sachi's   2013 autobiography Lucky Me: My Life With  — and Without — My Mom, Shirley MacLaine. In the book, she shared candid details  about growing up immersed in Hollywood   as the daughter of an acclaimed actress and  niece of Warren Beatty. She also delved into   her childhood, writing about her often painful  experiences having MacLaine as her mother. In a statement to PEOPLE, MacLaine called her  daughter’s book “virtually all fiction,” adding,   “I’m sorry to see such a dishonest,  opportunistic effort from my daughter.” Despite their sometimes difficult relationship  growing up, Sachi told PEOPLE in February   2013 that she and her mother “love each other  dearly.” She added, “I’ve accepted who she is.” Here’s everything to know about Shirley  MacLaine’s daughter, Sachi Parker. She lived with her father in Japan  and visited MacLaine in the U.S. After Sachi was born in 1956, MacLaine opted to  be a working mother before it was common practice.   In a 1984 interview with PEOPLE, MacLaine  opened up about her decision to return to   acting after her daughter was born, explaining,  “I never would have given up my work to stay   home. That was never a consideration, and Sachi  would have felt the frustration had I done it.” As a child, Sachi went to live with  her father in Japan, as he was an   American producer based in Tokyo, and would  spend summers and vacations with her mom. Despite being apart for most of the year,  Sachi told PEOPLE in the same 1984 interview,   “She was always just a phone call  away and I never felt abandoned or   deserted by her. That was just the way  my parents had worked out our lives.” She later reflected on this period of  her life in her memoir, writing about   her reunions with her mother. In an excerpt of  her book shared with PEOPLE in February 2013,   Sachi wrote, “My visits in L.A. started at the  airport, with Mom rushing up and giving me an   all-encompassing hug. Once we got into  the car she’d say, ‘Let’s have fun!’ “ However, nearly 30 years later, Sachi  said during an interview in January 2013   that her mother was “very absent.”  She said, "I was very lonely — very   lonely. Definitely. And I still struggle  with abandonment issues and loneliness." Sachi also recalled experiencing a similar  sentiment with her father, Parker, who died   in 2001. She told the Hartford Courant in May  2013 that he often disappeared on business trips. “But it was the emotional abandonment that was the  problem for me, not the physical one," Sachi said. Maclaine's troubles didn't  end with parenting, though. Her Complexion wouldn't work for Sister Sara In 1970, a now-classic Western film  named Two Mules for Sister Sara was   released. The film was directed  by Don Siegel and starred one of   Hollywood’s most popular leading  men of the time, Clint Eastwood. Originally, both the director and leading man  wanted Elizabeth Taylor to co-star in the film.   Elizabeth Taylor would play the titular character  of Sister Sara. Yet, the starlet had no interest   in the film and turned it down. They had to look  for another actress – and while no one at the time   had the star power of Sister Sara they needed  someone who would still bring the audiences in. Shirley MacLaine was one such actress.  She had a successful debut film with   The Trouble With Harry and she had hit after  hit after that. By the time 1970 came around,   she was bound to make another  hit film. The studio felt that   due to her success in the film Sweet  Charity, she’d be perfect for the role. And yet, both Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood  weren’t too keen on casting Shirley MacLaine.   They felt that her complexion wouldn’t  look good on screen and wouldn’t work   for the character of Sister Sara. And  then once they started working with her,   their relationship, according  to them, was less than affable. Don Siegel felt that Shirley  MacLaine wasn’t traditionally   feminine and that she could sometimes  be too assertive and not easy to work   with. He felt that it was difficult to  feel affectionate about her. Apparently,   Shirley MacLaine also didn’t have a good  experience filming in the heat of Mexico either. Shirley MacLaine didn’t like working  with Don Siegel as well and many felt   that she would name Clint Eastwood as  the co-star she hated most. In fact,   it seems she hated him so much that he wasn’t  really mentioned in her memoirs. But years later   she stated that she adored him and loved his  tough attitude both in real life and on screen. So, Clint Eastwood isn’t the  co-star she hated most. So,   who was it? Let's tell you about a  time when she clashed with a host! The Problem With Reincarnation Like most actors and actresses, Shirley  MacLaine has had to appear on talk shows   to promote her films and discuss  her life and career. Occasionally,   questions get personal and sometimes,  they can make actresses comfortable.   Such was the case when she appeared  on The Late Show With Dave Letterman. In October 1988, she appeared on the late  night talk show to discuss her film Madame   Sousatzka. However, Dave Letterman was more  interested in discussing Shirley MacLaine’s   belief in reincarnation – something he found  amusing and used as a stick to poke her with. He asked her if he had lived other lives. She was   annoyed by this question and quipped  at him saying that he had bad karma. He then began joking about the supposed  careers and lifestyles that Shirley   MacLaine had in her past lives – once being  a monk and once being a dancer in a harem   of all places! She tried to be serious  and explained that her belief came from   spending time in Asia where the belief  in reincarnation was more common. Yet,   he still found it funny and seemed  to want to mock her for her views. During the commercial break, she had  apparently told him she didn’t want to   discuss this anymore during the 2nd half  of the interview. Yet he persisted and   she burst out quoting Cher who had  a bad experience being on the show. Shirley MacLaine quipped “Maybe Cher  was right. Maybe you are an–” – ok,   we won’t tell you what she  said – use your imagination! The moment created awkwardness and Letterman asked  her if she was really upset or just acting. She   responded telling him that he should be able  to tell whether she was being genuine or not. Shortly afterward, Dave Letterman ended  the interview and Shirley MacLaine left   after filming stopped – she didn’t appear  after the commercial break. She recalls   how unpleasant he was and the two of them  had a hard time getting over the incident. So no doubt, she must have hated Antony – uh, I  mean Dave Letterman. She hated Dave Letterman,   but she wasn’t his co-star. She was his guest. Now, we’ll reveal to you  which co-star she hated most. A Change In Season Brought Another Feud There are often rumors about  co-stars not getting along on set,   but the actors involved don't always admit  to them. That wasn't the case with these two   celebrities. When it comes to the Hollywood feud  between Shirley MacLaine and Anthony Hopkins,   they've both shared what they thought  about each other in a very blunt way. MacLaine and Hopkins starred opposite one another  in the 1980 film A Change of Seasons. The movie is   considered a failure both financially and  critically, so perhaps that colored their   feelings about the experience, too. Either  way, neither enjoyed working together. Read   on to find out what MacLaine and Hopkins  have said about each other over the years. In “A Change of Seasons”, MacLaine and Hopkins  play a married couple who both begin affairs,   and then all four people involved spend a weekend  together on a ski trip. The movie received three   nominations for the very first Razzie Awards  or, Golden Raspberry Awards, "honoring" the   worst films of the year: Worst Actor for  Hopkins, Worst Song, and Worst Screenplay. MacLaine the "Most Obnoxious Actor” So many years later, it's unclear when  and to whom Hopkins gave this quote,   but it's been widely reported that he said of  MacLaine, "She was the most obnoxious actress   I have ever worked with." He didn't elaborate  on what bothered him so much about his co-star. In a 2014 interview with the New York Post,  MacLaine was asked about Hopkins' comment. "I   didn't like him either, but he was on the wagon at  that time and it was hard on him," she responded. MacLaine is referring to Hopkins' struggles with  alcohol. He became sober five years prior to the   release of “A Change of Seasons”. "I haven't  drunk since and nor have I felt the urge to,"   he told The Sunday Times Magazine. "When I  asked for help and I realized I wasn't alone,   that there were thousands of people like  me, all my fears began to dissolve.” It could have been their different personalities  that led MacLaine and Hopkins to clash at the   time. Hopkins has spoken out about having  an innate anger. "The anger, you begin to   channel it," he told The Guardian in 2018. "I'm  very happy I'm an alcoholic—it's a great gift,   because wherever I go, the abyss follows me. It's  a volcanic anger you have, and it's fuel. Rocket   fuel. But of course it can rip you to pieces  and kill you. So, gradually, over the years,   I have learned not to be a people-pleaser. I  don't have a temper any more. I get impatient,   but I try not to judge. I try to live and let  live. I don't get into arguments, I don't offer   opinions, and I think if you do that, then the  anger finally begins to transform into drive." Meanwhile, MacLaine is known to be blunt  and to stand up for what she believes in.   "Even though I tell people the truth, I'm  not a diva," she told Variety in 2020. Be Careful What You Dream Of Shirley MacLaine dreamt of working with actress  Debra Winger in the 1983 film Terms of Endearment.   Both actresses admired each other's work and were  looking forward to a great collaboration. Now,   with such a premise one can only expect that  this filming experience would be pure bliss! Unlike her collaboration with Antony Hopkins,  this one was much better. The actresses played   mother and daughter and the film was a hit. Both  actresses were nominated for Best Actress at the   Academy Awards and Shirley MacLaine won the role.  In her acceptance speech, she mentioned that she   felt that she actually had an extra daughter and  that Debra Winger had ‘turbulent brilliance.’ However, the two actresses weren’t  friendly and would argue on set.   There’s even a rumor that one  of them hit the other. Shirley   MacLaine and Debra Winger haven’t  denied the fights they’ve had on set. There’s a notorious incident in Shirley MacLaine’s  memoir that during a fight, Debra Winger passed   gas at her on purpose. Debra Winger asked about  this incident and she didn’t give clear answers   on whether this actually happened though she  did hint that there was some truth to the tale. There’s still no confirmation on whether this  happened even though Debra Winger has been pressed   on it. Yeah, let’s not go there. There’s also no  update on how Shirley MacLaine feels about her   former co-star today. But, hey, at least a great  film and some great performances came out of it. On May 20, 1964, after initially  running in the wrong direction,   Shirley MacLaine turned around and bolted  99 yards for the game-winning touchdown in   a football game that saw Fawz University  upset the Fightin’ Irish of Notre Dame,   34-29. This moment says a lot about Maclaine's  character and her unending desire to never give   up. She hasn’t always been easy to work with nor  has she enjoyed working with others. But, she’s   had a great career and she leaves behind a great  legacy – so she must be doing something right! Thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe to our   channel and check out another of our  interesting videos before you leave.