Shirley MacLaine's Real Name: Shirley MacLean Beaty

Quick answer: Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty on April 24, 1934, in Richmond, Virginia. She built her stage name from her middle name. Her younger brother is actor and director Warren Beatty. She won the Academy Award for best actress for Terms of Endearment (1983) (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica refers to her family surname as Beaty and explains that her brother later changed the spelling to Beatty. The Library of Congress name authority files her as "MacLaine, Shirley, 1934-" with the cross-reference "Beatty, Shirley MacLean, 1934-." One LOC citation says she was "at birth, named Shirley MacLean Beatty." The one-t spelling Beaty is the family's original form, and the two-t version reflects her brother's later spelling.

According to Britannica, her mother was a drama teacher. Shirley began studying ballet at three, and after high school she moved to New York City, where she worked as a dancer and model. Around that time she changed her name to Shirley MacLaine, a variation on her middle name, MacLean.

In 1954 she was a chorus girl and understudy to Carol Haney in the Broadway musical The Pajama Game. When Haney broke her ankle, MacLaine took over the role and was "discovered" by producer Hal Wallis, who signed her to a contract.

Career highlights

MacLaine made her film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955). Britannica says her tomboyish appeal and offbeat innocence led to roles in Some Came Running (1958) and Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and Irma la Douce (1963), all of which brought Oscar nominations. She starred in Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity (1969).

She earned a fourth best-actress nomination for The Turning Point (1977) and won for Terms of Endearment, playing a strong-willed mother. Later films include Steel Magnolias (1989), Guarding Tess (1994), In Her Shoes (2005), Bernie (2011), and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013). She directed the Oscar-nominated documentary The Other Half of the Sky (1976) and appeared on television in Downton Abbey.

Beginning with Don't Fall off the Mountain (1970), she wrote a series of best-selling memoirs about her career, relationships, and spiritual search. Out on a Limb (1983) became a 1987 TV film that she co-wrote and starred in. She received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1998, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2012, and Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.

Name notes for searchers

MacLaine is a stage spelling of her middle name, MacLean. Her surname at birth was Beaty, which her brother changed to Beatty. That is why records list "Shirley MacLean Beaty" and "Shirley MacLean Beatty."