Shirley MacLaine Movies

Want to know the best Shirley MacLaine movies?  How about the worst Shirley MacLaine movies?  Curious about Shirley MacLaine’s box office grosses or which Shirley MacLaine movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Shirley MacLaine movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Lately it seems that almost every other movie I watched starred Shirley MacLaine.  Last week I was watching Can-Can with MacLaine and Frank Sinatra….I was amazed at her singing and dancing in that movie.  I did a quick IMDB check on her career and quickly realized that I have not been giving her career enough attention…and that she would be a great addition to my Ultimate Movie Rankings website.  Shirley MacLaine (1934-) is an Oscar® winning actress, dancer, singer and director. .  She has been nominated for six Oscars® …..winning for her performance in Terms of Endearment.

Her IMDb page shows over 79 acting since 1955. This page will rank Shirley MacLaine movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.

Shirley MacLaine in 1960's The Apartment
Shirley MacLaine in 1960’s The Apartment

Shirley MacLaine Movies Ranked In Chronological Order with Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.

 Shirley MacLaine Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Shirley MacLaine movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Shirley MacLaine movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Shirley MacLaine movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort Shirley MacLaine movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Shirley MacLaine movie received.
  • Sort Shirley MacLaine movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • To get the most out of this table please use the sort and search buttons….as it makes it very interactive

Adjusted Shirley MacLaine Adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses 

Shirley MacLaine in 1979's Being There
Shirley MacLaine in 1979’s Being There

Possibly Interesting Facts About Shirley MacLaine

1.  Shirley MacLaine was born in Richmond, Virginia and was named after Shirley Temple.

2.  Shirley MacLaine’s little brother is Oscar® winner Warren Beatty.

3.  Shirly MacLaine had weak ankles as a child.  To help with her ankles her mother enrolled her into ballet class at the age of 3.  Her dancing skills eventually took her to Broadway.

4.  Shirley MacLaine was the understudy for Carol Haney in the Pajama Game.  When Haney got hurt, MacLaine took over the part and eventually signed a movie contract with Paramount Pictures.

5.  Shirley MacLaine’s first movie was The Trouble With Harry….which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The Beaver (Jerry Mathers) played her son in that movie.

6.  Shirley MacLaine has been nominated for 6 Oscars® in her career.  She won the Best Actress Oscar® for her role in 1983’s Terms of Endearment.  5 of her nominations were for acting…she also picked up a Best Documentary nomination for 1975’s The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir.

7.  Shirley MacLaine has been nominated for 15 Golden Globe® nominations for her movie roles.  She has won four Golden Globes® for the following movies.  1960’s The Apartment, 1964’s Irma La Douce, 1983’s Terms of Endearment and 1988’s Madame Sousatzka.

8.  Shirley MacLaine has been married one time.  She was married to Steve Parker from 1954-1982…they have one daughter, actress Sachi Parker.

9. Roles Shirley MacLaine turned down or was seriously considered for:  All That Jazz, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Exorcist, The Graduate, and Superman.

10.  Shirley MacLaine is still going strong…according to IMDb, she has 3 movies in different stages of production…she runs her own website http://www.shirleymaclaine.com/  and has been appearing on popular television shows like Glee and Downtown Abbey.

Check out Shirley MacLaine‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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70 thoughts on “Shirley MacLaine Movies”

  2. 1 This is another update that I have keenly awaited as Shirley is not just one of my favourite actresses but also I admire her for a career that has spanned both the classic and modern eras and has produced a string of historical box office successes and great personal critical acclaim that some of today’s ‘one hit wonder’ actresses would not even dare dream about.

    2 I also have admiration for her apparent non-mercenary approach to earning her living in that she refused to become involved in salary bidding wars with studios and instead settled for the standard fee that she considered she was worth. In an interview at the time of making Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) with Eastwood she was asked about fees and she replied something like “I’m getting my normal pay, Clint gets what he gets and I don’t want to know what he gets.” Paul Newman was credited as being another star who whilst earning great money was never greedy about it.

    3 Shirley played a guest star role in some episodes of the hit British TV series Downton Abbey [2010-2015] and when word got out in Norhern Ireland that she was to be in those episodes the buzz was such among movie/TV lovers here that you would have thought that visiting Royalty was coming to our province ! In an interview she said that those appearances brought her considerable attention from modern TV fans who actually wanted her to appear in additicional episodes

    4 I was delighted to see that in his Greatest Actresses 1950-2010 list Bruce ranked Shirley a deservedly very high 6th. Bruce mentions her hanging out with Sinatra’s Clan but I gather she did so on her own terms unlike some of the hangers on who apparently frequented their gatherings.

    BOB

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. The other day I watched one of her most recent movies…Elsa and Fred…..and that got me to look up page….and I noticed it needed an update….so that is how it got to the front of the update line.
      2. I agree she is one of the last bridges that connects Old Hollywood with New Hollywood. What a lengthy awesome career for her….she starred in the Best Picture Oscar winner…..60 years ago…..and she is still going strong.
      3. Interesting about her thoughts on her salary…..not thinking many stars feel that way. Good to know Mr. Newman was one of those stars too.
      4. Glad her appearance on Downtown Abbey got her noticed by younger fans. I hope she has a few more great moments in her career.,
      5. Her career has Oscar winners, box office glory and so many great reviews which got her a spot on my Greatest Actress list of 1950-2010.
      On a personal note…she has been very very nice to me. A couple of times she has shared my page on her Facebook page….and she sent me an awesome autograph…that proudly hangs on my office wall.
      🙂

      Reply

      1. 1 I think that Newman apart from being reasonable by nature in his demands was also concerned about stars pricing themselves out of the market. Some observers accused Demi Moore of doing that and with a play on her name and her alleged greed nicknamed her “Gimme More”

        2 One of the ongoing female leads In Downton Abbey was Elizabeth McGovern who was Sir Maurice Micklewhite’s co star in A Shock to the System (1990) . That film is one of my very fave Sir M movies and has become a kind of cult film within my family despite its poor box office. Last time my brothers and I watched it a cheer went up when Sir M blows up the guy with the pony tail who usurped part of Sir M’s office in the film.

        3 I have just watched once again Play Misty for Me which was set in Carmel and was the directorial debut of another of Shirley’s old co-stars the Mayor of Carmel. It was made in 1971 the year before I got married and it reminded me that in those days the Mayor of Carmel and I were very young !! It was a kind of forerunner to Fatal Attraction 16 years later.

        4 It has been interesting discussing assorted inflation adjustment issues with you. Thanks again for the additional info that you’ve given us on the subject.

        BOB

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob
          1. Funny nickname on Demi Moore…..maybe that is another reason her star faded so fast.
          2. I love A Shock to the System…more of the few times the villain gets away with it. I have not seen it in years….I found it on VHS a couple of years ago….now I have find a VCR to play it. I love the final scene….that says he is still up to his old tricks.
          3. Play Misty for Me and Fatal Attraction are almost the same exact movie…..Clint got his directing career of to a good start with Misty.
          4. I agree….it is always fun to talk movies.

          Reply

          1. GOOD MORN BRUCE !

            1 A Shock to the System reminds me to some extent of the British film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) in which Denis Price’s character murders eight members of his own family ALL played by Sir Alec Guinness. Price did that because they were ahead of him in the line of succession for an English Dukedom; and of course Sir Maurice commits the murders in Shock to the System for revenge and to climb up the corporate ladder.

            2. When you look at Sir M’s wonderful performance in that clever movie you can only be mystified about why the film and its star’s acting in it have not been more appreciated. Audience can at times truly be Philistines !

            3 Incidentally as we know Houston made The Man Who Would be King with Sir Maurice and Sir Sean but reportedly wanted to do it earlier with Gable/Bogie. Was his potential selection of Gable a play on Clark’s Hollywood nickname of ‘the King’

            4 Which in turn reminds me of the irony that it was apparently Tracy ** who first dubbed Gable the King around 1938 and yet Spence is reported to have sulked on the set of Boom Town (1940) because MGM gave Gable top billing over him !!

            ** He had to come back into it at some stage didn’t he ? !

          2. Hey Bob.
            1. I see your point about A Shock To The System and Kind Hearts and Coronets..though Price probably did not get away with it…..though maybe the prison cleaners just threw away his confession.
            2. Yep audiences did not respond to A Shock To The System at all…using my handy dandy sort button you can quickly see A Shock To The System is Caine’s 62nd biggest hit out of 91 movies.
            3. I have also read that Tracy dubbed Gable “The King”….that story and the fact that Gable and Loy were voted the King and Queen of Hollywood….helped cement that nickname.
            4. But back to Caine….went on a library run to a neighbor city….and found one of the few Caine movies I have not seen….Peeper with Natalie Wood… I know it is going to be bad….but I am still looking forward to it.
            🙂

    1. Hey Flora….deleted those trolls…somehow they got through my troll defenses….but I am not complaining…my defenses routinely catch about 100 trolls a day.

      Reply

  4. Hey, Bruce.

    Now that I’ve completed your newest classic actor page, I will go back to the list of actors/actresses of the classic era you gave me already completed while trying to balance men/women and Sinatra frequent costars/non-frequent Sinatra costars. I see you have added a screenwriter category. That is a great idea.

    I remember in your response to my Sinatra comment that you had not yet seen one of my top top Sinatra titles Some Came Running. Top of my Shirley MacLaine to-see films are Being There (in her top 5 and Peter Sellers last movie) and Two For The Seesaw. I notice there are a lot of Dean Martin films missing for me too. Not good! Actually , I have seen a lot of her Nicholson films.
    I’ve not seen all of her top ten by Cogerson Movie Score. However, I have seen all of her top 5.

    No. 6 is the highest film by your CMS that I have not seen.

    Overall, my total by rankings are:

    I’ve seen 5 of her top 5, 7 of her top 10, 11 of her top 15, 15 of her top 20, 16 of her top 25, and actually 17 overall. See how my percentage goes down when you factor in me not seeing films made now?

    Actually to mention TV again, the most recently made title of hers I’ve seen is tv.

    My favourites 5 of her films:
    The Trouble With Harry
    Some Came Running
    Can-Can
    Irma La Douce
    Around the World in 80 Days

    A film important to see but one I hated to watch was The Children’s Hour.

    The lowest ranking film I’ve seen in No. 26: Sweet Charity. Great music and dancing. But not in my top 5.

    Cheers

    Flora Breen Robison

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora.
      1. Yep I did a William Goldman page…..my first writer…..Steve has requested John Williams….there are just so many ways to go.
      2. I have picked up Turning Point a few times….I just have never wanted to see that.
      3. 17….wow….I think I might have that beat….I have seen 20….though as you wrote I have seen a almost all of her recent movies…..which probably gave me the edge.
      4. With the exception of Some Came Running I have seen your Top 5…..with Irma La Douce being my favorite.
      5. Children’s Hour is on my list of movie to watch….Garner, MacLaine and Hepburn….now that is a cast.
      6. I will go find Steve’s comment and get our tallies.

      Reply

      1. Actually Steve did not provide a tally….he is such a slacker…..lol. Thanks for the visit and the comment.

        Reply

        1. Get Steve to give his tally.

          Recent films do bump up a total.

          By the way, among your list of artists for me to do I have chosen to do Anthony Perkins next as I recently saw one of his films for the first time thanks to TCM doing a festival of Orson Welles films last month for his 100th birthday.

          Flora Breen Robison

          Reply

          1. Tally ho! Steve has tallied and it is not impressive, 10 movies in all. 5 from the box office top 10 and just 3 from the critics top 10. Favorite Maclaine movies are The Apartment and of course The Trouble With Harry. I’ll bet I’ve seen more Christopher Lee movies than either of you [sticks tongue out]. 🙂

          2. Hey Steve and Flora….I was wrong about Steve….he had a tally count on his previous comment……so he is not a slacker at all. He is at 10…which means I am the leader….that does not happen much. Bruce 20 Flora 17 and Steve 10.

          3. Hey Steve….I am sure you would destroy me on Christopher Lee movies watched…..maybe Flora can compete against you.

  5. I think of her more as a spiritual leader, but I’m going to schedule a MacLaine Marathon to see all of these soon!

    Reply

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