Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24, 1934) is an American actress, singer, author, activist, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, headstrong, and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning seven... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Noelle
Santa's daughter must take over the family business when her father retires and her brother, who is supposed to inherit the Santa role, gets cold feet.
Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer
A young orphan boy Jim Button, his best friend Luke and a magical steam engine called Emma travel across the world in search of the truth about where Jim came from. Battling pirates and dragons, outsmarting make-believe giants, they must travel through the Forest of a Thousand Wonders, beyond the End of the World to find the hidden Dragon City.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
A timid magazine photo manager who lives life vicariously through daydreams embarks on a true-life adventure when a negative goes missing.
Palme
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was openly shot to death on a February evening 1986 on the streets of Stockholm. In one night, the country of Sweden was transfigured. “Palme” is about his life, his time, and about the Sweden he had created. About a man who altered history.
Bernie
The true story of mortician Bernie Tiede, who befriended and killed a wealthy widow in Texas, and then attempted to conceal her death from family and townspeople.
Valentine's Day
A Love Story. More or Less. Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day.
Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning
Anne, now a middle-aged woman, is troubled by recent events in her life. Her husband, Gilbert, has been killed overseas as a medical doctor during World War II. Her two daughters are pre-occupied with their own young families and her adopted son Dominic has yet to return from the war.
Closing the Ring
In 1943, A dying gunner, who was in a crash involving a United States B-17, gives a ring to a local to return to his girlfriend in the USA. Fifty years later, a man finds the ring and tracks down the girlfriend and the history of this ring. Set in Belfast and North Carolina.
Rumor Has It...
Sarah Huttinger is a woman who learns that her family was the inspiration for the book and film "The Graduate" -- and that she just might be the offspring of the well-documented event.
In Her Shoes
IN HER SHOES is the alternately hilarious and heart rendering story of two sisters with nothing in common but size 8 ½ feet. Maggie and Rose Feller are both best friends and polar opposites when it comes to values, goals and personal style.
Bewitched
Thinking he can overshadow an unknown actress in the part, an egocentric actor unknowingly gets a witch cast in an upcoming television remake of the classic show "Bewitched".
Salem Witch Trials
A masterful work accurately details the current consensus of what exactly occurred to prompt the colonial witch trials.
Carolina
A young woman escapes her wildly eccentric family in search for a life of normalcy.
If these walls could talk 2
Trio of stories about lesbian couples in three different decades.
The Evening Star
Continuing the story of Aurora Greenway in her latter years. After the death of her daughter, Aurora struggled to keep her family together, but has one grandson in jail, a rebellious granddaughter, and another grandson living just above the poverty line.
The Celluloid Closet
Exuberant, eye-opening movie that serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Film contains fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s.
Mrs. Winterbourne
Through a complicated mix-up, a poor unwed mother is mistaken for the widow of a rich man.
Guarding Tess
A former U.S. First Lady wants a particular Secret Service agent to head her bodyguard detail, even though he can't stand her.
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
Two lonely, retired septuagenarians, an unkempt, hard-drinking Irish sea captain, and a fussy, well-mannered Cuban barber form an uneasy friendship.
Defending Your Life
In an afterlife way-station resembling a major city, the lives of the recently deceased are examined in a court-like setting.
Postcards from the Edge
A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.
Steel Magnolias
This heart wrenching drama is about a beauty shop, in Louisana owned by Truvy, and the tragedies of all of her clients.
Cannonball Run II
The original characters from the first Cannonball Run movie complete in an illegal race across the country once more in various cars and trucks.
Terms of Endearment
Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.
Sois belle et tais-toi!
The film is a series of interviews with various well-known film actresses, including Jenny Agutter, Maria Schneider, and Jane Fonda. The title, which is borrowed from a 1958 film with the same name by Marc Allegret, refers to the sense the actresses have of what is expected of them by the film industry.
Being There
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
The Turning Point
When her daughter joins a ballet company, a former dancer is forced to confront her long-ago decision to give up the stage to have a family.
The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir
Documentary on mainland Chinese life. Directed, produced, written, and narrated by Shirley MacLaine, the film follows her First American Women’s Friendship Delegation to China. The delegation consisted of all women, including a four-woman film crew.
The Possession of Joel Delaney
Manhattan socialite begins to fear for her troubled younger brother when he starts behaving bizarrely and he seems to have been friends with a backstreet murderer.
Desperate Characters
With wit and real wisdom, Desperate Characters brilliantly examines the life of two disillusioned New Yorkers as they struggle to come to grips with the "normal" life with which they can no longer cope. Featuring powerful performances by MacLaine, Kenneth Mars (The Producers) as her disenchanted husband, and a young Carol Kane (The Princess Bride).
Two Mules for Sister Sara
When a former Civil War soldier saves a nun from a gang of bandits, they team up to help the Mexicans in their war against the French.
Sweet Charity
Taxi dancer Charity continues to have Faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands, and Hope that she will finally meet the nice young man to romance her away from her sleazy life. Maybe, just maybe, handsome Oscar will be the one to do it.
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
While her husband works, the wife of a bra manufacturer leads a secret life with her lover, whom she conveniently hides in her attic.
Gambit
Harry Dean (Michael Caine) has a perfect plan to steal a priceless bust. The core of which is Nicole (Shirley MacLaine) a look alike for his marks late wife. Will the gambit go as planned?
What a Way to Go!
This black comedy opens with Louisa Foster donating a multimillion dollar check to the IRS. The tax department thinks she's crazy and sends her to a psychiatrist. She then discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
The Yellow Rolls-Royce
A classic car changes the lives of three sets of owners.
Irma la Douce
When a recently fired policeman falls in love with a French prostitute, he doesn't want her to be with other men, so he creates an alter-ego in order to become her only customer.
Two for the Seesaw
Jerry Ryan wanders aimlessly around New York after giving up his Nebrascan law practice. His wife asks for a divorce. He meets Gittel, a struggling dancer from Grenwich Village and they try to sort out their lives. An extended conversation piece with a static camera, but reflects the moral climate of the time.
My Geisha
A director's (Yves Montand) wife (Shirley MacLaine) poses as a geisha to win the lead in his Japanese production of "Madame Butterfly."
The Children's Hour
An unruly student at a private all-girls boarding school scandalously accuses the two women who run it of having a romantic relationship.
All in a Night's Work
After the sudden death of magazine publisher Colonel Ryder, his nephew, Tony inherits the magazine and has big plans to expand it. While negotiating a loan from the bank, Tony gets a call from a detective surrounding his uncle's death.
The Apartment
The Apartment came out shortly after the success of ‘Some Like it Hot’ from director Billy Wilder and thus making it the most successful films of the year. Full of trivialities this comedy is a harsh critic of coporate world and the American way of life.
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven is the 'Rat-Pack' comedy about robber Danny Ocean and his gang in an attempt to rob the five biggest casinos in Las Vegas.
Can-Can
A Parisian nightclub owner known for her performances of the can-can attracts the ire of a self-righteous judge. He hatches a plot to photograph her in the act but ends up falling for her — much to the chagrin of her lawyer boyfriend.
Career
Playwright James Lee adapted his off-Broadway play for the screen in this high-strung adaptation, directed by Joseph Anthony. In this simplistic, backroom show-business-success saga, Anthony Franciosa plays Sam, a struggling young actor who will forsake his family and take any type of menial job in order to become a Broadway star.
Ask Any Girl
Meg is a young wide-eyed girl who is endures many calamities in her search for a husband in modern-day New York.
The Sheepman
A stranger in a Western cattle-town behaves with remarkable self-assurance, establishing himself as a man to be reckoned with. The reason appears with his stock: a herd of sheep, which he intends to graze on the range. The horrified inhabitants decide to run him out at all costs
The Matchmaker
Thornton Wilder's tale of a matchmaker who desires the man she's supposed to be pairing with another woman.
Some Came Running
Dave Hirsch, a writer and army veteran, returns to 1948 Parkman, Indiana, his hometown. His prosperous brother introduces him to Gwen French...
Around the World in 80 Days
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
The Trouble with Harry
In a quiet Vermont village, a corpse creates unexpected chaos as several townspeople each believe they may be to blame.
Artists and Models
Rick Todd uses the dreams of his roommate Eugene as the basis for a successful comic book.