[ Indistinct conversations ] -[ Breathing heavily ] You see those dancers over there?

They're chorus dancers.

In show business, they're known as gypsies.

I guess the term comes from the fact that they travel around all the time from show to show.

Wherever the work is, the gypsy is.

That's how I started.

I was a gypsy, and I never forgot it.

No matter what happens to me or where I go, or what I do, some part of me will always be back there with them, in the chorus.

I guess you could say I've got a gypsy in my soul.

♪♪ -Actress, dancer, singer, writer, and apostle of the gospel of reincarnation, Shirley MacLaine has bounced back at every turn in her many lives.

♪♪ An expert in pirouettes, leaps, and entrechats, she herself remains the show, and she has always had a knack for keeping her scintillating 70-plus years in the arts fresh.

♪♪ -Samantha!

[ Whistle blows ] ♪♪ A consummate and tireless artist with steely discipline and endless energy.

She's utterly unstoppable.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ If you want to watch Shirley MacLaine first burst onto the screen, you have to step way back in time, something that she herself is a bit reluctant to do.

-You've talked about how you don't like to look at your old films, but have you seen "Trouble With Harry" again?

-Oh!

Please.

-Oh, really?

-No, what would I do that for?

-If you need but one reason to watch "The Trouble With Harry," it would be to witness the birth of a star.

-What did I tell you, Mommy!

-Don't touch it, Arnie.

-There he is!

-MacLaine wasn't even 20 when Alfred Hitchcock gave her first big break as an actress.

-Harry, thank Providence, the last of Harry.

-In a story about a bothersome corpse that a whole town wanted to get rid of.

With her brash rakishness, MacLaine stood out from Hitchcock's usual bevvy of sophisticated blondes.

-Who's the man up on the path?

-What man?

-You know, Harry, the dead man.

-Oh, him.

[ Chuckles ] That's my husband.

-Your husband's dead, then?

-Is your lemonade sweet enough?

-She was so perfectly suited for the part of the whimsical widow that Hitchcock confessed to his scriptwriter, "I'm not going to tamper with this girl.

She has such an odd quality, and it's delightful."

-He liked what I did, he said after the first reading that we did.

And he said, "[As Hitchcock] You know, you have the guts of a bank robber."

[ Laughter ] I said, "Okay."

Hitch was very, very funny, you know, extremely intelligent with his black humor, and that's what I plugged into.

He didn't direct actors.

He didn't have much respect for actors as we all know.

And the thing that was important to him, and he told me that, was the script and the first preview.

He didn't care much what went on on the sound stage.

And sometimes he would yell "action" and walk away.

♪♪ -Despite his meager appreciation of actors, Hitchcock did take quite a liking to MacLaine, even if that might spoil her chances for a career in Hollywood.

-He knew that I was always hungry, so I became his eating partner.

And we went to breakfast -- pancakes, waffles, sausage, eggs over easy, bacon, croissant 'cause he loved that, cereal and with a lot of sugar and cream.

I was getting heavier and heavier.

I got a call from the head of the studio, and he said, "What are you doing?

You have a shot here.

You could be somebody."

And I said, "Well, I'm hungry!

And Hitch wants me to eat with him and it's free!"

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ -But MacLaine wasn't as flighty as many presumed.

She knew the stakes, and discipline flowed through her veins, a discipline acquired early in life in dance lessons.

-I started walking when I was nine months old, but I had very weak ankles, so Mother took me to a dancing class when I was about two and a half.

That was my early life.

That was my training.

I studied from the time I was 2 years old until I was 20, all day long, every day, eight hours a day.

But I really grew up inside of dancing shoes.

♪♪ -From early childhood, MacLaine had always wanted to perform, to tell stories, to be on stage.

Her younger brother, actor, director, and producer Warren Beatty, shared the same theatrical spark.

-Shirley MacLaine escorted by her brother Warren Beatty... -It was a very close relationship, and we went to the movies every single weekend, all day long.

My dad always did say that he did his [laughing] best work in bed.

[ Laughter ] Probably only twice, but... [ Laughter ] ♪♪ -Although siblings Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine shared the same ambition, their career paths never crossed.

But big sister gladly blazed the trail for him.

At just 18, Shirley flew the family coop.

Girded with her steely conviction and her faith in her lucky star, she set out for New York City.

There, she landed contracts for television shows and musical comedies.

♪♪ -You sing?

-No.

♪♪ [ Shoes tapping ] -You tell jokes?

-No.

You dance?

[ Laughter ] A break came when I was in a show called "Pajama Game."

I was a chorus dancer and had a few lines to sing because I sang loud, that was all.

And, um, the star of the show, the hit of the show, was a woman named Carol Haney, a wonderful girl, and she broke her ankle the third night of the show, and I, as her understudy, went on.

Then I was signed by Mr.

Hitchcock and Mr.

Wallis, and I came here to Hollywood.

-Shirley MacLaine is that terrific redhead... -All Hollywood could see this newcomer was bound for stardom.

-...discovery of the year.

Everybody says that Shirley's going far in pictures, Jerry thinks she's gone too far already.

-No.

Mm!

-♪ If our lips should meet... -With her critically-acclaimed performance for Hitchcock, MacLaine made her own mark in Hollywood.

-♪ Kiss me, kiss me sweet Innamorata ♪ -Taking up all the oxygen, she sang and radiated the charm of a new archetype of femininity, one anchored in complicity, not in distance.

-Don't you recognize me?

[ Laughter ] I'm the girl who lives next door.

♪♪ -They're gone!

-Oh, I can't go out there like this!

-Put this on.

-By the late '50s, MacLaine had the full kit for great comedic success.

In playing stalwart characters, by landing parts that fit her like a glove, the young actress quickly sealed her reputation as having a fierce temperament.

-I really like to be myself.

I've got no time to do [laughing] anything else.

I enjoy it, and I-I hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings by sometimes being frank and too honest or speaking my mind.

But that's the way I am.

If that means I'm a rugged individualist, then I am.

-[ Tsk, tsk, tsk ] You look like a broken umbrella.

-MacLaine's deftness in calling a spade a spade even caught Frank Sinatra's eye.

-Where have you been?

-When you think of Frank Sinatra, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

-Oh, Jack Daniels.

-[Laughing] Jack Daniels.

-Ow!

Simone!

-I'll bite you again and again.

You told me everything was arranged!

-It was arranged!

-He had a tremendous influence because I met him when I was 20, and he's been a friend ever since.

I don't know if he's a friend now because I've written about him, and I don't think he liked that.

But he knows it's all true.

♪♪ -In the late '50s, MacLaine joined Sinatra's Rat Pack, a gang of friends, actors, and singers known for their many love affairs and links to the Mafia, known for their alcohol-drenched partying in Las Vegas where they were frequent headliners.

But for the gang, MacLaine was just a chum, not a love interest.

There was no sexual attraction at all.

-It's okay.

It so happens I'm very much in demand.

-I was a mascot to them.

I was like a pet.

I wasn't like a woman.

And I didn't even think of myself that way.

And I saw these men who were fantastic on the stage, and they could stay up all night in Las Vegas and do two shows a night.

They protected me from some of the, uh, sharks in Hollywood.

I couldn't have gone off and had a lascivious affair that would have ended up hurting me or gotten married six times if I had wanted to, because they were there to protect me more or less.

-Hey, where you goin'?

-Sinatra took to heart this Pygmalion role by getting her cast in the new movie he was soon to begin shooting with director Vincente Minnelli.

-Well, I like that!

You ask a person to come on a trip with you and then you -- -Hold it, hold it, hold it.

I asked you?

-Well, if you didn't, you don't think I would have come, do you?

What am I?

A tramp or something?

-In "Some Came Running," MacLaine departed from the comedic register for drama in the role of Ginny, a heartrending character, a girl who had grown up too fast, a sad clown, constantly clutching her stuffed-toy purse, and clinging to Sinatra's character as if he were a life saver.

-She was a well-written part, the only one I had ever had up to that point.

I played it and I felt so comfortable in it.

The roles that I like to try to pick are the ones that encompass all of the, um -- the versions of life, all of the contrasts, the conflicts that exist in one human being always.

It's partial humor, partial tragedy, partial dullness, partial sparkle, partial color.

-Oh, I was so scared.

You don't know how scared I was 'cause I know you could take him away from me if you want to, 'cause I ain't rich or smart like you.

I haven't got nothing... ...not even a reputation.

-Her performance was all the more stunning given how little Minnelli and MacLaine clicked.

-Were you intimidated at all -- -By Vincente?

Vincente used to direct the rugs and the scenery, and the -- -Liza's father?

He didn't direct the actors?

-Yeah, he didn't know about people.

Mnh-mnh.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ -As MacLaine forged ahead, she gained Sinatra's admiration.

He had the end of the movie rewritten for her.

-In the original screenplay, he dies at the end.

[ Gunshot ] But Frank loved what he was seeing, and he said to Sol Siegel, the head of the studio, "Let the kid die, let the kid die, let the kid die, and she'll get a nomination."

[ Gunshots ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -"Some Came Running" got MacLaine her first nomination in the Oscars, as well as most versatile actress in the Golden Globe awards, a category specially carved out for her.

♪♪ ♪♪ By all appearances, MacLaine was leading a conventional married life with businessman Steve Parker.

They had a daughter, Sachi.

-Hello, precious.

[ Laughs ] Hello, sweetheart.

Say hello to Mr.

Merv.

-But behind this facade, their open marriage allowed for extramarital dalliances.

MacLaine lived and worked in Hollywood.

Parker was in Japan raising Sachi, who, during her childhood, only saw her mother during vacations.

The 30-year-long marriage ended when MacLaine realized her husband had been sponging off her all those years and had nearly torched her finances.

-Life is short, but marriage is long.

♪♪ -Years later, Shirley MacLaine would frankly confess having been well ahead of her time with her modern, liberated love life.

♪♪ [ Applause ] -I want to thank all the fabulous co-stars, male, that I have worked with, those I've made love to on the screen, those I've made love to off the screen.

-[ Laughter ] I swear I remember maybe half.

[ Laughter ] -The admission sparked hilarity and admiration.

-Shirley has lived as an actress a writer, a mother, a wife, and according to her "Oprah" interview, a sex partner to three men in one day.

Anyone can have one sex partner in a day.

It takes real commitment to have three.

For most people, it's just three meals a day, but Shirley is not most people.

She is not hungry just for mere food, she's hungry for everything in life.

You're someone that I want to be when I grow ...... [ Laughter and applause ] -People write about you as being a sort of sexy and attractive woman.

Um, who do you think is the sexiest man in the world?

-You.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ -In the early '60s, such freedom couldn't be depicted on screen.

But in two of Billy Wilder masterpieces, MacLaine deftly flouted the moral codes.

In "The Apartment," she played a smart, sassy elevator operator... -Watch your step.

And watch your hands, Mr.

Kirby!

-I beg your pardon?

-One of these days I'm gonna shut theses doors on you and... 20 next!

-...who was being strung along by her married boss... -Well, when you've been married to a woman for 12 years, you just don't sit down at the breakfast table and say, "Pass the sugar, I want a divorce."

It's not that easy.

-...with whom she is having an affair in the apartment of his employee played by Jack Lemmon.

-Good evening, Mr.

Baxter.

-Good evening.

-For the first time in her career, MacLaine found herself under the watchful eye of a director who directed all his actors with clockwork precision.

-Billy Wilder has great control, and he is the master of the ship on his pictures.

So that you have to look to Billy and say, "He did it, I didn't."

And when you have that kind of feeling about something, it's difficult to be that much involved in anything but adoration for Billy Wilder.

He's fantastic.

-[ Whistles ] Would you mind?

-Jack and I would do a scene, and he would say, "All right, fine.

That's wonderful.

Do it again and take out 13 and a half seconds."

And he wrote the script as we went along, watching the relationship between Jack and me.

-Wilder's method let MacLaine shine as both funny and moving.

-What's the matter?

-Um... the mirror, i-it's broken.

-Yes, I know.

I like it that way.

Makes me look the way I feel.

[ Telephone rings ] -Lemmon and MacLaine stood out as a totally new type of movie couple.

Seeing them both bruised and buffeted by life, the audience wanted them to have a new lease on life.

-Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik?

I absolutely adore you.

♪♪ -Shut up and deal.

-Wilder, often harsh with his actors, lauded them when he won the Oscar for Best Film.

-This award, of course, belongs to the entire team.

But I think it would be only proper to cut it right in half and to give it to the two most valuable players -- Mr.

Jack Lemmon and Miss Shirley MacLaine.

Thank you.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ -Cigarettes.

-A pack of Gitanes, coming up.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-The duo had such great chemistry that three years later, Wilder cast the couple again in a rollicking comedy, offering MacLaine a part that would eventually stick to her like glue.

Far from the melodramatic tone in "The Apartment," "Irma la Douce" is a comedy full of twists.

MacLaine plays a Parisian hooker with a heart of gold, who has seen it all, done it all.

That is, until she meets a naive policeman played by Lemmon.

-What are all you girls doing around here at this hour of the morning?

-Well, I don't know about them.

I'm just walking my dog.

-Oh, I see.

-Billy Wilder said he wanted a blatant hooker, you know, someone who approached her job similar to that of a secretary typing a letter.

That's one of the reasons why he cast me in it, 'cause I didn't have one of those kind of images.

-He wanted a woman who was all strictly business?

-Yeah, and one that exuded sunshine rather than sultriness, that sort of idea.

-Thanks to Wilder, MacLaine was honored with two new Oscar nominations and entered the hearts of audiences to stay for good.

-Taxi!

Taxi!

♪♪ -Film after film, MacLaine invented a melancholic character, always walking the tightrope, edging ever closer to being crushed by the city, by loneliness, by modern life.

♪♪ But the head honchos in Hollywood studios didn't care about her modernity.

They aimed to capitalize on her ability to sparkle in lavish blockbusters.

To counter its decline, Hollywood focused less on content and more on flashy, big-gun measures.

-[ Wolf-whistles ] -Plus, girls in bikinis.

-In case you didn't know it, that's a girl.

All girl, yeah!

Shirley MacLaine.

So much girl, in fact, that in the newest 20th Century Fox love-happy-laugh hit "What A Way To Go!"

It takes six of the screens greatest guys to keep her happy.

You see, she loves Paul Newman and Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin and Gene Kelly and Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke.

Wow!

"What A Way To Go!"

-By the mid '60s, now at the pinnacle of stardom, MacLaine could vie with any male counterpart.

However, the movies she was offered didn't let her express her full range of talents.

Weariness set in.

-Could I have the playback up a little bit, please?

-Right.

♪♪ -♪ There's gotta be some life cleaner than this ♪ ♪ There's gotta be some good reason to live ♪ -♪ And when I find it ♪ ♪ Some kind of life I can live ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna get out ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get up, get out, and live it ♪ -MacLaine then played her last card in "Sweet Charity," the first film directed by choreographer Bob Fosse.

She took the risk of getting him hired to direct this enormous machine with a gigantic budget, adapted from a Fellini movie.

♪♪ ♪♪ -She was paid big bucks for a bespoke role, a role that paid homage to Giulietta Masina.

They both shared a gift for playing downtrodden characters wishing on their lucky star.

-[ Sniffles ] Someone loves me.

-Once again, MacLaine played a prostitute with dreams that one day, a man would provide her the respectable life she yearned for.

♪♪ "Sweet Charity" is visually rich.

Some of Fosse's choreography is jaw-dropping.

♪♪ But what should have been an apotheosis for MacLaine turned out to be a poisoned chalice.

The movie was a huge flop.

♪ If they could see me now ♪ ♪ That little gang of mine ♪ ♪ I'm eating fancy chow and drinking fancy wine ♪ -It was an $8 million picture.

And the whole thing was me.

And I worked very hard for a whole year on that film, so that I gave up two or three others at the same time.

And I think I was worth that amount of money.

Whether the film grossed or not was not exactly my fault.

I think, um, there were several things.

-♪ Hit the floor and crawl to your daddy ♪ -It was a little...too glossy.

I think it was the first time Fosse was experimenting with the film and camera and techniques.

We all know what Fosse went on to become, and he learned in "Sweet Charity."

-Even if she still always came off as touching, MacLaine seemed to have fallen victim to typecasting.

-You played one hooker in a movie and look at you.

-Five.

-Five?

-It's $20 a time.

-Five?

I don't understand five.

-Oh, I'm everybody's hooker next door.

-Jesus Christ!

-And I will also pray that for all your life you have what you desire.

-What the hell's a nun doing out here?

-As if trying to exorcise her impending fate, MacLaine chose to play a nun in her next movie.

Ultimately, that nun turned out to be a revolutionary prostitute parading in religious garb.

-Well, what are you looking so surprised about, you no-good atheist?

Move!

It could be, you know, I saved your bacon, again!

-In "Two Mules for Sister Sara," she shared top billing with Clint Eastwood.

Years later she confessed, "I absolutely loved him even though he was a Republican."

Conversely, she and director Don Siegel didn't exactly see eye-to-eye.

He later said, "It's difficult to feel close to her.

She isn't feminine.

She is too ballsy and very, very harsh."

This was rather amusing coming from the future director of the movie "Dirty Harry," known for not being in the least sentimental.

♪♪ The movie's charm lies in the way the leading female character wraps the leading man round her little finger.

But after the dismal failure of "Sweet Charity," MacLaine's reputation suffered, and promotional campaign for "Two Mules for Sister Sara" put the focus only on Eastwood.

-Clint Eastwood, hero for hire.

Mr.

Action himself.

♪♪ The most exciting Clint Eastwood picture ever made.

[ Gunshots, explosion ] ♪♪ -This did not bode well for an actress approaching 40.

And yet, MacLaine, who then had the leading role in an English series, couldn't imagine for one second that her popularity might be waning.

♪♪ -That's me.

I like that.

-You'd be an idiot if you didn't.

It's very good.

-I spend most of my time in a kind of psychic yawn, you know, I'm just sort of -- I'm just languishing in the idea, "Oh, boy, they really love me," you know, and I love them.

And we're listening to each other, and we care about each other.

-Does it never occur to you that may simply not be true?

-That they don't care about me?

-Mm.

-No, no, no.

I'm -- I'm a dumb-dumb where that's concerned.

I think people really do [laughing] like me.

Oh, it never occurs to me that someone doesn't like me.

[ Gunshots ] -But Hollywood had changed.

Audiences had, too.

Movies featuring the violence of this world were huge hits like "Bonnie And Clyde," starring and produced by her brother, Warren Beatty, who would then open the way for a New Hollywood.

-You know, Texas Ranger, you ain't hardly doing your job.

You ought to be home protecting the rights of poor folk, not out chasing after us.

-Shirley MacLaine.

[ Applause ] -With scathing irony, MacLaine laid out her personal analysis of the place of women in this new 1970s era of Hollywood filmmaking.

-The parts for women don't exist, you might have noticed.

Robert Redford's playing all our parts.

[ Laughter ] In the old days, the old days meaning the '40s and the '50s, when the Hays Office was the censorship board and you had Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn playing women judges, women politicians, women mayors, women scientists, blah, blah, you were not allowed to play a love scene in the bedroom with a double bed.

It had to be two twin beds even if the couple was married.

And regardless of what the scene was, one of the people had to have one foot on the floor.

[ Laughter ] So what happened was since they couldn't play any real good sexy love scenes, they had to resort to giving women these parts that were sensational in real life.

The Hays Office was abolished in the name of more liberal sexual attitudes.

Well, now, because men were running the studios, men were writing the scripts, and men were the directors, they put us back in the bedroom.

And we haven't been judges or politicians or mayors since.

We've been screwing in the bedroom for the -- We can't get out of the bedroom.

[ Applause ] Shirley MacLaine, delegate from California.

-In 1972, MacLaine made news by entering a very different playing field.

-Tell me what's going on with you.

Why aren't you making a movie instead of that?

-Well, I'm campaigning for someone I'm not supposed to mention the name of, according to ABC's rules, so I wore all these, so you'd know who it is.

[ Laughter ] They -- They couldn't -- -I'm gonna throw myself in front of your bosom so they can't see you with -- -I didn't hear you!

-McGovern!

[ Laughter, applause ] -Like her brother and many other actors, she put her acting career on the back burner to join the McGovern's campaign for the presidency.

-We are working together to achieve a better way of life.

We are working together to ascertain how we really feel about many, many things.

And we are working together to defeat Richard Nixon!

-Do you hate anything apart from Richard Nixon?

-[ Laughs ] I don't hate Richard Nixon.

I feel sorry for him.

I think he's a... I think he's a crook, yes, and I think he should be in jail, yes, but I don't hate him.

-The Democrats' defeat and the failure of her previous movie projects dashed MacLaine's spirits.

She realized that within just a few years she had gone from superstar to has-been.

♪♪ -I ate a lot.

I got fat.

I gained 25 pounds.

I didn't cut my hair.

It was long and stringy.

You saw some pictures of me.

I saw them.

I looked like Peter Lorre, you know?

I was running around.

How can you get any point across when you're so damned somber?

-Stretch those legs!

-Whoo!

-Watch!

-Whoo!

-To bounce back, MacLaine leaned into the discipline of her early days, which meant never complain, always jump back up after a fall.

-♪ You say that every time you drop your bread ♪ ♪ You say your bread falls butter side down ♪ -She went on a strict diet, did weeks of rehearsals, and came out transformed, ready to razzle-dazzle audiences again in a song-and-dance show.

The show was a smash hit in Las Vegas, then, too, in Europe.

It got thunderous critical acclaim in New York City.

-♪ As a honeysuckle bud when you go and beat your feet ♪ ♪ On the Mississippi mud ♪ -Bolstered by the success, she regained faith and vowed to forge ahead.

-I made the decision that I can't stay out of show business.

I love it.

I love being other people when I act.

I love music.

I love the physical dexterity of dancing.

I'm learning how to sing better, and I love the audience.

I love the people.

That's my -- The name of my life is people.

That's why I've gotten into all these other things.

-Her glorious comeback rang like a promise.

-I think I've come a long way.

-Mm-hmm.

-I think I have, but compared to how much further I've got to go, uh... I would say, I'm an eighth of the way.

Oh, I can't even say that.

Maybe I haven't even begun.

♪♪ -Quite the understatement.

The next phase of her career would strengthen her conviction even more so, since MacLaine now believed we have not one, but many lives.

-Miss Shirley MacLaine.

[ Applause ] Are we about to meet a different Shirley MacLaine, or is it the same Shirley MacLaine with a new improved dressing?

-[ Laughs ] You mean, I have a dress on?

Same person, a little expanded, a little more aware with a book... sharing my -- my sort of spiritual odyssey.

-The most glaringly important thing to say about your book is that you have firmly nailed your flag to the -- to the mast of reincarnation.

You actually believe that we are all reincarnated?

-Yes, I do believe that.

And I think that's one reason I'm an actress and one reason why this talent of mine bubbles up in so many ways.

I think I've actually done it before.

[ Choral singing ] ♪♪ -Her new vocation as a New Age priestess churning out best-sellers with the regularity of a metronome assured MacLaine that the public hadn't forgotten her.

But would this suffice to pack movie theaters once again?

-How are you doing?

-Okay.

-[ Sighs ] -Before her Broadway show's billboard had even been taken down, she was already off shooting a movie, her first in four years, one with a fitting title, "The Turning Point."

-Freddie.

Freddie!

-The story of a ballerina who had sacrificed her career in dance to have a family.

-Meet our kids.

This is Emilia, Janina, and Ethan.

-What was it about reading "Turning Point" that made you say, "Okay, four years have gone by, I'll do a film"?

-Well, it was very adeptly, intelligently, and classily written about women.

It's about women.

It's not a film for women necessarily, but the two parts that are the leading characters with whom the audience has to identify had to be written with dimension, and they certainly are.

-You don't remember when Michael was choreographing "Anna Karenina"?

-Yes, of course, I do.

-And who was he rehearsing for the part of Anna?

-You and me.

-And?

-You got pregnant.

-Yeah.

And you got 19 curtain calls.

-MacLaine excelled in portraying her obtuse character's bitter regrets and grudges.

-Stop blaming your goddamn life on me!

-You picked it!

-You picked it!

You took away my choice.

You never let me find out if I was good enough!

-You weren't!

-You bitch!

-This harsh character, the very opposite of roles she had been used to playing, garnered her another Oscar nomination.

-[ Screams ] [ Laughter ] -At age 43, MacLaine was fully prepared to return to the big screen.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ -You're never gonna believe this, but I'm Shirley MacLaine.

[ Laughter, applause ] It is so nice to be back home in show business.

I've been a lot of places over the last few years, but I've never seen anything quite like this.

This looks like Liberace's sauna bath!

♪♪ -But MacLaine had an itch for more realistic, denser characters, the kind for showcasing the steely temperament and the stubborn determination that had catapulted her to the top of her craft.

Parts like that were rare in Hollywood, but her patience had paid off.

Just a few years later, MacLaine snagged a role that would redefine her career.

-I was curious if you still wanted to take me to lunch.

-I wasn't aware that we -- I don't know what to -- -No, a few years back, you invited me to lunch.

-A few years back?

-That's right.

And I wondered if the invitation still exists.

Would you like to?

-Her leading role in "Terms of Endearment" was exactly the kind of character MacLaine had yearned to play on the big screen.

-It's a true, detailed examination of an aging woman's problems -- comedy, sexuality, humor, glamour.

-You need a lot of drinks.

-To break the ice?

-To kill the bug that you have up your ass.

-If you plugged into those characters as Nicholson and I did, uh... you can't do anything wrong.

-Keep giving it that gas!

[ Laughs ] I see the Gulf of Mexico below me!

-I'm not enjoying this!

-[ Laughs ] Give it a chance!

[ Laughs ] -I am going to stop!

-[ Gasps ] -MacLaine excelled in playing the volcanic mistress, and the fusional, borderline mother.

-Relatively late in life, I've found that sex is so... so...so [laughs] so [laughs] so fan...tastic!

[ Laughs ] Anyway, that's what he calls it.

[ Laughs ] [ Laughter ] -I adore her, would like her on my tombstone, loved her, my favorite part.

That's the closest I come to being like a character, I mean, I don't know, frankly, how difficult it was to play her.

I think I just played myself.

-What's wrong with you?

-I'm unofficially pregnant.

-The shooting of the film was rocky due to relational problems between instinct-driven MacLaine and introspective Debra Winger playing the daughter.

-Why should I -- Why should I be happy about being a grandmother?!

[ Silverware clatters ] -"Terms of Endearment," a great movie but a difficult one to make.

So what made it all so difficult?

-Debra.

-[ Laughs ] No beating about the bush.

Debra, Debra Winger.

-No, it was -- but she has -- That's her way of working.

That's her -- That's the way she needs to do it.

I think sometimes some people, and Debra's one of them, works in relation to how she thinks the character acts.

And so therefore she acts that way off-screen and on-screen and in between set-ups and so forth.

And, you know, maybe that's a good way.

It's certainly a good way for her to work.

I had my -- my rousing education on that one.

If I hadn't been through that, there were many other things I wouldn't have understood.

-The movie was a huge hit and secured MacLaine her fifth Oscar nomination.

-...for her fine performance in "Terms of Endearment," Miss Shirley MacLaine!

[ Cheers and applause ] And her beautiful daughter, Sachi.

How are you, Sachi?

-Fine!

-Wanted to say hello over here.

[ Cheers and applause ] They all congratulated you earlier, and they voted you the fans in the stands choice to win the Oscar.

-Did they?

So maybe they're the ones who saw the movie [laughs].

-The rivalry with Debra Winger also reared its head at the Oscars.

-Those nominated this year are... -Shirley MacLaine in "Terms of Endearment."

-Debra Winger in "Terms of Endearment."

[ Applause ] The winner is Shirley MacLaine for "Terms of Endearment"!

♪♪ -And of course, she accepted the Oscar she had desired for over 30 years with a dash of sarcasm.

-I'm gonna cry because this show has been as long as my career.

[ Laughter ] [ Applause ] -If "Terms of Endearment" had happened to me five years ago, I think I would have called it a thrilling commercial, artistic accident.

But I don't believe that anymore.

I deserve this.

Thank you!

[ Applause ] ♪♪ -A new phase opened in her career.

Running counter to the prevailing Hollywood trend, MacLaine bravely portrayed characters older than herself.

-You see?

What did I tell you?

So there is still something left for you to learn, Mr.

Know-it-All.

No, no, like this!

And you need a haircut!

And do you think you're ready to play in public?

This is all you're good for!

-She made herself look 20 years older to play a piano teacher reluctant to let her sole student go, despite the bright future awaiting him.

-When you get to be my age, and you've done just about everything, you start to think about your future in relation to what's expected of your face 65 feet wide on the screen.

And I as a woman, we all suffer from, what am I going to do with impending age and gravity?

And I don't want to play those soppy, little gamines anymore that I used to or those cute, perky, little, smiling-through-tears things.

I'm not attracted to that anymore.

And I'm beyond that, so... what's happening to me is that I'm getting on with the rest of my life and what is potentially possible for me to do with my craft.

It's safer to do this than to continue to be concerned about my face instead of the character.

-Come on in, Ouiser!

-Don't try to get on my good side, Truvy!

I no longer have one.

-The success of a film with a majority female cast, a film featuring MacLaine playing a spinster who did her utmost to be disliked... -What brings you here?

-Shut up.

-...proved that audiences did appreciate movies featuring mature women.

-But I am old and set in my ways.

-You are playing hard to get.

-At her age, she should be playing beat the clock.

-[ Laughs ] -MacLaine plowed ahead with this tack and was even willing to play characters surpassing her own prickliness.

It was as if she were taking to heart Bette Davis's famous saying, "Getting older ain't for sissies."

-What happened to my life?

Did I deserve more?

Did I ever for one second get as much as I gave?

God forbid I should ask those questions because if I looked inside myself and I really saw what I've shut out for my whole life, what I really missed, there'd come from out of me such a rage, it would blow this building apart, and it would blow you into a million little pieces, and it would blow Queens off the face of the goddamned map!

[ Glass shatters ] -These strong characters, often mothers, often meddlesome, often sharp-tongued, reflected her own path in life.

-♪ First you're another true blue tramp ♪ ♪ Then someone's mother ♪ ♪ Then you're camp ♪ ♪ Then you career ♪ ♪ From career to career ♪ -She could pour herself into them like in "Postcards From The Edge," adapted from the recollections of actress Carrie Fisher who had a rocky relationship with her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds.

-♪ Look who's here ♪ [ Cheering ] ♪ I'm still ♪ ♪ Heeeeeeeeere ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -No one wanted me to play Debbie, but to play a movie star who had the same experience as Debbie.

-You only remember the bad stuff, don't you?

What about the big band that I got to play at that party?

Do you remember that?

No!

You only remember that my skirt accidentally twirled up!

-And you weren't wearing any underwear.

-Well!

-Playing the egocentric mother opposite Meryl Streep as the daughter battling her addictions was a breeze for MacLaine.

-Look at me, I'm a wreck.

-I'm sorry.

-When I first read the script, I thought, "Oh, my Lord.

I have been there in so many of these ways."

Now, I didn't have a daughter who was coming out of rehab or anything like that, but the problems of mother-daughter relationships and how sticky they can be and how lovingly combustible they are was something that I'd been living with for 33 years with my daughter, so... -Ma, I'm middle-aged.

-I'm middle-aged.

-How many 120-year-old women do you know?

-[ Chuckles ] -This part of the aging movie star who believed she'd eternally be a young ingenue allowed MacLaine to poke fun at herself.

-This is my mom.

-Oh, Miss Mann.

I can't believe I'm meeting you.

-Mom, this is... -Ever since I was about seven, I wanted to be you.

-Bart does you in his drag show.

-I know who you are.

I've seen everything you've ever done.

"Lysistrata" in Florence.

-Oh!

-"Blithe Spirit" in New York.

-Daddy!

-And you're Endora.

♪♪ -Wielding self-deprecating humor, with flamboyant dresses and theatrical poses, she reconnected with her earlier comedic repertoire.

And from this point on, cunningly orchestrated her appearances as larger-than-life divas.

-You can't nod to the audience in the middle of the show.

It just breaks the reality.

-What?

-You can't nod to them.

You can't do a little -- -Go sit in your chair.

Back in your chair.

-All right, but... ♪♪ -Oh, Jesus.

-After portraying mothers, she went on to play grandmothers.

-I'm sorry, ma'am, but we have been asked to tell guests to refrain from smoking in the house.

-Screw you.

-Grandma?

-I told you never to call me that in public.

-These colorful characters that she was choosing allowed her to play opposite a new generation of actresses and to be their role model of longevity as well as to share her experience with them.

-Please pick up the phone.

Something terrible is happening.

-Mm-hmm.

Something terrible is happening.

-Oh.

I know, I know.

It wasn't supposed to -- -You should never, ever get involved with an actor.

-I'm not involved with him.

-Isabel, actors look normal, sometimes better than normal, but deep down, there is no deep down.

-I've interviewed Shirley MacLaine for at least 25 years.

She scares me.

And I -- She scares me.

-[ Laughs ] -I think she intimidates me.

-Don't believe everything you see in the movies.

-She's fantastic.

I was not afraid of Shirley.

I was excited by Shirley.

I was inspired by Shirley.

I was in awe of Shirley, I think, but she also kind of instantly took me -- I don't -- I felt like I knew her, you know?

There was a maternal thing going on there pretty instantly.

-What's your favorite Shirley MacLaine joke?

-I think the one about the dinosaurs lounging around on the rock, and one says to the other, "Oh, I have the strangest feeling I was Shirley MacLaine in another life."

-At an age when most Hollywood actresses slip out of the public eye, MacLaine is still working.

-Okay, you wanna look right down the lens and say, "Egypt."

-Egypt.

-Egypt.

-Gliding from one register into another, she has continued to capitalize on her quirkiness, even daring to push it a bit far.

-Shirley MacLaine is also an author of 9, now 10 books.

She's just released another.

It's called "Out on a Leash: Exploring the Nature of Reality and Love."

She shares writing credits with her terrier, Terry.

What do you say to the viewer, Shirley, who says, "But she's saying that the dog writes every other chapter here," and who have a difficult time taking that seriously?

-Well, that is really their problem.

I'm so sorry for them.

[ Laughs ] -Who are you?

-Audiences would now see MacLaine as a sort of excentric great-aunt who is a delight to read, to see again in a movie theater or in a TV series.

-From war and peace, Downton still stands and the Crawleys are still in it.

Cora.

-The old gal just never rusts!

-How long is she here for?

-Who knows?

-No guest should be admitted without the date of their departure settled.

-I want to know how you are so radiant and so fabulous, movie after movie, premiere after premiere -- -Oh, I don't like premiere, Sharon.

-Everyone's always so excited to see you.

-They are, huh?

-Yeah.

-I think they like it when the sun comes up in the morning and they just can't believe that I'm coming up one more time.

-Shirley!

-I'm finding age is something to play with.

An aging person who thinks that they are at the top of their game, and everything is just perfect, who trips and falls... [ Gunshot ] ...that is kind of the base of comedy.

I'm interested in that.

-Whoa, my brakes!

Whoa, whoa!

[ Screams ] As long as I can remember my lines and be with it and be comfortable with the character, I'm fine with working until I just drop dead or something.

-Oh, I mean, I don't think you're ever gonna die.

[ Chuckles ] That's the real problem.

It's true.

-That -- That's a thought.

-Well, you're like a cat.

[ Both laugh ] And now you -- what, you got seven lives left.

-Yes!

[ Laughs ] -♪ If you should want me... ♪ -As in the opening credits of "The Last Word," which incorporates real-life photos, MacLaine's longevity itself serves up an endearing spectacle of a life wholly devoted to the screen, from the barely 20 girl to the grande dame now in her 90s.

In all these roles, she has taken impish delight in musing about the legend she's leaving behind.

It's a way of staying true to the little girl she once was and whose only wish was to be a storyteller.

-I can't imagine a better life.

I've sat back and looked at it and thought, "Oh, my, Lord.

What I haven't done is I can't think of what I would place... except I'd like to live on a wild animal farm."

[ Cheers and applause ] -Ladies and gentlemen, Shirley MacLaine!

♪♪ -MacLaine now stands as a living legend, unanimously celebrated by her peers, the last person alive who contributed to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

But she's also a paradox.

As her own daughter, Sachi, wrote, "Like any accomplished magician or striptease artist, the more she revealed, the more she concealed.

Just when you thought you had her in your sights, you blinked and she was gone."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪