When most people get older, they tend to slow down but there are some who seem to be living their life as normal, despite the aging process. This includes Academy Award-winning actress Shirley McClain.
Shirley McClain may be 89 years of age, but she doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit. She has been active in her career for some seven decades, and it seems as if she has been around to do almost everything in her life.
As a star of Steel Magnolia, she is a well-known actress. When you hear her stories, however, they seem quite different than what you would hear from others that were active during the same time.
In the Steel Magnolia movie, she was an actress that was known for her short temper. In real life, she says: “Not that much bothers me.
“I think attitudes are a choice. Anger is a choice, peace is a choice, sarcasm — which is what I’m good at — is a choice.”
She also claims that she is living the ‘perfect’ life today. She likes sleeping and eating whatever she wants and spends a lot of her time at her ranch in New Mexico along with her rat Terriers.
Shirley was born in 1934 and got her start on Broadway in New York City. Eventually, she would play in The Trouble with Harry, an Alfred Hitchcock comedy in 1955.
In speaking of Alfred Hitchcock, Shirley said that he was a hoot. She was 21 years old at the time that she worked with him.
She said: “I mean, thank God I wasn’t tall, thin, ethereal, beautiful and mysterious, or I probably would have hated him.”
In the past 70 years, she has started some 50 films and continues to be passionate about acting. She even appeared in the television series recently, ‘Only Murders in the Building.’
“I’ve also stayed in the business and never thought about quitting because I wanted to pay for plane tickets to travel. I didn’t socialize Hollywood style,” she explained. ‘I’d rather travel to a country I hadn’t been to. So when I think about my life, I’m not sure I wouldn’t put the travels a bit above show business,” she said.
A lot of her best memories come from spending time in nature. On occasion, she does get to Hollywood but she would rather be out in the wilderness on her ranch and getting closer to nature. That gives her her energy and strength and she also loves reading when she visits her house in Malibu.
Her advice to others has been to “give it up and learn to amalgamate with nature.” It’s obvious that she really cares about the world around her.
One subject that has always been of interest to many people is her love life. She was married to Steve Parker, a producer and businessman for some three decades and they had a daughter in 1956. She has also openly said that she has had additional relationships while she was married.
Sachi Parker revealed something interesting about her mother a few years ago. In a memoir, she wrote that Shirley told her that Steve wasn’t her real father. She said that the real father was named Paul and he was an astronaut. Shirley denied it in a statement that was very straightforward.
She said: “It’s a painful moment for me as a mother and as someone who values the truth. I’m shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction. I’ve praised her lovingly and truthfully in my own autobiographies. I’m sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter for whom I’ve only ever wanted the best.”
On the other hand, Sachi has held her ground that her biological father is not who he is.
In 2011, Shirley was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and they discussed her relationship with her ex-husband. She has been open about her view on relationships and sexuality and in 2012, revealed that she had slept with two prime ministers, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock.
When she was asked about Trudeau, she said: “He was nice. He was very authoritatively intelligent. And I loved his kids, they were really sweet. Adorable. Very mischievous.”
Of course, she made these claims and they are unverified but it’s still interesting that she made them in the first place.
Shirley McClain has entertained us in many different ways over the years. We wish her many more years of successful life.