HONORED: Shirley MacLaine to receive AFI Life Achievement Award!

Shirley  MacLaine has been chosen to receive the 40th AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film, according to Greg in Hollywood.

Her brother, Warren Beatty, got the AFI Award a few years ago. Other past winners include Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Orson Wells, Robert Wise, Barbra Streisand, Henry Fonda, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, among others.

It’s so well-deserved for a career that includes her Oscar winning performance in Terms of Endearment and Academy Award nominated performances in The Turning Point, The Apartment, Irma La Douce and Some Came Running.

Memorable roles from early in her career also include The Trouble With Harry, The Children’s Hour, Can-Can, Around the World in 80 Days and Sweet Charity.


Film roles dried up in the 70s and MacLaine focused on writing,television and politics before coming back strong with The Turning Point in 1977 which earned Oscar nods for her and Anne Bancroft.

“Shirley MacLaine is a powerhouse of personality that has illuminated screens large and small across six decades,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the American Film Institute’s Board of Trustees.  “From ingénue to screen legend, Shirley has entertained a global audience through song, dance, laughter and tears, and her career as writer, director and producer is even further evidence of her passion for the art form and her seemingly boundless talents.  There is only one Shirley MacLaine, and it is AFI’s honor to present her with its 40th Life Achievement Award.”
The award will be presented to MacLaine at a gala tribute on Thursday, June 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA.  TV Land will broadcast the 40th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute on TV Land later in June 2012.