Shirley MacLaine, 91, Enjoys Cocktails at Malibu Hotspot

Shirley MacLaine was still living life to the fullest when she was spotted out in Malibu on Saturday in a rare sighting.

The 91-year-old Oscar winner was glimpsed enjoying the sun’s rays while dining outdoors at one of her favorite spots in the coastal city, Kristy’s Village Cafe.

Shirley, who was joined by an aide at the restaurant, was said last year to be searching for an assistant who needed to be willing and able to have a nightly cocktail with her as she reminisced about her legendary career.

The actress kept her look cool and casual with a navy blue sweatshirt and a purple zip-up hoodie, along with gray–green sweatpants.

She added a touch of style to the low-key ensemble with a set of large round-frame sunglasses and a piercing scarlet hat with a wide brim.

Shirley had a cocktail out on the table, and she and her male assistant appeared to order some food as well.

Shirley — who is the older sister of fellow Hollywood icon Warren Beatty, 88 — celebrated her 91st birthday in April.

The Terms Of Endearment actress previously opened up about her impressive longevity while speaking with People last year. 

She credited her decades-long devotion to dance — which she began studying at just three-years-old when her mother enrolled her in ballet classes — for helping her to remain spry at her advanced age.

‘I started my dance training at age three and stopped at about 67. It taught me discipline, loving music, working with people and dealing with pain,’ she shared.

Shirley also said she was thankful that she could ‘keep working’ even in recent years, adding, ‘I have my friends and I am really healthy.’

Shirley, who was joined by an aide at the restaurant, was said last year to be searching for an assistant who could make a daily cocktail at 5 p.m. and who didn’t mind sharing one with her.

Insiders told the Daily Mail that MacLaine had asked friends if they could recommend someone who was a big enough fan of her movies that they could chat together over drinks about her lengthy career.

Sources added that the actress had promised to be ‘very generous’ with the assistant’s compensation. 

Shirley’s astounding run of screen credits goes all the way back to 1955, when she made her debut — in one of the lead roles — in Alfred Hitchcock’s black comedy The Trouble With Harry, though she had already become a Broadway star with stints in Oklahoma! and The Pajama Game.

‘I was this little pixie out of the chorus that didn’t know what I was doing,’ she told W Magazine in 2017. 

Although she later came to believe Hitchcock was more focused on casting ideal actors than shaping their performances, it worked out for her because she was ‘perfect for that character.’

Awards bodies agreed, and she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year — Actress for The Trouble With Harry.

She had a one-two punch that same year when she had a major romantic role in Frank Tashlin’s classic Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy, Artists And Models, in which she played Jerry’s bumbling love interest.

Despite a run of hits and classics in the 1950s and ’60s — including Some Came Running (1958), Ask Any Girl (1959), The Apartment (1960), The Children’s Hour (1961), Irma la Douce (1963), Sweet Charity (1969) and Two Mules For Sister Sara (1970) — it wasn’t until the 1980s that she won her only Oscar in the Best Actress category for the beloved romantic dramedy Terms Of Endearment (1983), which costarred Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson.

The hit film also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson.

Some of her later performances include Bewitched (2005), Bernie (2011) and The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013).

Although Shirley’s pace has slowed somewhat in recent years, she still averages about a film or TV role per year.

Her most recent appearances were a two-episode guest arc on the acclaimed comedy Only Murders In The Building from 2022, and last month she starred in American Dreamers with Peter Dinklage, though the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022.

While speaking to Extra in 2024, Shirley revealed her surprising plans for her 90th birthday.

Rather than having a big blowout, she said she would be ‘be on a set’ in Atlantic City working on a new project. 

That work ethic has kept her active in Hollywood for nearly seven decades, but she admitted that things just aren’t like they used to be.

‘The glamour’s gone out a bit, I’m afraid,’ she said of Hollywood and the changes that the rise of streaming services has wrought on it while speaking with Extra. ‘I think it’s entirely different…’

Despite changing times, Shirley still has plenty of projects under her belt. Earlier this month, Variety reported that she will be featured in the road-trip comedy Lucy Boomer alongside Ansel Elgort.

The film, which is set to begin filming in February in New Mexico, is to be directed by Howard Deutch of Pretty In Pink fame. 

Shirley, who made her film debut six years before her younger brother Warren Beatty had his debut in 1961’s Splendor In The Grass, is often in Malibu, but she also splits her time at her ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, about an hour’s drive north of Sante Fe.