Shirley MacLaine has named an iconic Hollywood star she offered to sleep with but who rejected her advances.
The 90-year-old actress just released her photographic memoir The Wall Of Life: Pictures And Stories From This Marvelous Lifetime.
Within its pages, she talks about her love life, which was populated by top names from Hollywood heartthrob Robert Mitchum to Soviet filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky.
Many of her affairs overlapped with her open marriage to businessman Steve Parker, who was her husband from 1952 until their divorce in 1984.
However, the book also contains a photo of Shirley with a dashing Hollywood star whom she could not conquer despite her best efforts.
Shirley MacLaine has named an iconic Hollywood star she offered to sleep with but who rejected her advances; pictured 1990
Under a photo of herself with Morgan Freeman, Shirley wrote tantalizingly, “I proposed to him and he turned me down.”
Morgan broke into Hollywood in 1989 with a series of films, including the drama Driving Miss Daisy, for which he earned an Oscar for Best Actor.
At the time, he was already with his second wife Myrna Colley-Lee, whom he was married to from 1984 until their divorce in 2010.
By 1989, Shirley had already been a star for decades, first making waves on Broadway and then launching her film career in 1955 with her film debut The Trouble With Harry, a black comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Although Morgan and Shirley have both been Hollywood classics for more than 35 years, and he is only three years younger than them, they have never starred in a film together.
During her marriage to Steve Parker, which produced her daughter Sachi, 68, Shirley enjoyed flirting with a wide variety of famous faces.
Soviet director Andrei Konchalovsky, who made a critically acclaimed film adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in his home country, transitioned to a career in Hollywood in 1980 – and Shirley says her affair with him was the reason he moved to America.
She also had a relationship with Robert Mitchum, but “wasn’t involved deeply enough” with him to leave her husband, she wrote.
Under a photo of herself with Morgan Freeman, Shirley seductively wrote: ‘I proposed to him and he turned me down’; Morgan pictured in 1988
When he became a movie star in 1989, he was already with his second wife Myrna Colley-Lee, whom he was married to from 1984 until their divorce in 2010; pictured 1990
By 1989, Shirley had been a star for decades, first on Broadway and then in 1955 with her film career; pictured at the 1987 Oscars
The 90-year-old actress just released her photographic memoir The Wall Of Life: Pictures And Stories From This Marvelous Lifetime
Within its pages, she opens up about her love life, which was populated by top names like Hollywood heartthrob Robert Mitchum; the pair are depicted in the 1962 film Two For The Seesaw
‘And besides, too much depended on us staying married. But Mitchum was a very intelligent, very interesting man, and he was also married.”
On the other hand, Robert “didn’t have much of a sense of humor,” wrote Shirley, who appeared with him in 1962’s Two For The Seesaw and 1964’s What A Way To Go.
Journalist Pete Hamill was one of her amours during her marriage, as was Andrew Peacock, once leader of the Australian Liberal Party.
However, Shirley insisted he “never saw a future with any of these guys except Steve,” who lived in Japan and had a mistress there. ‘It was enough to have an affair. And it wasn’t deceptive. Everyone was aware of the situation.’
Elsewhere in the book, Shirley said – presumably tongue-in-cheek – that she slept with all her leading men except Jack Lemmon and Jack Nicholson.
Many of her affairs overlapped with her open marriage to businessman Steve Parker, who was her husband from 1952 until their divorce in 1984; pictured 1964
Although Morgan and Shirley have both been Hollywood favorites for over 35 years, and he is only three years younger than them, they have never starred in a film together; Shirley imagined 2023
Shirley is pictured with Jack Nicholson on the set of their 1983 Oscar-winning tearjerker Terms Of Endearment
Jack Lemmon starred with Shirley in Billy Wilder’s classic 1960 film The Apartment and then in the same director’s 1963 musical comedy Irma La Douce.
Shirley described him as ‘a sweet boy’, but explained that their friendship was strictly platonic, and joked to him. People that he was ‘like a sister to me’.
Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson and Shirley both earned an Oscar for Terms Of Endearment, James L. Brooks’ 1983 tearjerker.
“He made me laugh all the time. He was one of my favorite people,” Shirley wrote as she reflected on their connection. “I don’t think he would have been my type to have an affair with anyway.” I would laugh too much.’
She also waxed rhapsodic about Nicolas Cage, her co-star in the 1994 film Guarding Tess, but noted that they never had a sexual connection either.
‘Oh, I love Nicolas. I love Nicholas. He listened to my advice about becoming a star. Yes, I really liked him, but he wasn’t attracted to me,” she said.