Shirley MacLaine was given the Career Achievement Award at the Boulder International Film Festival in Colorado on Saturday, to the delight of audience members and fans, according to the Denver Post.

The actress, who has an astounding 60-year career in film, can brag of a 1984 Oscar for best actress, six Emmy Awards and seven Golden Globes, among many other awards.

She is probably best known for her roles in earlier films like “The Apartment”, “Being There”, and “Terms of Endearment”, but recently made waves in the hilarious “Bernie” and the popular “Downton Abbey”.

In an interview at the Boulder Theater she recounted a piece of advice that she received from fellow actor James Cagney which she has found particularly useful. He told her,

“You walk in, you plant your feet, you look the other fella in the eye and you tell the truth.” Then she added, “I feel like you don’t just do that on screen, you do that every day of your life.”

She was last in Boulder to knock on doors and speak for failed presidential candidate George McGovern in 1974. When interviewer, Boulder International Film Festival producer Ron Bostwick, asked why she is not very active in politics anymore, she said,

“Some of those politicians who think they should be our leaders should start looking within and getting more scientifically soulful and understand what leadership is really about and what future of the human race is really about.”

Broomfield, Colorado resident Robin Bell attended the event in order to gain some insight for her Ph.D. dissertation, but seeing Shirley MacLaine was a huge bonus.

“I love her,” Bell said. “I look at creativity and she’s a creative mind. She thinks outside the box and doesn’t worry about what other people think.”

“I had to be here for this and to tell you to keep going with your films,” she said to the audience, mostly a smattering of filmmakers and film lovers. “We do what we do because we love it but honestly, I don’t think any of us have any idea how important even the smallest film is.”

So what keeps this woman going? She says good advice, “…a good pair of shoes and a hat for the sun.”

She left the audience with a thrill when she hinted that she might come back to Boulder to do her one woman show.

Trivia fans, she is also the big sister of actor Warren Beatty. Who knew? Not me.

Image via YouTube