Ira Owens Beaty: Who is Warren Beatty and  Shirley MacLaine’s father?

Ira Owens Beaty was an educator and the father of Warren Beatty and  Shirley MacLaine. Ira Owens Beaty’s children are both actors. Credited with ushering New Hollywood in the late 1960s, Warren Beatty’s career has spanned over six decades with numerous accolades. MacLaine is known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed, and eccentric women in most of her films, she has received numerous accolades over her seven-decade career, including Academy and Emmy Awards.

Ira Owens Beaty: Bio Summary

Who was  Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty’s father?

Ira Owens Beaty was born on 18 January 1903 in Front Royal, Virginia, United States. to her parents William Welton Beaty and Ada Virginia (Partlow) Beaty. He was not the only child of his parents- He had a sister whose name was Ruth Lavina (Beaty) Gasque.

Ira Owens Beaty studied for a Ph.D. in educational psychology at Johns Hopkins University and was a teacher and school administrator, in addition to working in real estate. He met and married Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean) who was also a drama teacher from Nova Scotia and had their two children- Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Shirley was born on April 24, 1934, and her younger brother Warren was born on March 30, 1937. Both children were born in Richmond, Virginia.

ALSO, READ; Kathlyn Corinne MacLean: Who is Warren Beatty and  Shirley MacLaine’s mother?

Though Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty share the parents and are biological siblings, they have different names which makes lots of fans wonder. Shirley was born Shirley MacLean Beaty and her brother was Henry Warren Beatty. He changed the spelling of his surname when he became an actor.

ALSO, READ; Isabel Beatty: Everything About Warren Beatty’s daughter

Ira Owens and his wife Kathlyn Corinne raised their children as Baptists. Ira Beaty moved his family from Richmond to Norfolk, and then to Arlington and Waverly, then back to Arlington eventually taking a position at Arlington’s Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in 1945. Ira Owens Beaty was also known in Richmond as a jazz musician and band leader.

Talking about his father’s profession, Warren Beaty said– “My mother and my father were teachers. My grandmother and my grandfather were teachers. This is something I really know about. Even when I was a kid, it was a profession my father couldn’t stay in, because he couldn’t make enough money.“

ALSO, READ; Benjamin Beatty: Facts About Warren Beatty’s son

Growing up, Shirley MacLaine played baseball on an all-boys team and her younger brother was a star football player at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington and was encouraged to act by the success of his sister. After they spent decades in the industry, Ira Owens Beaty is the proud father of children who have won it all in Hollywood.

Warren Beaty has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, three for Original Screenplay, and one for Adapted Screenplay – winning Best Director for Reds (1981). Beatty is the only person to have been nominated for acting, directing, writing, and producing in the same film, and he did so twice: first for Heaven Can Wait (with Buck Henry as co-director), and again for Reds.

ALSO, READ; Stephen Ira Beatty: Transgender & Facts About The Life Of Annette Bening’s Son

Shirley MacLaine has also received numerous accolades over her seven-decade career, including an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Volpi Cups, and two Silver Bears. She has been honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center Tribute in 1995, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1998, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2012, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2013.

ALSO, READ; Sachi Parker: What did Shirley MacLaine’s daughter say about her?

In an exclusive new interview with Closer Weekly, Shirley MacLaine revealed the surprising reason why she has never — and likely never will — work with her brother, Warren Beatty. “Oh, I don’t think we’d be a good team,” the actress told Closer. So how does her younger brother Warren feel about making a movie with his older sister? “[That’s] not a bad idea,” he also told CBS Sunday Morning.

What happened to Ira Owens Beaty?

 The father of actress Shirley MacLaine and actor-director Warren Beatty passed away at a Baltimore hospital, his family told Sun Sentinel. He died on 14 January 1987, four days before his 84th birthday. The cause of his death was not revealed to the public. Ira Owens Beaty is the grandfather of  Sachi Parker, Stephen Ira Beatty, Isabel Beatty, Benjamin Beatty, and Ella Beatty.