Meet 60s star Shirley MacLaine’s famous daughter – who starred alongside Demi Moore

Despite being the only daughter of the American actress, Sachi was primarily raised in Japan by her father after her famous parents parted ways when she was just two years old. She would spend her summer holidays in Los Angeles. 

Now 69 years old, her youth was spent studying at Gakushuin University in Tokyo and pursuing a variety of different career paths before venturing into acting, including a ski instructor in New Zealand, a waitress in Hawaii, and a flight attendant for Qantas Airways. 

In an interview in 1984, Sachi revealed that her mom “was always just a phone call away and I never felt abandoned or deserted by her”.

In 2013, Sachi claimed she was abandoned in tell-all memoir called Lucky Me: My Life With – and Without – My Mom, Shirley MacLaine – they were later estranged.

Shirley once added about becoming a mother: “I never would have given up my work to stay home. That was never a consideration, and Sachi would have felt the frustration had I done it.”

Sachi first joined the entertainment industry in the 1980s and drew on her mom’s famous connections to score her debut role, appearing as Dorothy Jenks in the television series Hotel. 

She got her big break in 1985, when she starred as Bobbi in the crime drama Stick, directed by Burt Reynolds.

The budding star was also cast in Back to the Future, About Last Night with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, and in Peggy Sue Got Married, featuring Kathleen Turner. 

She steadily built up her acting credits to include more prominent roles in Hollywood films, including Belle, opposite Bill Murray’s character, in 1988’s Scrooged and as Libby Ohiemacher in the drama Welcome Home. 

Sachi told the Los Angeles Times in 1991 that her mother told her “she had a sense ever since I was a kid that I could act, but she never mentioned it to me”. 

Sachi tied the knot with investment banker Frank H. Murray on 24 July 1993 and moved to Houston, Texas. 

During their marriage, they welcomed two children: a son, Frank Murray Jr., in 1997, and a daughter, Arin Murray, born in 1999. 

The actress and banker decided to part ways and filed for divorce in 2011 after nearly 18 years together. While married, Sachi mostly pressed pause on her acting career to focus on her husband and her children’s home life.  

Following their separation, Sachi moved to Greenwich, Connecticut and kept a low profile, choosing to raise her children away from the limelight. 

In an interview with the Hartford Courant, she said: “I was the good wifey-wifey for so long … safe and sound in my little cocoon and living in Greenwich with all the country clubs and all that [expletive].”