[1] Her acting career combined with her family name made her recognisable in Canadian film, television and national politics.

[2][3] Douglas's acting career began in 1950 with a role in the Regina Little Theatre entry at the Dominion Drama Festival,[5] where she won the best actress award.

In 1952 Shirley graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and stayed in England for several years, performing for theatre and television, before returning to Canada in 1957.

She portrayed prominent feminist Nellie McClung, family matriarch and business woman May Bailey in the television series Wind at My Back, Hagar Shipley in Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, and even characters in popular science fiction series like The Silver Surfer and Flash Gordon.

In 1997, Douglas appeared on stage with her son Kiefer Sutherland at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and at the National Arts Centre in The Glass Menagerie.

She became involved in the American Civil Rights Movement, the campaign against the Vietnam War, and later on behalf of immigrants and women.