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George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an
Academy Award-winning American actor, director, producer and screenwriter, known
for his role in the first five seasons of the long-running television drama ER
(1994–present) and his rise as an "A-List" movie star in contemporary American
cinema. Clooney has notably been able to balance his cinematic performances in
big-budget blockbusters with more modestly-budgeted art films and more
commercially-risky projects, while expanding his prominence as a producer.
****
Family
life
Born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised in Augusta,
Kentucky, Clooney is the son of Nina Bruce Warren and Cincinnati news anchor and
TV host Nick Clooney. His paternal aunt is actress and singer Rosemary Clooney,
and he is the cousin of actor Miguel Ferrer; another cousin, Gabriel Ferrer
(married to Debby Boone), is an Episcopal priest. He is of mostly Irish American
heritage, although he also has some distant German ancestry. Between 1989 and
1993 he was married to actress Talia Balsam, the daughter of actor Martin
Balsam.
Clooney is a strong supporter of the Democratic
Party and known for his leftist view on many issues. He currently has a villa on
Lake Como in Italy, where he spends much of his time. He also has a small villa
in Lima, Peru.
Film
career
Clooney, a young college dropout from Kentucky who
spent most of his "struggling actor" years riding to auditions on a bicycle, got
his start in Los Angeles. His first major role was in the short lived television
medical comedy/drama, E/R (not to be confused with the much later "ER" of the
mid '90s). Additionally, he played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life.
His first significant break was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom
Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's overbearing boss Booker Brooks. Another early
appearance was in 1988's Return of the Killer Tomatoes. In 1987 he was also in
the film Combat Academy. Clooney would achieve stardom when he was selected to
play Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC hit drama ER.
Prior to his success on ER, he befriended another
actor named Grant Heslov, a close friend and frequent collaborator with whom
Clooney later co-wrote Good Night, and Good Luck. Heslov is also the president
of Section 8 Entertainment, Clooney's and director Steven Soderbergh's
production company. Clooney said in an interview that he was driving an RV
through the country with Heslov, (who was getting over a broken engagement),
when he got a phone call from his agent telling him that NBC just picked up ER
for a full season. Clooney said, "I think I just got my career."
Clooney has since starred in movies such as From
Dusk Till Dawn (1996), One Fine Day (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), Out of Sight
(1998), 3 Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Welcome to Collinwood (2002), Intolerable Cruelty
(2003), and Ocean's Twelve (2004), along with guest appearances on sitcoms such
as Roseanne and Friends. He made his debut as a film director in the 2002
feature Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an adaptation of the autobiography of
TV producer Chuck Barris.
In 1995, Clooney received a tape version of The
Spirit of Christmas, the video greeting card which would inspire South Park. He
thought it was so funny that he made copies and sent it around the LA area; Matt
Stone and Trey Parker were so thankful for his help that they invited him to
play a role in the show, and he ended up voicing Stan Marsh's gay dog Sparky in
the episode Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride, a role with no dialogue except
normal dog noises. He later appeared in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and
Uncut. Despite this history, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lampooned
Clooney for his outspoken political views in their feature film Team America:
World Police. However, Clooney later said that he would have been offended if he
weren't made fun of in the film.
Many speculated he would follow the same career
path as David Caruso who infamously left N.Y.P.D. Blue at the height of its
success for a failed screen career. As a stipulation in a new contract, Clooney
would have to return to ER in an occasional guest spot, which he only had to do
once when his film career ignited.
On January 31, the nominees for the 2006 Academy
Awards were announced. Clooney was nominated for Achievement in Directing and
Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck and Best Performance By An
Actor In A Supporting Role for Syriana. He became the first person in Oscar
history to be nominated for directing one movie and acting in another in the
same year. Clooney was also nominated for the David Lean Award for Achievement
in Directing by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts BAFTA for Good
Night, and Good Luck.
Clooney's portrayal of Bob Barnes in Syriana won
him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His character, and story of
Syriana, are based loosely on former CIA agent Robert Baer and his memoirs of
being an agent in the Middle East.
Clooney has said that he plans to devote more of
his energies to directing, after the success of Good Night, and Good Luck. On
directing, Clooney said it's a great industry to grow old in, as he felt acting
wasn't. He will next appear onscreen in The Good German which is directed by
frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh.
In 2001, Soderbergh and Clooney set up the movie
production studio Section Eight Productions.
Other
ventures
On July 8, 2005, news reports said that George
Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon would be working with Cindy Crawford's
husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas. On
August 29, 2005, Clooney officially announced his involvement with the Las
Ramblas Resort project. The project never came to fruition, however, and the
property on which the resort was to be built was sold in June 2006.
After serving as pitchman outside the U.S. for
products like Fiat and Martini vermouth, Clooney lent his voice to a series of
Budweiser ads beginning in 2005. Clooney had been criticized by actor Russell
Crowe for such extracurricular pursuits. Clooney responded by criticizing
Crowe's frequent endorsements of his rock and roll band.
Politics
Mr. Clooney is a self-described political
"liberal."
Clooney's father, Nick, ran as a Democrat in the
2004 election for a seat in the House of Representatives representing Kentucky's
4th Congressional district. He challenged Republican Geoff Davis for the open
seat. Many observers, citing the star power and funding that Clooney's famous
son would be able to draw, rated the race as highly competitive, and it quickly
gained a high profile as one of few seriously contested House races. Clooney
lost the election, gaining 44% of the vote to Davis's 54%. The conservative
demographics of the northern Kentucky Fourth District, which were at odds with
Clooney's mostly liberal leanings, have been cited as a major reason for Nick
Clooney's loss.
He appeared as a guest in The Daily Show,
supporting his then new movie, Good Night, and Good Luck, but his father was a
major part of his discussion with Jon Stewart.
Along with his public criticisms of Jack Abramoff
and other Republicans, Clooney once remarked, "Charlton Heston announced again
today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's." When asked if he went too far with
his comment, he said, "I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National
Rifle Association. He deserves whatever anyone says about him." (quote, response
from Heston).
Speaking about the 2003-2006 Iraq war: "You can't
beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of
people revenge-seeking. These days it only matters who's in charge. Right now
that's us — for a while at least. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs
and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win. ...I believe
(Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing
anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore." (quote).
On January 16, 2006, during his acceptance speech
for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
for Syriana, Clooney paused to thank sarcastically the disgraced lobbyist Jack
Abramoff before adding, “Who would name their kid Jack with the word ‘off’ at
the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up!”
Clooney is active in advocating a resolution of the
Darfur conflict.
Medical
problems
Clooney suffered from Bell's palsy for a time while
he was in high school.
In 2005, during the filming of a scene for the
movie Syriana in which Clooney's character is tied to a chair and tortured, the
chair was accidentally kicked over and Clooney hit his head on the concrete
floor, tearing his dura mater. His doctors dismissed his complaints until he
began leaking spinal fluid from the nose; he has since undergone surgery to
bolster his spine with metal bolts. Clooney had to cancel some promotional
appearances and, finding it impossible to obtain insurance coverage to make a
film, had to put up his house for collateral. He has dismissed media reports
that he contemplated suicide following surgery, insisting that he was simply
talking about the idea of having to live in severe pain for the rest of his
life.
Filmography
Golden Girls (TV) (1987) (Detective Bobby Hopkins
in episode #2.25, "To Catch a Neighbor")
Murder, She Wrote (TV) (1986/1987) (guest star)
Combat Academy (1987)
Grizzly II: The Predator (1987) (unreleased)
Return to Horror High (1987)
Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)
Red Surf (1990)
Unbecoming Age (1992)
The Harvest (1993)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Curdled (Didn't appear in film, photo showed. 1996)
One Fine Day (1996)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Full Tilt Boogie (1997) (documentary)
The Peacemaker (1997)
Waiting for Woody (1998) (short subject)
Out of Sight (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) (voice)
The Book That Wrote Itself (1999) (Cameo)
Three Kings (1999)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Spy Kids (2001)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Starbuck Holger Meins (2002) (documentary)
Welcome to Collinwood (2002) (also executive
producer and producer)
Solaris (2002)
Far From Heaven (2002) (executive producer)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) (also
director)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Ocean's Twelve (2004) (also executive producer)
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) (also director
and co-writer)
Syriana (2005) (also producer and winner 2006
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor)
The Good German (2006) (post production.)
Michael Clayton (2006) (To be released early 2007)
(also producer)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Hail Caesar (2007)
Preceded by:
Val Kilmer Actors to portray Batman
1997-2001 Succeeded by:
Bruce Thomas
Preceded by:
Morgan Freeman
for Million Dollar Baby Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor
2005
for Syriana Succeeded by:
TBD
* * * *
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Date Article Copied:
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