George Clooney

George Clooney
File:George Clooney at Incirlik.jpg Clooney at the Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, 7 December 2001
Born	George Timothy Clooney
Height	5' 9 1/2" (1.77 m)
Spouse	Talia Balsam (1989-1993)

George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an Academy Award and two-time Golden Globe winning American actor, director, producer and screenwriter, known for his role in the first five seasons of the long-running television drama ER (1994–99), 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 films on serious topics and more commercially risky projects, while expanding his prominence as a movie producer.

Early Life

Clooney, an Irish American, was born in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Warren, was a former pageant queen while his father, Nick Clooney, is a journalist, anchorman, game show and American Movie Classics host, as well as a politician from the state of Kentucky. Clooney has a sister, Ada, and is the nephew of singer Rosemary Clooney and actor Jose Ferrer, as well as the cousin of their son Miguel Ferrer. From an early age, Clooney would hang around his father's sets, often participating in shows, where he proved to be a crowd favorite. Rosemary Clooney encouraged him to become a comedian.

Clooney spent his earlier years in Columbus, Ohio, attending St. Michael's elementary school and having a Catholic upbringing. Later, he attended Kentucky's Augusta High School, which he graduated in 1979, but was a poor student. George did excel in athletics; baseball in particular. He was invited to try out for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but was not offered a contract.

He briefly attended Northern Kentucky University from 1979-81, but did not graduate, earning no more than freshman-level credits. He also very briefly attended the University of Cincinnati, but also did not graduate from there. His college time was spent mainly on girls and partying.

He spent a season picking tobacco for his uncle Jack, then in 1982 took off for LA in his 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, with $300 in his pocket.

Career

George Clooney spent most of his "struggling actor" years riding to auditions on a bicycle. His first major role came in 1984 in the television medical comedy/drama, E/R, though it too takes place in a hospital it should not be confused with ER. 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, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk and then as a sexy detective on Sisters. Clooney achieved 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, at the time, 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."

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, 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 & Uncut. Despite their history, the shows creators, Parker and 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 hadn't been made fun of in the film.

Initial Success

Clooney continued to star in movies while appearing in ER, his first major hollywood role coming with From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He followed it's success with The Peacemaker, the first movie from Dreamworks SKG studio. Clooney was then cast as the new Batman, following Val Kilmer, in Batman & Robin, the movie is still, today considered the worst Batman movie ever made. And, in 1998 he starred in Out of Sight, opposite Jennifer Lopez. It should be noted, this was the first of the many times Clooney would collaborate with director Steven Soderbergh.

In 1999 he left the cast of ER to pursue his film career full-time, though, as a stipulation in his new contract, Clooney would return for occasional guest spots, which he only had to do once.

Movie Star

After leaving ER, Clooney began to star in major Hollywood successes, such as, Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In 2001, he teamed up with Soderbergh again for Ocean's Eleven, the movie was a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film Ocean's Eleven. Alongside Clooney, starred, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, and Julia Roberts. To this date, it remains Clooney's most commercial successful movie, earning approximately $444,200. The movie led to two sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. Around the same time, 2001, he along with Soderbergh, set up the production studio Section Eight Productions.

Clooney on the set of Ocean's Twelve in Winnetka, Illinois, 2004.

He made his debut as a director in the 2002 with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an adaptation of the autobiography of TV producer Chuck Barris. Though the movie didn't do well at the box office, Clooney's direction was praised among critics and general audiences, alike.

In 2005, Clooney starred in Syriana, based loosely on former CIA agent Robert Baer and his memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. The same year he directed, produced, and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck, both of which recieved wide acclaim. At 78th Academy Awards, Clooney was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as Best Supporting Actor 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. He would go on to win only for his role in Syriana

Clooney has stated, after the success of Good Night, and Good Luck, he plans to devote more of his energy to directing, . On directing, Clooney said "it's a great industry to grow old in", as he felt acting wasn't.

Most recently, he appeared in The Good German, a film-noir directed by frequent collaborator, Steven Soderbergh, set in post-World War II Germany.

Clooney is one of only two people to have been given the title of Sexiest Man Alive twice by People Magazine, first in 1997 and again in 2006. The other is Brad Pitt. Clooney also received the American Cinematheque Award in October 2006, an award that honours an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of motion pictures.

Other Ventures

On July 8th, 2005, news reports said that 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. And, on August 29th, the same year, Clooney officially announced his involvement with the Las Ramblas Resort project. However, the project never came to fruition, and the property on which the resort was to be built was sold in June of 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 (which were still running as of October 2006). Clooney was later criticized by actor Russell Crowe for such extracurricular pursuits. Clooney then responded by pointing out hypocrisy in the form of Crowe's frequent endorsements of his extracurricular rock and roll band.

Personal Life

Clooney's father, Nick Clooney, a politician, is noted for saying

I spent the first part of my life being referred to as Rosemary Clooney’s brother, and now I am spending the last part of my life being referred to as George Clooney’s Dad.

Clooney had a 300 pound pig, named "Max," that lived with him for 18 years. Max died on December 1st, 2006.

Clooney has only been married once, to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. Clooney has stated he has no intent or desire to have children. His girlfriends, are rumoured to have included:

• Dedee Pfeiffer (actress, dated mid-1980s)
• Kelly Preston (actress, dated 1987-89)
• Denise Crosby (actress, dated 1990s)
• Kimberly Russell (actress, dated 1995)
• Karen Duffy (actress, dated 1995-96)
• Celine Balitran (model, dated 1996-99)
• Brooke Langton (actress, dated 1999)
• Lisa Snowden (model/actress, dated 2000-01)
• Traylor Howard (actress, dated circa 2000)
• Julia Roberts (actress, reportedly dated 2001)
• Renée Zellweger (actress, dated 2001)
• Mariella Frostrup (TV hostess, dated 2002)
• Jennifer Siebel (actress, dated 2002)
• Kimberly Jacobs
• Krista Allen (actress, dated 2002-04)

Medical History

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 his nose; he has since undergone surgery to bolster his spine with plastic bolts. Clooney had to cancel some promotional appearances and, finding it impossible to obtain insurance coverage, had to put up his house for collateral in order to make his second film as a director, Good Night, and Good Luck. He 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.

After a trip to Darfur, Sudan in 2006, Clooney suffered from symptoms that he thought were malaria. It turned out that it was food poisoning from the flight back home.

Politics

Clooney is a self-described political liberal. Speaking about the Iraq war: "You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge. 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."

Clooney is noted for his public criticisms of Jack Abramoff and other Republicans. 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. His efforts include an episode of Oprah and speaking at the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C. on April 30th, 2005.

There has been some movement to try to convince Clooney to run for political office in his home state of Kentucky, including talk of a Clooney candidacy for US Senate against incoming Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2008. Clooney's remark on the possibility of his entering politics, however, has been: "Run for office? No. I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs, and I've been to too many parties".

Clooney supports Barack Obama for a 2008 presidential run.

Comments on Charlton Heston

Clooney remarked in January 2003, while accepting a special filmmaking achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, "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".

Asked in an October 2003 CNN interview whether it was "in poor taste in retrospect?", Clooney replied: "Yes, oh, yes. It was in poor taste. It was a funny joke.... I have a lot of good friends who — in fact, I have a very good friend who is dying of Alzheimer's. And it was just a funny joke".

Charlton Heston's response, after noting the "class" of the actor's late aunt, singer-actress Rosemary Clooney: "It just goes to show that sometimes class does skip a generation".

Then aged 79, the verteran movie star said further: "I don't know the man — never met him, never even spoken to him, but I feel sorry for George Clooney — one day he may get Alzheimer's disease. I served my country in World War II. I survived that — I guess I can survive some bad words from this fellow". Bill O'Reilly, on the O'Reilly Factor, sounded off about the press' lack of reporting Clooney's comments. "Just imagine if someone mocked Christopher Reeve's paralysis," O'Reilly added. "The Hollywood press and the elite media would go nuts, but very little has been said about Clooney's insensitivity".

"We've been inundated with e-mails from people across the country expressing outrage," Elizabeth Wilson, of the Alzheimer's Association, indicated. "It was a totally insensitive joke at the expense of a man who had the courage to come forward, reveal that he had been disgnosed with this tragic disease — and by doing so gave hope to others that attention would be focused on it and perhaps hasten a cure. It was particularly hurtful to the four million Americans who suffer from Alzheimer's and the 18 million more who love and care for them".

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Return to Horror High	Oliver
	Grizzly II: The Predator		Uncredited
	Combat Academy	Maj. Biff Woods
	Murder, She Wrote	Kip Howard	Episode: No Laughing Murder
	The Golden Girls	Detective Bobby Hopkins	Episode: To Catch a Neighbor
1988	Return of the Killer Tomatoes	Matt Stevens
1990	Red Surf	Remar
1991	Roseanne	Booker Brooks	11 episodes, 1988-1991
1992	Unbecoming Age	Mac
1993	The Harvest	Lip Syncing Transvestite
1993 - 1994	Sisters	Detective James Falconer
1994 - 1995	ER	Dr Doug Ross	106 episodes
1995	Friends (TV series)	Dr. Michael Mitchell	Episode: The One with Two Parts: Part 2
1996	From Dusk Till Dawn	Seth Gecko
	One Fine Day	Jack Taylor
	Curdled	Seth Gecko	Uncredited Didn't appear in film, photo shown
1997	Full-Tilt Boogie	Himself	Documentary
	The Peacemaker	Thomas Devoe
	Batman & Robin	Batman/ Bruce Wayne
	South Park	Sparky the Dog (voice)	Episode: Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride
1998	The Thin Red Line	Captain Bosche
	Out of Sight	Jack Foley
	Waiting for Woody	Himself	Comedic Short
1999	Three Kings	Major Archie Gates
	The Book That Wrote Itself	Himself
	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	Voice of Doctor Gouache
	The Limey	TV Interviewee
2000	The Perfect Storm	Billy 'Skip' Tyne
	Fail Safe	Col. Jack Grady
	O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Ulysses Everett McGill
2001	Ocean's Eleven	Danny Ocean
	Spy Kids	Devlin
2002	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	CIA Agent Jim Byrd	Director Credit
	Solaris	Chris Kelvin
	Welcome to Collinwood	Jerzy	Producer Credit
	Starbuck Holger Meins		Documentary
2003	Intolerable Cruelty	Miles Massey
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Devlin
2004	Ocean's Twelve	Danny Ocean	Executive Producer Credit
2005	Good Night, and Good Luck.	Fred Friendly	Director and Co-Writer Credits
	Syriana	Bob Barnes	Producer; 2005 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2006	The Good German	Jake Geismar
2007	Michael Clayton	Michael Clayton	To be released fall 2007; Producer Credit
	Ocean's Thirteen	Danny Ocean	Post Production
2008	Burn After Reading		(TBA)
	Leatherheads	Jimmy 'Dodge' Connelly	Film in Production; Screenplay writer and film director

Director Credits

Year	Title
2002	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2005	Good Night, and Good Luck
	Unscripted

Producer Credits

Credit	Movie
Executive Producer	Ocean's Thirteen

External links

• George Clooney at IMDb
• Template:Nndb name
• NPR interview 10/2005
• Clooney Studio
• George Clooney Video Clips
• Text, Audio, and Video of Speech to the United Nations Security Council on Darfur
• Text, Audio, Video of Clooney's Oscar Award Acceptance Address for Best Supporting Actor
• George Clooney interview for Oceans Twelve