WHY IS HE FAMOUS
After five years on one of NBC's most popular dramas, George Clooney went from ER to the A-list, with box-office hits such asThree Kings (1999), Syriana (2005), Michael Clayton (2007) (which he also directed), and Burn After Reading (2008). He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana, and he might finally get that ever-elusive Academy Award for Best Actor for his latest role in Jason Reitman's Up in the Air.
George Clooney Quote
"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."
95 MAGNETISM
George Clooney is the epitome of a class act. The man has been at the top of People magazine's Most Beautiful People list since he had us convinced he'd been to med school, with no signs of him dropping off anytime soon. He's dated a plethora of babes (Lisa Snowdon for example), making Leonardo DiCaprio look like he's barely scratched the surface of babedom in his amateur philandering.
Part of his charm? George Clooney always dresses sharply and looks debonair, no matter if he's stepping out onto a red carpet or taking his date on a motorbike ride across the Italian countryside. He's currently linked to Italian TV personality Elisabetta Canalis who might be the one beauty capable of turning Hollywood's most iconic bachelor into a one-woman man.
83 SUCCESS
George Clooney has had a bumpy ride up the Hollywood ladder. He started acting seriously at age 21, and after appearing in about 15 failed TV shows, he got his big break and on ER. He called it quits after five years and left the show for a film career.
His record in Hollywood had been spotty, but he seems to have turned things around with his big-screen hit, The Perfect Storm. George Clooney also received critical acclaim and a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his part in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, even though the film didn't do very well at the box office. He has filled the boots of Batman in one installment of the franchise, but the movie did not perform to expectations and therefore marked his only appearance has the Caped Crusader. Yet, the films he's been involved with on multiple levels, from acting to directing and producing -- flicks like Michael Clayton andLeatherheads -- have been met with high praise. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana and just might pick up a matching bookend -- the Oscar for Best Actor -- for his work in 2009's Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman.
GEORGE CLOONEYBIOGRAPHY
George Timothy Clooney was born May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to parents Nick, a TV newscaster and talk-show host, and Nina, a former Miss Kentucky pageant runner-up.
George Clooney hails from a family that knows all about being in the spotlight, from his father Nick and his aunt, renowned singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, to cousin Miguel Ferrer, an actor. He also has an older sister, Ada, who lives a less high-profile life.
george clooney on roseanne
A young George Clooney got his start on TV at the age of 5, when he would appear on his father's talk-show, The Nick Clooney Show. Although he went off to major in Broadcast Journalism at Northern Kentucky University, he always wanted to be a professional baseball player.
George Clooney only turned to acting after he was rejected from a Cincinnati Reds tryout. He got his start in commercials and in a horse racing film his cousin Ferrer was making. He finally got a break when he was cast in a medical comedy in 1984, incidentally named ER. He became known as an actor whose face was recognized, as he was in every TV show, but whose name remained unknown.
George Clooney became most famous for his roles as the carpenter George on The Facts of Life from 1985 to 1987, and Roseanne's womanizing boss Booker in Roseanne from 1988 to 1989. He made appearances on The Golden Girls and Sisters, but was cast in a string of failed shows such as Combat High, Sunset Beat, Baby Talk, and Bodies of Evidence.
George Clooney was also appearing on the big screen, in campy films such as Return to Horror High and Grizzly II: The Predator in 1987, and Return of the Killer Tomatoes! in 1988.
George Clooney In O Brother Where Art Thou
Everything was to change for the relatively unknown actor when he was cast in Michael Crichton's NBC medical drama ER. As pediatrician Dr. Douglas Ross, George Clooney became the newest heartthrob for women and the envy of men, ever since 1994. Once his star factor grew, George Clooney was cast in his first "real" film From Dusk Till Dawn in 1996. A string of roles followed, including One Fine Day, costarring Michelle Pfeiffer, and 1997's Batman & Robin, in which he donned the bat suit.
In 1997, George Clooney costarred with Nicole Kidman in Dreamworks' first film, The Peacemaker, and appeared as himself in Full Tilt Boogie. He received critical praise for his role in Out of Sight, opposite Jennifer Lopez, and in 1999's Three Kings as a Desert Storm Sergeant searching for gold in Kuwait. George Clooney left ER in 1999 to pursue a full-fledged film career.
George Clooney made a small appearance in The Thin Red Line, had a cameo in Waiting for Woody and lent his voice to South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut (as well as in the TV series, as Big Gay Al's dog, Sparky).
2000 was a busy year for the actor, who starred in the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a role for which he signed before reading the script and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Role in a Comedy or Musical (he and the world discovered he could sing, after a lot of practice and magic of recording studios).
He also starred in the summer blockbuster The Perfect Storm in 2000, and starred in the made-for-TV movie Fail Safe, which he also produced.
George Clooney In Ocean's Eleven
George Clooney's production company, Maysville Productions, already has a list of films to its credit and in the making, such asKilroy, Rock Star (starring buddy Mark Wahlberg), and Ocean's Eleven (2001) (starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt), Welcome to Collinwood (2002), and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002).
George Clooney In Ocean's TwelveIn 2004, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julie Roberts, and Matt Damon for Ocean's Twelve. He followed that up with two impressive projects in '05: the Academy Award-winning Syriana, which George Clooney produced and acted in, as well as Good Night, and Good Luck, which George Clooney received several award nods for -- an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, BAFTA Award nom for Best Direction and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.
George Clooney In Michael Clayton And LeatherheadsGeorge Clooney continued to dabble in both acting and directing/producing. In addition to a third installment and the release of Ocean's Thirteen, George Clooney appeared in the feature-length documentary film Darfur Now. He also produced and acted in Michael Clayton, which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor as well as a Golden Globe for the same category.
In 2008, he directed, produced and cowrote the flickLeatherheads, which he also acted in alongside Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski. The same year, he also appeared in Burn After Reading and was nominated for AM's Top 49 Men of 2008.
In '09, George Clooney's voice, along with Cate Blanchett andAnjelica Huston's, to the Wes Anderson flick Fantastic Mr. Fox. He starred in two films that were screened at the Toronto International Film Festival -- The Men Who Stare at Goats and Up in the Air -- and might finally take home the Oscar for Best Actor this year.
