George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an Academy
Award-nominated American actor, director and screenwriter,
known for his former role in the long-running television
drama ER (1994–99).
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, a nephew of actress
and singer Rosemary Clooney, and a cousin of actor Miguel
Ferrer; another cousin, Gabriel Ferrer, is an Episcopal
priest, married to Debby Boone. He is a strong supporter
of the Democratic Party and is of mostly Irish American
heritage, although he also has some distant German ancestry.
He currently has a villa on Lake Como in Italy, where
he spends much of his time.
Film career
Clooney got his start in Los Angeles, a young college
dropout from Kentucky who spent most of his "struggling
actor" years riding to auditions on a bicycle.
During this time, he also befriended another actor
named Grant Heslov, a close friend and frequent collaborator
with Clooney who 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. In a bit of trivia, Clooney said in an interview
that he was driving an RV through the country with
Heslov, who was getting over a broken engagement.
Clooney said he got a phone call from his agent telling
him that NBC just picked up E/R for a full season
when Clooney said "I think I just got my career."
His first major role was in a television
medical comedy/drama, E/R. He played a handyman on
the series The Facts of Life. But he first gained
attention in his semi-regular supporting role in the
sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's overbearing
boss. He has also appeared in a number of movies such
as Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988), From Dusk
Till Dawn (1996), One Fine Day (1996), Batman &
Robin (1997), Out of Sight (1998), Three 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 implausible autobiography
of groundbreaking TV producer Chuck Barris.
Many speculated he'd 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, when Clooney made the decision to leave ER.
As a stipulation in a new contract, Clooney would
return to the series in an occasional guest spot,
which he only had to do once when his film career
ignited, most famously with The Perfect Storm (2000).
On July 8, 2005, news reports said
that George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon will
be working with Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber
to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas
just off the Las Vegas Strip. Mr. Gerber is the one
behind Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa's Whiskey
Sky, so he is already familiar with the Las Vegas
entertainment market. Pitt has some design experience,
having worked with Frank Gehry on a project in England.
On August 29, 2005, Clooney officially announced his
involvement with the Las Ramblas Resort project.
In 1995, Clooney received a tape version
of The Spirit of Christmas, the video greeting card
which would inspire South Park. Clooney 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.
On January 16, 2006, Clooney's performance in Syriana
earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance
by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Upon accepting the
award, Clooney paused during his acceptance speech
to sarcastically thank disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff
before adding,“Who would name their kid Jack
with the last words ‘off’ at the end of
your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up.”
George has recently been 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.
On January 31, 2006, Clooney was nominated
for 3 Academy Awards one of them for best supporting
actor for Syriana, and two nominations for directing
and co-writing the screenplay for "Good Night,
and Good Luck." Clooney became the first person
in Oscar history to be nominated for directing one
movie and appearing in another in the same year.
Medical problems
He has battled a bad back which had caused him to
cancel some promotional appearances, and made it impossible
to find insurance coverage to make a film. For this
reason, he has put up his house for collateral and
continues his professional career.
In 2005, Clooney played Bob Barnes,
a character loosely based on former CIA agent Robert
Baer, in the movie Syriana (based somewhat on Baer's
memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East). During
the filming of a scene in which Barnes is tortured,
Clooney was tied to a chair, and the chair was accidentally
kicked over. Clooney hit his head on the concrete
floor, tearing his dura mater. His doctors dismissed
his complaints until his nose began leaking cerebrospinal
fluid, and he has since undergone multiple operations
to correct this.
Filmography
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 (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)
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)
The Good German (2006) (currently announced start
of production)
The Winter Hill Gang (2006) (currently announced start
of production)
Michael Clayton (2006) (currently announced start
of production) (also producer)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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