Oscar Profile #408: George Clooney

Born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky, George (Timothy) Clooney is the son of Nina Bruce (née Warren) and former TV host Nick Clooney. The late legendary singer and actress Rosemary Clooney was Clooney’s father’s sister.

Clooney’s first role as an actor was as an extra in the 1978 mini-series Centennial filmed near his Kentucky home. He then moved to Hollywood and stayed with his famous aunt and her family while pursuing his acting career. His breakthrough came with his supporting role as a handyman in the TV series The Facts of Life in 1985. Guest starring appearances in TV’s Murder, She Wrote and The Golden Girls led to a semi-regular role in TV’s Roseannefrom 1988-1991. Married to Talia Balsam in 1989, they were divorced in 1993, after which he earned a starring role in TV’s ER from 1994-1999. He was nominated for Emmys for the first two seasons of the series in 1995 and 1996.

On screen, Clooney starred in 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn and One Fine Day, 1997’s Batman & Robin and The Peacemaker, 1998’s Out of Sight and The Thin Red Line and 1999’s Three Kings, all of them box office successes. His output continued with 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Perfect Storm, 2001’s Ocean’s 11, 2002’s Solaris and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve, which were all major successes..

Clooney entered the Oscar sweepstakes in a big way with two 2005 films. He was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck and Best Supporting Actor for Syriana for which he won. He wasn’t nominated for 2006’s The Good German but bounced back with a nomination for Best Actor for 2007’s Michael Clayton. He was nominated again as Best Actor for 2009’s Up in the Air while receiving strong notices for that year’s The Men Who Stare at Goats and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The current decade began with equally strong notices for Clooney in 2010’s The American and 2011’s The Ides of March for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and The Descendants for which he received a nomination for Best Actor. The following year he won his second Oscar for producing the year’s best film, Argo in which he was not featured. Following the unexpected failure of 2014’s The Monuments Men, the same year’s Gravity won seven Oscars out of the ten it was nominated for, although the actor himself was not nominated. 2014 was alsothe year he married second wife Amal with whom he has two children.

Clooney’s most notable recent films include 2016’s Hail, Caesar and Money Monster. He is currently filming the 2019 mini-series Catch-22, a remake of the 1970 film,

George Clooney remains one of Hollywood’s top writer-director-producer-stars at 57.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SYRIANA (2005), directed by Stephen Gaghan

Clooney gained 35 pounds on a pasta heavy diet and shaved his hairline back to play a CIA operative in a film based on the real-life exploits of a CIA operative. It helped win him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Matt Damon had the ostensible lead role of an oil company analyst in the film set in the Middle East. Clooney has also been nominated for two other Oscars this year for writing and co-starring in Good Night, and Good Luck, a biographical film about TV journalist Edward R. Murrow played by David Strathairn. Clooney had a featured role as CBS President Fred Friendly.

MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007), directed by Tony Gilroy

Clooney received his first Oscar nomination for lead actor for his portrayal of a “fixer” for a law firm. The thriller was nominated for seven Oscars overall, winning for Best Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton as a corporate lawyer who will stop at nothing including murder to get her way. The directorial debut for writer-producer Tony Gilroy, this box-office success was a high-water mark for all concerned including the performances of Tom Wilkinson who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a rebellious lawyer and Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack as the head of the firm.

UP IN THE AIR (2009), directed by Jason Reitman

Clooney had his best screen role to date as the corporate downsizing expert whose job it was to travel around the country and lay people off. It brought him his third Oscar nomination for acting. The film’s title has two meanings. Its literal meaning is a reference to Clooney’s constant flying. Its deeper meaning is a reference to the lives of the people being laid off whose lives are now “up in the air.” If the reactions of the people in the film being laid off seem more than a little real, it’s because most of them are played by non-actors who really were laid off. The film’s six Oscar nominations included Best Picture.

THE DESCENDANTS (2011), directed by Alexander Payne

Nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, the film’s only win was for Best Adapted Screenplay. Clooney pulled off his fourth acting nominations for playing a Hawaiian land baron trying to connect with his two teenage daughters in the wake of his wife’s tragic accident. The film was an emotional tour-de-force for Clooney and Shailene Woodley as the elder of his two daughters. Clooney also received an Oscar nomination for cowriting this year’s The Ides of March about dirty politics which he also directed and co-starred in with Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti.

GRAVITY (2014), directed by Alfonso Cuaron

A year after winning his second Oscar for producing 2013’s Best Picture, Argo, Clooney co-starred with Best Actress nominee Sandra Bullock in this film which was nominated for ten Oscars and won seven including Best Director, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. It lost Best Picture to 12 Years a Slave, which won three out the nine Oscars it was nominated for. Both lost Production Design to The Great Gatsby. Clooney, who also had a hand in the film’s screenplay, had a limited role in the film despite his lofty billing.