George Clooney (1961)

 early life

Clooney was born in Georgetown, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce (née Warren, 1939-), is a former beauty pageant queen; his father, Nick Clooney, is a former anchorman, as well as a game show and American Movie Classics host. Clooney's ancestry includes Irish, German, and English. His paternal great-great-grandparents, Nicholas Clooney and Bridget Byron, immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Clooney was raised a strict Roman Catholic. He has an older sister, Adelia ; his cousins include actors Miguel and Rafael Ferrer, who are the sons of his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney, and actor José Ferrer. He is also related to another singer, Debby Boone, who married José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney's son Gabriel.

Clooney began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Spending part of his childhood in Ohio, he attended St. Michael's School in Columbus, and St. Susanna School in Mason, Ohio. In middle school, Clooney developed Bell's palsy, a debilitating condition that partially paralyzes the face. The malady went away within a year. "That was the worst time of my life," he told the Daily Mirror in 2003. "You know how cruel kids can be. I was mocked and taunted, but the experience made me stronger."

His parents eventually moved to Augusta, Kentucky, where Clooney attended Augusta High School. He has stated that he earned all As and a B in school, and was an enthusiastic baseball and basketball player. He tried out to play professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but was not offered a contract. He did not pass the first round of player cuts. He attended Northern Kentucky University from 1979 to 1981, majoring in Broadcast Journalism, and very briefly attended the University of Cincinnati, but did not graduate from either. He had such odd jobs as selling men's suits and cutting tobacco.

 career

 Early work, 1978–94

Clooney's first role was as an extra in the TV series Centennial in 1978. The series was based on the novel of the same name by James Michener and was partially filmed in Clooney's hometown of Augusta, Kentucky. Clooney's first major role came in 1984 in the short-lived sitcom E/R (not to be confused with ER, the better-known hospital drama, on which Clooney also costarred a decade later). He played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life and appeared as Bobby Hopkins, a detective, on an episode of The Golden Girls. His first significant break was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's supervisor Booker Brooks, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk and then as a sexy detective on Sisters. In 1988, Clooney also played a role in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.

 Breakthrough, 1994–1999

Clooney achieved stardom when he played Dr. Doug Ross, alongside Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, and Noah Wyle on the hit NBC drama ER from 1994 to 1999. After leaving the series in 1999, he made a cameo appearance in the 6th season and returned for a guest spot in the show's final season.

Clooney began appearing in movies while working on ER. His first major Hollywood role was in From Dusk till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He followed its success with One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman. Clooney was then cast as Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, which was a moderate box office success, but a critical failure (with Clooney himself calling the film "a waste of money"). In 1998, he starred in Out of Sight opposite Jennifer Lopez, marking the first of his many collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. He also starred in Three Kings during the last weeks of his contract with ER.

 International success, 2000–present

After leaving ER, Clooney starred in commercially successful projects such as The Perfect Storm and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In 2001, he teamed up with Soderbergh again for Ocean's Eleven, a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name. As of 2011, it was Clooney's most commercially successful movie, earning more than $450 million worldwide. The film spawned two sequels starring Clooney, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007.

In 2001, Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh co-founded the Section Eight Productions, for which Grant Heslov was president of television. Clooney made his directorial debut in the 2002 film 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 showed promise.

In 2005, Clooney starred in Syriana, which was based loosely on former Central Intelligence Agency agent Robert Baer and his memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. Clooney suffered an accident on the set of Syriana, which resulted in a brain injury with complications arising from a punctured dura. The same year he directed, produced, and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck., a film about 1950s television journalist Edward R. Murrow's famous war of words with Senator Joseph McCarthy. At the 2006 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 won the Oscar for his role in Syriana.

Clooney next appeared in The Good German , a film noir directed by Soderbergh that is set in post-World War II Germany. Clooney also received the American Cinematheque Award in October 2006, an award that honors an artist in the entertainment industry who has made "a significant contribution to the art of motion pictures". In August 2006, Clooney and Heslov started the production company Smokehouse Pictures.

On January 22, 2008, Clooney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Michael Clayton . Clooney then directed his third film, Leatherheads , in which he also starred. It was reported on April 4, 2008, in Variety that Clooney had quietly resigned from the Writers Guild of America over controversy surrounding Leatherheads. Clooney, who is the director, producer, and star of the film, stated that he had contributed in writing, "all but two scenes," of the film and requested a writing credit, alongside Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, who had been working on the project for 17 years. In an arbitration vote, Clooney lost 2–1 and ultimately decided to withdraw from the union over the decision. Clooney became a "financial core status" nonmember, meaning he loses his voting rights, and cannot run for office or attend membership meetings, according to the WGA's constitution.

Clooney next co-starred with Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey in The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was directed by Heslov and released in November 2009. Also in November 2009, he voiced Mr. Fox in Wes Anderson's animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox. The same year, Clooney starred in Up in the Air, which was initially given limited release, and then wide-released on December 25, 2009. For his performance in the film, which was directed by Jason Reitman, he was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA and an Academy Award.

2010 saw the release of The American, based on the novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth and directed by Anton Corbijn. Clooney played the lead role as well as being a co-producer for the film.

As of 2011, Clooney is represented by Bryan Lourd, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency .

 personal life

 Relationships

Clooney was married to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 until they divorced in 1993. Since then, Clooney has said that he will never marry again. After meeting on the set of a Martini advertisement in 2000, he had a five-year on-again, off-again relationship with British model Lisa Snowdon. In June 2007, he started dating reality personality Sarah Larson, but the couple broke up in May 2008. From July 2009 to June 2011, Clooney was in a relationship with Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis. Since July 2011, Clooney has been dating former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler.

Often featured in People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue, Clooney's marital status and availability are a running joke among female fans who still fantasize they have a chance to bring him to the altar. Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Las Vegas has a "Marrying George Clooney" photo-op in which museum visitors can put on a wedding gown and stand next to a wax statue of the actor in a tuxedo.

 Homes

Clooney's main home is in Los Angeles. He purchased the house in 1995 through his George Guifoyle Trust. His villa in Italy is situated in the village of Laglio, on Lake Como, near the former residence of famous Italian author Ada Negri.

 Motorcycle accident

On September 21, 2007, Clooney and then-girlfriend Sarah Larson were injured in a motorcycle accident in Weehawken, New Jersey. Clooney's motorcycle was hit by a car. The driver of the car reported that Clooney attempted to pass on the right, while Clooney stated that the driver signaled left and then decided to make an abrupt right turn and clipped the motorcycle. He was treated and released from the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey. On October 9, 2007, more than two dozen hospital staff members were suspended without pay for looking at Clooney's medical records in violation of federal law. Clooney himself quickly issued a statement on the hospital records matter, saying no one should be punished. He said "This is the first I've heard of it. And while I very much believe in a patient's right to privacy, I would hope that this could be settled without suspending medical workers."

 Pets

"Max" (1987 – December 1, 2006) was Clooney's pet Vietnamese black bristled potbellied pig, often referred to as "Max the star" by Clooney. The pig shared Clooney's Hollywood Hills home, as well as Clooney's bed, and frequently made cameos in interviews, mostly because of his enormous size. He is often credited with saving Clooney's life by waking him up before the Northridge earthquake on January 16, 1994. In 2006, the pig was taken for a flight in John Travolta's private jet.

Max was bought by Clooney in 1988 as a gift for his then-girlfriend Kelly Preston, Travolta's current wife. The pig used to have a special cattle-pen and his own corner in the garage of Clooney's manor. Max was seriously injured in 2001 when one of Clooney's friends accidentally ran him over with his car. Weighing ca. 300 pounds , Max died in Los Angeles of natural causes, as has been stated by Clooney's press secretary Stan Rosenfield. Because he was known to have arthritis, and was partly blind, the animal was falsely reported to have died in January 2005. Clooney dotingly recalls that Max would squeal every morning until he was fed. A column on Max by Clooney's father, Nick, appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer.

He also owned two bulldogs, named Bud and Lou, after the famous comedy team Abbott and Costello. Both dogs have died; one from a rattlesnake bite.