George Clooney is Hollywood’s golden boy. His movies have grossed well over $2 billion dollars and his grace and screen presence is that of an actor from years past and not to mention with his $25 million dollar asking price per film he is expected to produce big results.
Clooney was born on May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky to Nina Bruce, a city councilwoman and Nick Clooney, a former anchor man and game show host. Clooney has a famous aunt by the name of Rosemary Clooney who was a cabaret singer. As a Roman Catholic, his parents were very strict on him. He was sent to several elementary and junior high schools between 1968-1974 which had very strong religious ties. After completing junior high school Clooney attended Augusta High School in Augusta, Kentucky. During his first year at the school he developed Bell’s Palsy, which is a condition that paralyzes the face. After nine months of treatment his condition got better and never returned. After graduating from high school, Clooney attended Northern Kentucky University and majored in Broadcast Journalism from 1979 to 1981 but did not graduate because of his tireless effort to become an actor.
His first paying role as an actor came as an extra in the television mini-series Centennial in 1978. His next recognizable parts came when he played a handyman on the hit NBC series The Facts of Life, and appeared as Bobby Hopkins, a detective, on an episode of the NBC hit series The Golden Girls. His first prominent role was a semi-regular supporting role in the ABC sitcom smash Roseanne playing supervisor Booker Brooks. But all of that was nothing compared to the role Clooney got as Dr. Doug Ross on the hit NBC medical drama ER which made him a household name. He stayed on the show five years and left because he didn’t want to become typecast which was an excellent move because it helped him make the successful jump from television to movies.
But like most actors his first few films weren’t that profitable such as From Dusk till Dawn (1996), The Peacemaker (1997), Batman and Robin (1997), Out of Sight (1998), and Three Kings (1999). Clooney, regardless of the profit margin, stayed diligent and began choosing better films such as The Perfect Storm (2000), O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001), which to date, is Clooney’s most successful film racking in a whopping $450 million worldwide. The movie spawned two sequels, Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). In 2005, Clooney starred in the film Syriana where he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Robert Baer.
Between 2006 and 2010 Clooney did several movies that tested the viewing audience’s thinking capacity. During that duration he was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award (SAG), British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award, and an Academy Award. In 2011, he starred in a critically acclaimed film entitled The Descendants which won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In 2013, Clooney won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama and the Academy Award for Best Picture for the film Argo. He is the only person in Academy Award history to be nominated for Oscars in six different categories which are Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Clooney, after being Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor for years, married British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin on August 7, 2014. The couple resides in Los Angeles, California.