George Clooney

06 May, 1961 |

Actor/Director/Producer

Biography

George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, and activist. He has received three Golden Globe Awards for his work as an actor and two Academy Awards, one for acting and the other for producing. Clooney made his acting debut on television in 1978, and later gained wide recognition in his role as Dr. Doug Ross on the long-running medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations. While working on ER, he began attracting a variety of leading roles in films, including the superhero film Batman & Robin (1997) and the crime comedy Out of Sight (1998), in which he first worked with a director who would become a long-time collaborator, Steven Soderbergh. In 1999, Clooney took the lead role in Three Kings, a well-received war satire set during the Gulf War. In 2001, Clooney's fame widened with the release of his biggest commercial success, the heist comedy Ocean's Eleven, the first of the film trilogy, a remake of the 1960 film with Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean. He made his directorial debut a year later with the biographical thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and has since directed the drama Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), the sports comedy Leatherheads (2008), the political drama The Ides of March (2011), and the comedy-drama war film The Monuments Men (2014). He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Middle East thriller Syriana (2005), and subsequently earned Best Actor nominations for the legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007), the comedy-drama Up in the Air (2009) and the drama The Descendants (2011). In 2013, he received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the political thriller Argo, alongside Ben Affleck and Grant Heslov. He is the only person ever to be nominated for Academy Awards in six categories. Clooney is sometimes described as one of the most handsome men in the world. In 2005, TV Guide ranked Clooney No. 1 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list. In 2009, he was included in Time's annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World". Clooney is also noted for his political activism and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since January 31, 2008. His humanitarian work includes his advocacy of finding a resolution for the Darfur conflict, raising funds for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2004 Tsunami, and 9/11 victims, and creating documentaries such as Sand and Sorrow to raise awareness about international crises. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.