Birthdate: May 6th 1961, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Education: Northern Kentucky University (George¡äs quote " I have been a freshman for 3yrs and kids, don¡ät try this at home!")
Father: Nick Clooney, broadcast journalist
Mother: Nina
Sister: Ada Zeidler
Aunt: Rosemary Clooney,famous jazz singer
Cousin: Miguel Ferrer (actor)
Pets: Max, a black pot bellied pig and two bulldogs named Lou and Bud
He's been a robber-cum-vampire slayer, a man in a rubber suit, a single parent, a thief-on-the-run and a soldier out to steal Saddam's gold. Yet for all George Clooney's film roles, the part he's best well known for is the maverick Dr Doug Ross in TV's 'ER'. But even before he landed the role of everyone's favourite paediatrician, Clooney had spent years working away on no-hoper shows, working on 15 pilot shows before hitting pay dirt with the hospital drama.
Clooney first hit American TV screens at the age of 5, appearing on his father's talk show, 'The Nick Clooney Show'. But for the first part of his life all young George wanted to do was play baseball. An unsuccessful try-out for his beloved Cincinnati Reds put paid to that idea and a stint at the Northern Kentucky University convinced him academia wasn't where he wanted to go.
Then his uncle, actor Jose Ferrer, arrived to make a movie about horse racing and managed to get young George a small part in the movie. Although 'And They're Off' was never released, George had found what he wanted to do. Unfortunately his father wasn't quite so sure and attempted to persuade his son to finish college in order to have something to fall back on, to which George replied: "if I have something to fall back on, I'll fall back." So he spent the summer of 1982 cutting tobacco to save up the money to make the move to Los Angeles.
Then, with just $300 in his pocket he hit Hollywood, landing on the doorstep of his aunt's house. Rosemary Clooney wasn't particularly chuffed to have her wilful young nephew arrive on her doorstep with no money and no job, so she hired him to drive her around the country as she toured with other 40's singers. After the tour George turned his attention to getting his 'Big Break'. Attending audition after audition he eventually landed his first professional acting job in a stereo commercial, after showing up with a six-pack of beer under his arm. George says of auditions: "If you sit on auditions, the best actor never gets the job. Especially in TV. You get the job when you walk in the door. Because in a weird way, we're not selling acting. What we're selling is confidence." While showing up for numerous auditions George also began taking acting classes with Milton Katselas, a highly respected teacher and eventually an agent saw him in one of the class' productions.
Still, he kept showing up for his auditions, and one by one he began to get the jobs. None of the particularly inspiring, but he did begin to learn how to act in front of the cameras, including both TV and film roles. From the dreadful 'Return of the Killer Tomatoes' to a stint on a short-lived sitcom called 'E/R', via 'Roseanne' (as her womanising boss) to 'Baby Talk', where he played a construction worker to Sisters, as a detective. Finally "the world's richest unknown actor" hit the big time after landing the part of maverick doc Doug Ross. Over five seasons Clooney perfected his crinkly-eyed, head-to-one-side form of acting, and the shows producers had a bona-fide star (although officially Anthony Edwards was the show's biggest name as he had the biggest trailer.)
As the show's popularity spread worldwide so did George's with hundreds of Internet sites springing up dedicated to the womanising doctor. But it was apparent to fans of the show; Clooney was bound to make the move to the big screen at some point. His first film was Quentin Tarantino's vampire flick 'From Dusk Till Dawn', which showed his talents, didn't lie just in playing a doctor. The role helped raise his profile in Hollywood, as did his cameo appearance on NBC's other huge Thursday night hit, 'Friends'. Not one to take typecasting too seriously he co-starred alongside fellow 'ER' hunk Noah Wyle as a pair of doctors who date Monica and Rachel.
In 1996 he joined old friend Michelle Pfeiffer (he dated her sister Deedee) in the single-parent romantic comedy 'One Fine Day', although some would argue he was just being Doug Ross on the big screen. Mimi Leder, one of the resident directors on 'ER' chose him to co-star alongside Nicole Kidman in the first film from Steven Spielberg's fledgling studio Dreamworks. In 'The Peacemaker', Clooney played a military colonel on the hunt for nuclear-warhead hijackers (slight aside, Goran Visjnic, who took over from Clooney as 'ER''s resident hunk also appeared in the film). The film was regarded as some as a bit of a flop, although it actually made $120 million worldwide.
All these films were helping to establish Clooney as a big screen actor, while he was able to continue with his small screen duties. In 1997 he scored what most people in the industry saw as a major coup as he was chosen to don the rubber suit previously worn by Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer. Clooney happily credits himself with "possibly sinking the entire 'Batman' franchise." But he says the whole fiasco helped him take a real look at the way his career was headed. "I think 'Batman and Robin' not doing so well was a real awakening for me," he says. "That was the turning point where I said 'OK, I'm just going to do projects and scripts that I like.'"
Since then, Clooney's career has gone from strength to strength. His performance in the Steven Soderbergh directed 'Out of Sight' alongside Jennifer Lopez garnered praise from all sides, and a cameo in Terence Malick's 'The Thin Red Line' also helped. Never one to shy away from taking a tough stance, in 1997 he was one of the first actors to speak out against media intrusion in the wake of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, specifically aiming his tirade at the editor of the National Enquirer.
Then he decided to abdicate from the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" which was bestowed on him by People magazine, although that didn't stop them sticking him on the front cover anyway. With everything that was going on his life, something had to go, and in 1999, Clooney hung up his scrubs and said goodbye to County General. His first post-ER role was in ''Three Kings' alongside Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube as three soldiers who set out to steal Saddam's gold at the end of the Gulf War. His part was originally written for Clint Eastwood. "They also started talking to Mel Gibson and Nic Cage, you know the usual suspects," he says. "I always have to wait and see who is not available. And I have to hope the director doesn't say 'You were on The Facts of Life. Forget it.'"
Earlier this year he produced and starred in a live TV remake of the classic Cold War thriller 'Fail Safe' alongside the likes of Harvey Keitel, Richard Dreyfuss and old friend Noah Wyle, But if Clooney is to become one of Hollwood's true A-list actors he'll never have a better chance than this summer as he stars in two of the year's biggest films. First, up is 'The Perfect Storm', was is due to be released the same weekend as Mel Gibson's 'The Patriot'. Directed by 'Das Boot' helmer Wolfgang Peterson, Clooney again stars alongside Mark Wahlberg in the true story about a bunch of fishermen who got caught up in a deadly 1991 tempest. The funniest thing about the film is Clooney suffers dreadfully from sea sickness in real life.
Later in the year he'll be seen in the Joel and Ethan Coen's 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' A comedy about three guys who escape from a chain gang, and is partially based on Homer's Odyssey. Not only does Clooney act, he has a development deal with CBS and his production company is going from strength to strength with a number of projects in various stages of development. They include 'Metal Gods', which stars Mark Wahlberg (again), and Jennifer Aniston, as well as Britain's own Timothy Spall. Plus there's a snowboarding comedy, a political thriller about DEA agents who uncover a CIA conspiracy, as well as a true story about a group of prisoners who have an undeniable urge to dance.
But the biggest thing on the horizon for Clooney is the remake of the classic Rat Pack starrer 'Ocean's Eleven', which is currently one of the hottest properties in Hollywood. Director Steven Soderbergh is putting together a stellar cast with the likes of Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt also slated to appear. Now if that doesn't make George Clooney a true star, what will?
Filmography
2001 OCEAN'S ELEVEN .... Danny Ocean
2000 O BROTHER,WHERE ART THOU? .... Ulysses Everett McGill
1999 SOUTH PARK:BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT , KILROY (TV) (Script) THREE KINGS
1998 WAITING FOR WOODY ,THE THIN RED LINE ,OUT OF SIGHT
1997 THE PEACEMAKER, BATMAN & ROBIN ,FULL TILT BOOGIE
1995/6 ONE FINE DAY, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
1994 E.R.-EMERGENCY ROOM
1993/4 SISTERS , WITHOUT WARNING:TERROR IN THE TOWERS,THE HARVEST
1992 UNBECOMING AGE (aka THE MAGIC BUBBLE),BODIES OF EVIDENCE
1991 ROSEANNE ,BABY TALK,REWRITE FOR MURDER
1990 RED SURF.,SUNSET BEAT
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