George Clooney

George Clooney has built a screen career around charm, comic timing and a willingness to complicate the polished leading-man image. Born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, he worked in television for years before finding widespread fame as Dr. Doug Ross on ER, the medical drama he starred in from 1994 to 1999. His move into movies quickly showed his range. Clooney played a criminal on the run in From Dusk till Dawn, took on Batman & Robin and found an especially productive rhythm with director Steven Soderbergh. Their collaborations included Out of Sight, Ocean’s Eleven, Solaris and The Good German. As Danny Ocean, Clooney made relaxed confidence feel like part of the heist machinery; elsewhere, he proved increasingly interested in characters whose composure could crack. That tension helped shape performances in Michael Clayton, Up in the Air and The Descendants, all of which brought him Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, a film whose demands took him far from easygoing movie-star territory. He has also handled stylized comedy with the Coen brothers in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty and Hail, Caesar!, and voiced the title character in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Clooney’s career extends well beyond acting. He made his feature directing debut with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, then directed, produced and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck. The film earned him Academy Award nominations for directing and original screenplay. His later directing work includes The Ides of March, The Monuments Men, Suburbicon, The Midnight Sky and The Boys in the Boat. As a producer, he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture for Argo. Whether playing a smooth operator, a compromised professional or a figure struggling to keep control, Clooney tends to work best when the confidence is only the surface. His filmography keeps returning to that contrast—and gives audiences plenty worth revisiting.