Birth Name

George Clooney

Birth Date

05/06/1961

Birthplace

Lexington, Kentucky

Claim to Fame (or Shame)

People who say God created all men equal never met Clooney: Oscar winner, charity monger, politically charged hunk. His takeover of Hollywood began with ER, which showcased his ability to say big words and rivet the masses. Now, even celebrities seem enamored of George. Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt look like they want to pounce on him in Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and, presumably, Thirteen. He can also direct: Good Night, and Good Luck. Hey, at least he can't commit to one woman, semi-actress Krista Allen notwithstanding. Somehow, he doesn't seem like a skeezy player. Yep, life ain't fair.

Credits

33 Movies, 13 TV appearances, 14 awards
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Family

Aunt: Rosemary Clooney
appeared on two episodes during the first season of NBC's "ER" as an Alzheimer's patient prone to belting out songs; formerly married to actor Jose Ferrer with whom she had five children; died on June 29, 2002 of lung cancer

Cousin: Miguel Ferrer
born on February 7, 1955; son of Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney

Father: Nick Clooney

Mother: Nina Bruce Clooney
met husband when she was crowned first runner up at Miss Kentucky pageant and he was emcee

Sister: Ada Zeidler
born c. 1959; married with two children

Hookups

Companion: Lisa Snowdon
dated in 2001

Companion: Maria Bertrand
Canadian; born c. 1974; reportedly dating as of spring 2002

Companion: Traylor Howard
reportedly dated as of spring 2000

Companion: Krista Allen
reportedly dated during filming of "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"; rumored to be dating as of Fall 2003; as of March 2004 they are no longer together

Notes

"'Batman [& Robin]' wasn't a very good movie and I'm not very good in it. But I got wealthy from it. They gave me three million bucks and I met with my accountant after it came out and I said, 'Where do I stand?' And he said, 'You never have to work again unless you're an idiot.'

"My house is paid off and it's beautiful, I've made it Shangri-la. I drive up my driveway and I laugh. I'm in a position right now where I can live off the interest for the rest of my life and live ridiculously well. So then it comes down to, What is your legacy going to be? What are you going to stand for when you get hit by a bus? You want to be able to say you made a couple of good movies."---Clooney quoted in Entertainment Weekly, October 8, 1999.
"As an actor, I'm somewhat of a hack ... I find myself stealing from the actors that I really like as opposed to coming up with interesting choices on my own."---Clooney quoted in Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1996.
"He's handsome, but he also brings with him a certain damaged vulnerability. You look at him and see somebody who's lived a lot. You can read it in his face."---"ER" producer John Wells to Us, April 1995.
"I choose to avoid talking about my family. You know, we're all a bit nuts."---Clooney in US, July 1997.
"I remember asking him, when he was only 5 or 6, what he wanted to be when he grew up. And his response was 'I wanna be famous.' We had no idea how serious he was."---Nick Clooney quoted in Us, April 1995.
"I thought he was going to be Don Rickles and he turned out to be Tyrone Power."---Rosemary Clooney
"I'm really white trash."---George Clooney to Entertainment Weekly, December 9, 1994 (He jokingly made the comment after replying that his idea of a great time was when he and cousin Miguel Ferrer and four other friends drove cross-country in a trailer.)
"Probably the one thing I'm most proud of in my life is how hard I've worked at keeping everybody around. It can get tricky. Because when you start to get famous, people start to surround you and tell you how great you are; you get this whole crew of friends you don't know, and they're suddenly your best friends.

"But you have to keep the other people close, and that's work. So we talk to each other at some point every day. It's not like some sick, fucked-up thing. It's just like 'Hey, man, what's up?' It can be fucked-up if that's your obsession. But it's just friendship, the boys. What it is, is the greatest support group ever. That's what it's about when it all comes crashing down."---Clooney quoted in GQ, October 1997.
"The best advice I got from my aunt, the great singer Rosemary Clooney, and from my dad, who was a game show host and news anchor, was: don't wake up at seventy years old sighing over what you should have tried. Just do it, be willing to fail, and at least you gave it a shot. That's echoed for me all through the last few years."---Clooney quoted in ivillage.com
"The reason why you produce is because there will be a period of time in the not-too-distant future when people will be sick of seeing you. I'm sick of me already."---Clooney to the New York Post, February 27, 2000.
"There's a period of time in your life when you get a crack at something, when you make your mark as a man. And as a man, that's it. That's when we set what we're going to be. I'd like to try to set that up now, to strike while the iron's hot. Because 10 years from now it may be 'I'd like George Clooney to block.'"---Clooney quoted in Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1997.
Clooney has a 150-pound Vietnamese potbellied pig named Max as a housemate.
Clooney on how he wants to leverage his fame and power as a box office commodity while he still can: "I want to say I did it when it wasn't very easy. If it costs you a career, credibility and all those things, that means you did it on your own volition and you have to live with that. I'm OK with that. I'd rather be able to point back and say, 'At this exact moment in history when it was kind of tricky to do this, these are the stories I told.'"---From the Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2005.
Commenting on the above altercation: "It was kind of funny, to be honest, and it kind of kicked the set into a different gear where everybody was focused and we finished strong. I wouldn't mind if the director and star got into an argument on all my movies."---Clooney's co-star Ice Cube to Entertainment Weekly, October 8, 1999.
On his clash with director David O Russell on the last day of shooting "Three Kings": "It was a big-pressure day and he was under the gun. We were trying to get a shot and then he went berserk. He went nuts on an extra. So I went over and I put my arm around him and I pulled him aside, away from everybody, which seemed fair. And I said, 'You can't do that ...' And he basically said, 'F--- you! Worry about your acting!' And I said, 'Now you're being an a--hole!' And we started pushing against each other with our heads. So I got him by the throat. And I was yelling at him and he was screaming at me and we were at it ... Will I work with David again? Absolutely not. Never. Do I think he's tremendously talented and do I think he should be nominated for Oscars? Yeah."---Clooney in Entertainment Weekly, October 8, 1999.
Was beat out for the role of a sexy, thieving drifter in "Thelma and Louise" (1991), the role that made Brad Pitt famous