1961-present

George Clooney Now: New MovieWolfs Arrives in Theaters

George Clooney is back to his roots in the action-comedyWolfs, starring alongside longtime friendBrad Pitt. The movie, which first premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, arrived inselect theaters September 20. The 63-year-old Clooney plays Jack, a professional fixer, who gets hired to cover up a high-profile crime but finds himself forced to work with his rival, despite both men being lone wolves.

View full post on Youtube

Wolfs marks the first time Clooney and Pitt have worked together on the big screen in 16 years. The pair last teamed up inBurn After Reading in 2008. “It’s an off the charts great film, and it’s fun to work with Brad again,” Clooney said in a 2023 interview withDeadline. “We had a really good time.”

WhileWolfs was initially expected to get a wide theatrical release, it will only be in limited theaters for a week before coming toApple TV+ on September 27. “We’re happy it’s getting released at all,” Clooney toldThe Hollywood Reporter. “Obviously we wish it was having a wider release, and we’re trying to figure these things out as we go. This is a revolutionary time in our industry so it’s taken a moment to get through it, but we’ll get through it.”

George Clooney is anAcademy Award–winning actor, director, and producer who has become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars. After nearly a decade of consistent work, the Kentucky native scored his breakout role in 1994 as Dr. Doug Ross on the hit TV showER. His Emmy-nominated performance led to major movie roles inBatman & Robin andO Brother, Where Art Thou? Clooney has since starred inOcean’s Eleven and two of its sequels,Michael Clayton, andThe Descendants, among many other titles. He has won two Oscars for 2005’sSyriana and 2012’sArgo. Once dubbed one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors, the movie star is now married to international human rights lawyerAmal Clooney, with whom he shares two kids. His newest movie is the 2024 action-comedyWolfs.

FULL NAME: George Timothy Clooney
BORN: May 6, 1961
BIRTHPLACE: Lexington, Kentucky
SPOUSES: Talia Balsam (1989-1993) andAmal Clooney (2014-present)
CHILDREN: Alexander and Ella
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, into a well-known family of media and entertainment personalities. His father, Nick, spent many years as a television personality and news anchor. His mother, Nina, was a former pageant queen and journalist turned city councilwoman. His aunt, Rosemary Clooney, had a long career as a singer and actor.

George Clooney is the second child of Nick Clooney, left, and Nina Clooney, right.

Due to the nature of his father’s work, George and his older sister, Ada, moved several times to various locations throughout Kentucky and Ohio with their parents. In 1974, they settled down for good in a rambling, old Victorian home in downtown Augusta, Kentucky, a small town on the Ohio River about an hour south of Cincinnati.

There, despite some name recognition, the Clooneys led a fairly modest life. They were a close-knit family, with Nick making sure to carve time out of his busy schedule in Cincinnati to be home in the evenings for dinner. At the Clooney supper table, the family often discussed current events. George’s father, a true newsman, had grown up in awe of men like CBS news anchorEdward R. Murrow and, later,Walter Cronkite.

George made his first television appearance at 5 years old by playing sketch characters on the local talk shows his dad hosted. George’s talent for expression began to falter in middle school when he developed Bell’s palsy, which causes partial facial paralysis. He eventually recovered from the illness.

In school, George was more focused on sports than books but still managed to be a good student. “I pulled out my report cards... I had all As and a B,” the actor toldEsquire magazine. A fairly good baseball player, he managed to land a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds at age 16. A baseball contract, however, never materialized.

George later opted for college. Staying close to home, he attended Northern Kentucky University, where he studied broadcast journalism. But the future didn’t last long at college. He didn’t think he had what it took to become a good television journalist, and he hated the constant comparisons to his father. He dropped out of school in 1981, without a thought as to what he would do next.

George stuck around the Cincinnati area for a while and found work as a shoe salesman and, later, as a farmhand picking tobacco. He had been harvesting tobacco when he got a call from his cousin, Miguel Ferrer, the son of his aunt Rosemary and Oscar-winning actor José Ferrer. Miguel and his father were making a movie in Kentucky about horse racing, and they offered young George a little acting work. George hung around the set for a good three months, where he worked as an extra and even landed a few lines. To make extra money, he loaned his old Monte Carlo to his uncle and cousin for $50 a day. The movie never got released, but the experience gave George the acting bug again.

Encouraged by his cousin Miguel, George decided to move to Los Angeles to become an actor when the movie shoot was over. “I had just spent the summer cutting tobacco, which is a miserable job. So that’s what made me move to Hollywood,” George later toldEsquire. To make ends meet, he picked up whatever work he could find. He even ran errands for his aunt and chauffeured her around town. Slowly parts came, even if they weren’t the kind of roles he dreamed about.

George Clooney’s first major role was on the TV showThe Facts of Life.

Clooney landed a recurring role on the popular teen comedyThe Facts of Life, from 1985 to 1987. From 1988 to 1991, he made guest appearances on the sitcomRoseanne, starringRoseanne Barr. In 1992, Clooney starred in the short-lived seriesBodies of Evidence, playing a detective. On the dramaSisters, he played another detective and the love interest for Sela Ward’s character. There were small movie roles, too, including the part of a lip-synching cross-dresser in a 1993 thriller calledThe Harvest.

Although Clooney worked steadily in Hollywood, he had yet to land a significant career breakthrough. Feeling that he was always on the cusp of something bigger, something greater, Clooney found his situation difficult. “I had a work ethic,” he later toldThe New Yorker. “I was making a couple of hundred grand a year, which is beating all the odds, so you don’t really think things are going terribly. You actually feel like you’re succeeding. [But] I wished I was doing better projects, and I didn’t think I was going to get that chance.” All that was about to change.

Today, Clooney is a two-time Academy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe winner. At the 2015 Golden Globe Awards, the actor, director, and producer received the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for his career accomplishments in Hollywood. Three years later, Clooney was honored with the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.

Big Break inER

George Clooney had his breakout role in the hit showER.

In 1994, Clooney was cast in a new medical drama calledER. Clooney played Dr. Doug Ross, a caring pediatrician and a notorious ladies man, in the ensemble TV show, which also featured Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, and Sherry Stringfield. Soon after its September 1994 debut, Clooney was on his way to becoming one of the show’s breakout stars, attracting the attention of film industry movers and shakers. His classic good looks and easygoing charm made him a natural for the big screen.

Clooney worked at a hectic pace, managing to appear in several movies during his time onER. He battled evil vampires withQuentin Tarantino in Robert Rodriguez’sFrom Dusk to Dawn(1996). In the romantic comedyOne Fine Day(1996), Clooney played a divorced father who falls for a single mother (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Continuing to balance his TV role and his film work over the next few years, Clooney earned twoEmmy Award nominations and three consecutive Golden Globe nominations for hisER role. In 1999, he turned in his scrubs to pursue his movie career full-time.

Batman & Robin

Assuming the role of the caped crusader, Clooney starred as Batman with Chris O’Donnell as his sidekick in 1997’sBatman & Robin. The summer blockbuster netted more than $238 million at the global box office, but that wasn’t enough to cover production and promotion costs. The movie racked up a slew of negative reviews, and Clooney’s Batsuit is famously mocked for including nipples.

The star has repeatedly trashed the movie and apologized for his part in the flop. “It was a difficult film to be good in. I don’t know what I could have done differently,”Clooney said in 2011. “But if I am going to be Batman in the filmBatman & Robin, I can’t say it didn’t work and then not take some of the blame for that.”

Decades later, Clooney surprised audiences by appearing as Batman once more for a cameo inThe Flash (2023), but he has no plans of donning the Batsuit again. “I don’t think there’s enough drugs in the world for me to go back and do it,” Clooneyjoked toEntertainment Tonight in December 2023.

Batman & Robin marked a low point in Clooney’s movie career, but it was hardly a final blow. In 1998, Clooney starred oppositeJennifer Lopez inSteven Soderbergh’sOut of Sight(1998) and had a role in Terrence Malick’s war dramaThe Thin Red Line. The following year, as he departedER, the actor starred in the Persian Gulf War taleThree Kings withMark Wahlberg andIce Cube.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

George Clooney starred in the 2000 filmO Brother, Where Art Thou?

Working with the Coen brothers, Clooney starred as a charming conman inO Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), an imaginative retelling of the epic poemThe Odyssey. He won a Golden Globe Award for his work on the film.

Clooney also reteamed withMark Wahlberg for the popular disaster-at-sea filmThe Perfect Storm, based on Sebastian Junger’s best-selling novel. The actor, who for so long had wondered if he’d truly make it big, was now Hollywood royalty.

Ocean’s Eleven and Sequels

In 2001, Clooney starred in the remake ofOcean’s Eleven directed bySteven Soderbergh. He played Danny Ocean, a role originated by famed croonerFrank Sinatra. The comedic heist featured an all-star cast alongside Clooney:Brad Pitt,Julia Roberts,Bernie Mac,Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner,Andy Garcia, and a young Casey Affleck.

It proved to be such a successful venture on- and off-screen that it spawned three sequels. Clooney and much of the original cast returned forOcean’s Twelve (2004) andOcean’s Thirteen (2007). The 2018 entry,Ocean’s Eight, featured an all-female ensemble withSandra Bullock starring as Danny Ocean’s sister.Ocean’s Eleven andOcean’s Twelve were among the top 10 highest-grossing movies worldwide during the year of their releases, and the modern franchise has collected a combined $1.4 billion at the global box office.

Oscar forSyriana andGood Night, and Good Luck

The year afterOcean’s Eleven, Clooney made his directorial debut withConfessions of a Dangerous Mind(2002). The biopic focused on the life of Chuck Barris, host ofThe Gong Show and reportedly a CIA agent. Despite the movie’s poor box-office performance and weak reviews, Clooney continued to work behind the scenes on a pair of award-worthy movies from 2005.

For the political dramaSyriana, Clooney was a producer and took on a supporting role. The usually fit actor—who is nearly 5 feet, 11 inches tall—gained roughly 30 pounds to play government agent Bob Barnes in the movie, which explored political intrigue and corruption in the Middle East. Badly hurt during the filming of a scene, he damaged the membrane around his spine. The injury caused spinal fluid to leak from his nose and left him with terrible back pain. After completingSyriana, the Hollywood star underwent two surgeries to fix the problem.

Clooney returned to the director’s chair forGood Night, and Good Luck, a movie examining the clash betweendistinguished news anchorEdward R. Murrow and SenatorJoseph McCarthy. Clooney also co-wrote the screenplay, which served partly as a tribute to his newsman father, and took on a supporting role in the widely praised black-and-white drama.

All his hard work didn’t go unnoticed. Clooney earned his first threeAcademy Award nominations—for Best Supporting Actor inSyriana as well as Best Director and Best Original Screenplay forGood Night, and Good Luck—and was similarly nominated at the Golden Globes. He ultimately won theOscar and Golden Globe trophy for his turn inSyriana.

In 2025, Clooney is set to make his broadway debut in the stage adaptation ofGood Night, and Good Luck.

Up in the Air andThe Descendants

In 2007, Clooney starred as the title character in the legal thrillerMichael Clayton. Portraying a problem fixer for a law firm, he earned an Oscar nomination for his performance for Best Actor.

After anchoring the sports comedyLeatherheads (2008), also featuringJohn Krasinski andRenée Zellweger, then taking a turn in theBrad Pitt–led satireBurn After Reading (2008), Clooney’s next starring role was in the 2009 dramatic comedy Up in the Air. His performance as Ryan Bingham, a consultant who specializes in firing employees, earned him rave reviews as well as another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

ForThe Ides of Marchin 2011, Clooney proved to be a triple-threat, serving as the project’s director, co-writer, and one of its stars. The political drama, based on a 2008 play titledFarragut North by Beau Willimon, featured Clooney as a presidential candidate andRyan Gosling as one of his aides. Clooney received an Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay and two Golden Globe nominations for the screenplay and his directing.

Also in 2011, Clooney gave an impressive performance in the family dramaThe Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne. He won a Golden Globe and secured an Academy Award nomination for his turn as a husband and father who must cope with new challenges and unpleasant revelations after his wife is severely injured in a boating accident.

Gravity andSuburbicon

Clooney won his second (and most recent) Oscar for producingArgo withBen Affleck and Grant Heslov. The 2012 political thriller was named Best Picture at the 85^th Academy Awards. The movie, which Affleck starred in and directed, was adapted fromThe Master of Disguise by former CIA operative Tony Mendez and“The Great Escape,” aWiredmagazine article by Joshuah Bearman.

Next, Clooney teamed up withSandra Bullock for 2013’sGravity. The space disaster epic was among the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year. He followed withThe Monuments Men (2014), which Clooney starred in and directed.

Clooney was back on the big screen in 2016, with featured roles inHail, Caesar!andMoney Monster, directed byJodie Foster. The following year, he again stepped behind the camera to directSuburbicon, starringMatt Damon andJulianne Moore.

Shortly after the release ofSuburbicon, Clooney revealed in an interview withThe Sunday Times that he was stepping back from acting. “I acted for a long time and, you know, I’m 56. I’m not the guy that gets the girl anymore,” he said, adding that his secure financial footing gave him the luxury to pursue the projects of his choosing.

Catch-22

One such project turned out to be an adaptation of Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel,Catch-22, about American servicemen attempting to maintain their sanity amid the looming threat of death in combat during World War II. Clooney starred in and directed two episodes from the 2019 limited series of the same name. His part as Colonel Cathcart was Clooney’s first regular TV role since his time onER in the 1990s.

The Midnight Sky andTicket to Paradise

In 2020, Clooney returned to both directing and acting in the science-fiction filmThe Midnight Sky, based on the bookGood Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. He played the leading role of Augustine, a lone scientist in the Arctic trying to contact a crew of astronauts. The movie, which debuted on Netflix, received mixed reviews from critics.

Clooney also directed Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 filmThe Tender Bar, which chronicles an aspiring writer’s coming-of-age as he finds a father figure in his bartender uncle, played byBen Affleck. The script was adapted from the memoir of Pulitzer Prizer winnerJ. R. Moehringer.

WithTicket to Paradise (2022), Clooney returned to movie theaters for the first time in six years. The romantic comedy, co-starringJulia Roberts, saw Clooney play a divorced father who travels to Bali with his ex-wife to stop their daughter from marrying a seaweed farmer.Ticket to Paradise generated lukewarm reviews.

The Boys in the BoatandWolfs

Clooney then directed the 2023 sports dramaThe Boys in the Boat, based on the true story of the University of Washington rowing team’s quest to compete for gold in the 1936 Olympics. The film grossed more than $50 million at the box office but received mixed reviews.

Next, Clooney voiced Spaceman in the 2024 kids’ fantasy movieIF. His newest movie,Wolfs, returns the actor to his roots in action-comedy. Released in September 2024, briefly in theaters then streaming on Apple TV+,Wolfs sees Clooney play a professional fixer alongside a rival fixer portrayed byBrad Pitt.

As of August 2024, Clooney has an estimated total net worth of $500 million, according toCelebrity Net Worth.

In addition to his screen work, he has earned much of his wealth from his tequila brand, Casamigos, which he founded in 2013. When Casamigos was sold in 2017, Clooney received $233 million in the deal, putting him at the top of Forbes’ annual ranking of highest-paid actors the following year.

The actor and director also has his own production company, Smokehouse Pictures, which has major deals with Audible and Warner Bros. Pictures Group. He and business partner Grant Heslov founded Smokehouse in 2006. The company has produced Oscar-winning Best PictureArgo (2012),August: Osage County, as well as several of Clooney’s acting and directing projects likeGood Night, and Good Luck.

Amal and George Clooney have been married since 2014 and share two kids.

A longtime bachelor, Clooney metAmal Alamuddin, a Lebanese-born British human rights attorney, through a friend in July 2013 when he was 52 years old and she was 35. They started dating a few months later, then in April 2014, he proposed during a date night at home. The couple tied the knot in Venice, Italy, that September, and Amal changed her name to Amal Clooney.

Three years later, 56-year-old George and 39-year-old Amal became first-time parents with the birth of their twins, Ella and Alexander, in June 2017. Today, the actor and his family reside in the small village of Cotignac, France, having previously lived in a villa on Lake Como in Italy.

First Wife Talia Balsam and Other Relationships

George Clooney and Talia Balsam got divorced after nearly four years of marriage.

Despite his bachelor status, Clooney was married once before. He and actor Talia Balsam wed in December 1989. That union was short-lived, and the two divorced in September 1993.

Following the divorce, Clooney vowed that he would never marry again or have children. The pledge managed to catch the attention of actorsNicole Kidman andMichelle Pfeiffer, who both stated that they believed Clooney would be a father before he turned 40 and even placed bets on it. Both actors lost their bets, and both sent Clooney checks to pay up. The actor, who has twice been namedPeople magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” returned the money to his friends.

In the years following his divorce, Clooney dated a variety of women, including actors Kimberly Russell, Krista Allen, and Stacy Keibler.

George is a father to 7-year-old twins Alexander and Ella, who he shares with his wife,Amal Clooney. Despite his fame, the actor has kept his children out of the public eye while occasionally giving insight into their lives and personalities. He has shared both Alexander and Ella speak French and Italian, have a good sense of humor, and are fans of soft metal music.

In September 2024, his kids crashed George’sGQ interview, climbing all over hisWolfs co-starBrad Pitt. Clooney shared he’s trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance for the sake of his family. “I’m going to give myself time with my kids,” he said, adding that he enjoys driving them to school.

Clooney said his top priority is to protect them. “I don’t want pictures of my kids. We deal in very serious subject matters, with very serious bad guys, and we don’t want to have photos of our kids out there,” he continued. “So we have to work hard at trying to stay private, and it’s tricky, as you can imagine.”

Involvement in U.S. Presidential Campaigns

An outspoken liberal, Clooney has been a frequent target of right-wing politicos and personalities, including Fox News’Bill O’Reilly. Beyond his disappointment with the election ofGeorge W. Bush asU.S. president in 2000, the actor was also an early opponent of the Iraq War and in a 2003 interview called the then-president “dim.”

“America’s policies frustrate me,” Clooney told a German television program. “I think a war against Iraq is as unavoidable as it is senseless. I think it’s coming. But I also think the real danger is going to be what happens after it.”

Clooney supportedBarack Obama’s successful 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, as well asHilary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 run. In 2020, he endorsedJoe Biden for president and hosted a virtual fundraiser for the eventual winner.

In July 2024, Clooney wrote an op-ed inThe New York Times calling for President Biden, 81, to end his bid for reelection due to his age. Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race less than two weeks later, prompting Clooney to endorse Democratic nominee Vice PresidentKamala Harris.

Peace Activism and Darfur

In 2006, Clooney stepped up his involvement in political and social causes. He teamed up with his father and a few others to travel around the western region of Sudan, known as Darfur. Armed with a few small video cameras, Clooney and his dad set out report on how the area had been ravaged by war and how the international community was struggling to set up refugee camps to help those in need. By leveraging Clooney’s Hollywood status, they believed they could bring greater attention to the Darfur crisis and could help fuel global interest in helping the region. Their edited footage was broadcast on such programs asOprah.

Upon his return to the United States, Clooney brought his celebrity clout to Washington D.C., where he spoke at a rally against the genocide in Darfur. Later he spoke to a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council. With other celebrities—includingBrad Pitt, Don Cheadle, andMatt Damon—he formed a nonprofit organization called Not On Our Watch to help the people in Darfur.

In 2007, he and Cheadle were recognized for their work for Darfur. The pair shared a Peace Summit Award at the 8^th Annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. The following year, with his parents standing at his side, Clooney was officially appointed as a U.N. peace envoy.

Recognizing his philanthropic efforts to date, the Television Academy present Clooney with theBob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2010.

Philanthropic Donations

Followingthe September 11^th attacks, Clooney organized a fundraiser that featured dozens of Hollywood stars and assembled more than $129 million for the United Way. Four years later, he donated $1 million to the United Way Hurricane Katrina Response Fund.

Following the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018, Clooney and his wife, Amal, announced they were donating $500,000 to the March for Our Lives protest planned for the following month. Other entertainment A-listers followed their lead, withSteven Spielberg andOprah Winfrey also announcing donations.

• I’m certainly the last person to give advice on, well, anything.
• The best lesson my mom taught me was how to be scrappy... She taught me how to be realistic and survive in weird situations.
• In debates, the Republican will go, “That guy’s bad, and that guy’s good.” And the Democrat will say, “Well, I understand what you’re saying, because your parents were alcoholics.” And the reality is that you need people who go, “That’s good. That’s bad.”

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right,contact us!

Biography.com Editors

Staff Editorial Team and Contributors

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page:https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Catherine Caruso

Associate Profiles Editor

Catherine Caruso joined theBiography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.