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Biography
George Timothy Clooney was born on the
6th of May, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina, was a former
state beauty queen, while his dad, Nick Clooney, was a TV newscaster,
actor and talk-show host of great repute around the Cincinnati area.
There's one sister, Ada. From the age of 5, young George would potter
around his father's sets, joining in where possible, shouting out the
temperature during the weather report, generally being charming (some
things never change).
Nick's audiences loved him. George's
aunt, the famous singer Rosemary Clooney, thought he'd make a fine
comedian. Once, when he was thirteen, he was at home trying on an Easter
Bunny costume for one of his dad's shows. Suddenly, there was an awful
rumbling - it was Augusta's first earthquake in 150 years. Poor George;
in his cute suit and huge fake feet, he had to leave the building and
stand, humiliated, among the neighbors.
George attended Kentucky's Augusta High School, but was no academic.
Indeed, his father would give him extra book reports as he didn't think
the boy was reading enough. War books became a favorite. George was more
sporty. Indeed, baseball was his life. A big star at Augusta High, he
actually tried out for the Cincinnati Reds, but did not make the cut.
He tried college, at Northern Kentucky
University, but didn't like that. He tried following his father into
broadcast journalism, but didn't really want to do that either. Then
came revelation. George's uncle was the actor Jose Ferrer, and now he
came to Kentucky, along with his actor sons Miguel and Rafael, to make a
horse-racing movie called And They're Off. Miguel was a particular
friend of George's and he got him a minor role. The film was never
released, but something in George Clooney was. He'd not seriously
considered acting before. Indeed, his only real contact with that world
had come very early on, when Raymond Burr came to Kentucky. George had
trailed around behind the poor fellow all day, every five minutes
grabbing his sleeve and shouting "You're Perry Mason! You're Perry
Mason!"
Nick told him he ought to stick with college, have something to fall
back on. But George replied that if he had something to fall back on,
he'd probably fall back. So, he spent a season picking tobacco for his
uncle Jack, then in 1982 took off for LA in his '76 Monte Carlo, with
$300 in his pocket. The idea was to stay with his aunt Rosemary while he
studied and looked for acting work, but she didn't fancy his chances and
didn't really want to help him on his way to disaster. Nevertheless,
when she went off on tour she invited George to be her driver.
Other work did not come. This was the time of the Brat Pack and George
was just a couple of years too old. He became depressed and something of
a pain, so Rosemary asked him to leave. Luckily, a friend and
fellow-struggling-actor Tom Matthews could put him up - in a walk-in
closet. George lived like that for a year, while touting for roles,
doing construction work and studying under the renowned Milton Katselas.
His first class production secured him an agent. Now the work came - and
in the end HOW it came.
Many think that George Clooney was an
immediate (and lucky) sensation with his first big part, in ER, then
casually stepped into the movies. It didn't happen like that at all. He
had to sell insurance door to door, draw caricatures in the mall, and
flog lemonade from a stand. He did indeed start in a programme called
E/R, but not the successful one. This one began in 1984, with Elliott
Gould as divorced Dr Sheinfeld, a physician on call at a tough hospital.
Like the later ER, it was set in Chicago, and veered between sit-com and
high drama.
For a couple of years, George was George
Burnett in The Facts Of Life, a long running series about boarding
school girls. Then, for a further year, he was Booker Brooks in
Roseanne. In between, there were a few film roles. There was the
Scream-like Return To Horror High: Grizzly 2, with Charlie Sheen, which
was (unsurprisingly) almost never released: and Return Of The Killer
Tomatoes, where those vicious fruit were reanimated by John Astin
(formerly Gomez Addams).
On paper, it doesn't look like much, but
Clooney was actually big news in TV. He could get pilots greenlighted,
and the money got progressively better. In 1990, he starred as Chic
Chesbro in Sunset Beat, a shortlived TV series about LA cops who go
undercover as bikers (Clooney LOVES motorbikes). Then came Baby Talk, a
series based on Look Who's Talking, which featured sit-com gods Tony
Danza and Scott Baio. He played Detective Ryan Walker in Bodies Of
Evidence, a series of police mysteries. Then, between 1993 and '94, he
was a cop again, as Detective James Falconer in Sisters, a popular
series about four sisters in different walks of life, which variously
featured Swoosie Kurtz, Julianne Phillips and Ashley Judd.
By now, Clooney was already rich. He was earning $40,000 a week, owned a
Hollywood home and two cars. For some years, he'd been "the
best-paid unknown actor in Hollywood". Trouble was, he couldn't get
a film agent to represent him, not even one from his own agency, William
Morris. He tried for a part in Thelma And Louise, reading for Ridley
Scott five times, but lost out to Brad Pitt. He was gutted, and
outraged, couldn't watch the movie for a full year. Then, when he did,
he later recalled, "I sat there with my mouth open, saying I would
never have thought of doing things the way he did them. Suddenly, I
realised how right Ridley Scott was".
This film problem had not been George's only source of trouble. While
making Baby Talk, he'd argued continually with the producers and quit in
acrimonious circumstances. He believed he'd never be employed again.
Beside that, he was splitting from his wife, Talia Balsam. The daughter
of actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten, Talia was a year older
than George and was a TV regular in shows like Happy Days, Taxi, Dallas,
Magnum PI etc. They'd married in 1989, just after George had split from
Kelly Preston (now Mrs Travolta). George claimed he would never marry
again and never have children. Nicole Kidman would bet him $10,000 that
he'd break this vow by the age of 40. On his 40th birthday, she'd send
him a cheque. He'd return it with a note saying "Double or nothing
on my 50th".
Now came the big break, though it must have looked like business as
usual to George. It was yet another TV series, again called ER. But
George answered the call of Warners president Les Moonves and took it
on. Unlike the 1984 version, it was a mega-smash and, as heart-throb
doctor Doug Ross, George was the sexy centrepiece. Some have snidely
asked what Clooney would have been without ER - it's more pertinent to
ask what ER would have been without Clooney, with his humour, his
timing, his looks and his action-heroics.
NOW came the movies. George had earlier
auditioned for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, performing Michael
Madsen's horrifying dance sequence. Now he made the cut, starring
alongside Tarantino himself as Seth Gecko in the weird,
road-movie-come-vampire-flick From Dusk Till Dawn. Clooney played a
baddie for the first time, but he went over well, his haircut in
particular proving popular. He'd got himself a "Roman" cut to
look especially crazy - but everyone thought he was cute. So he kept it.
George received $250,000 for From Dusk Till Dawn. His next offer was
infinitely more exciting, and not simply for the $3 million on offer.
What thrilled George more was a note saying "The Peacemaker is the
first film from our new studio and I'd love you to do it". The
studio was Dreamworks, the writer Steven Spielberg, possibly the only
man powerful enough to get George out of a contract to play the Green
Hornet, which he did.
First though came a superior rom-com with Michelle
Pfeiffer, called One Fine Day. Here Clooney managed to hold his own
beside one of the industry's finest actresses, even though they were
required to deliver their lines at twice the normal speed. Lots of money
was made. Then came The Peacemaker, with Kidman. This was righteously
slagged off but, as George later pointed out: "Dreamworks was being
reviewed rather than The Peacemaker. It was the first time I'd gotten
bad reviews ever in my life. Actually, Batman came out first, so it was
like a one-two punch".
Ah, yes, Batman And Robin. George had been asked to take over from Val
Kilmer by director Joel Schumacher and had accepted, despite making only
$3 million to Arnie's $20 million. The movie wasn't good, mostly for its
lack of story, but also because the involvement of both Robin and
Batgirl added a thoroughly unnecessary superficiality.
George wasn't too hot either. As he'd
learned his craft, he'd begun to use a few fail-safe moves, in
particular one where he looked down and slowly raised those big doe eyes
(Antonio
Banderas did something similar). The ladies may have loved it, and
Schumacher, legendary for making stars look impossibly good, may have
demanded it, but it was wholly inappropriate when George was sitting on
butler Albert's death-bed. Worse still, much of the movie was looped - a
process that the usually mild-mannered Clooney hates with abandon.
Fortunately, Clooney learned fast that he
had to get real. Even more fortunately, though it was slated by
everyone, Batman And Robin made money - $230 million worldwide, plus
merchandising and video receipts that may well have taken its profits
into the billions. Strangely, it was Clooney's next picture, his first
real critical success, that lost money. After Batman, he'd looked for a
decent script for over a year. He felt he needed one because he didn't
believe he could carry a bad film on sheer personality. He also
believes, for much the same reason, that he needs high quality co-stars.
Very realistic is our George.
So, along came Steven Soderbergh with Out Of Sight, a smart, slick,
indie-thriller that paired George, as Jack Foley, with the up-and-coming
Jennifer
Lopez. Money was lost due to marketing departments not being sure
where to place such an unusual film, but those who saw the movie knew
that George had arrived. His reputation so enhanced, he moved on to
Three Kings, a superb movie about rebellious soldiers looting gold
bullion during the Gulf War. George, co-starring with Mark
Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze, was instrumental in getting the
movie made. Offered $10 million, he gave $5 million back, taking $2.5
million upfront and accepting a further $2.5 million later.
He also, he said, personally financed the
hugely impressive blowing up of a cow - perhaps the movie's finest
moment and one that, due to budgeting constraints, nearly never
happened. There were other fireworks onset, too. At one point, tired by
a tough schedule and frustrated by director David O. Russell's habit of
directing every line of dialogue, he cracked when he saw Russell,
frustrated himself, berating some extras. Punches were thrown, Russell
later claiming "I wouldn't make another George Clooney movie if
they paid me $20 million".
Strange that Clooney should have acted so violently - he's known as one
of the nicest and most laid-back of them all. He's also a major
practical joker, sometimes spending months in preparation. Once, he
found a painting of a fat woman in a skip and had an idea. He took the
painting, signed it and packed it away. Then, for about a year, he
deliberately kept missing golfing appointments with his friend Richard
Kind, his excuse being that he had art classes.
He'd take Kind to art shops, discussing
paint, making him feel the brushes. Then, on Kind's next birthday,
George presented him with the painting of the fat lady. It was the first
work he'd done, he claimed, of which he and his art teacher were
genuinely proud. Kind was touched and hung the piece up in his
front-room. Clooney told all of Kind's other friends to marvel at it
when in Kind's house, and they did. How pleased Richard was - till
Clooney hit him with the awful truth.
Career-wise, Clooney had done the smart
thing. Hugely popular, he'd been nominated for Emmies in 1995 and 1996,
and for Golden Globes from 1996-98, and he'd stayed with ER while his
cinematic CV grew and strengthened. Now, after Out Of Sight and Three
Kings, and with another serious action flick - Wolfgang Petersen's The
Perfect Storm - on the way, he was ready to move on. Approached by the
Coen Brothers with a script they'd written for him, he agreed to star
without even reading it, and left ER at last. This was done with little
acrimony. For a while, despite being the biggest star on the show,
Clooney had been the lowest paid regular, yet he still honored his
contract. He, naturally, thought nothing of it. "It's a scary
profession we're in," he said later "when just doing what
you're supposed to do is some kind of distinction".
The Coens' film was O Brother Where Art Thou?, a bizarre chain-gang
musical based on The Odyssey. George was excellent, having sent the
script off to his Uncle Jack to be read out on tape, so George could get
that down-home accent just right. It was a big cult hit and Clooney won
a Golden Globe, beating off De Niro, Carrey, Cusack and Gibson (some
evening, eh?). He was also now a massive international star as The
Perfect Storm, a tale of New England sailors struggling to survive an
awesome maelstrom (and again co-starring Mark
Wahlberg), was his first mega-hit, making well over $300 million
worldwide. It certainly helped him get over the pain of The Thin Red
Line.
This, a war epic by maverick director
Terrence Malick, had enjoyed a wildly stellar cast. But Clooney's part
of the storyline had been chopped, so he only appeared in the finale.
Knowing that this looked like some gross, egomaniacal casting decision -
like, "You will put George in this movie or you'll never lunch in
this town again!" - he BEGGED Malick to leave him out altogether.
It couldn't, sadly, be done.
This horrible memory wasn't the only bad thing in Clooney's life. There
was also a law-suit, courtesy of the family of the man he played in The
Perfect Storm, Captain Billy Tyne. They said the film-makers did not
have permission to use the real names of the people involved in the
real-life tragedy. The producers retorted that it was a historical
event, therefore the names were fair game. But, countered the family,
there were only radio reports to go on. Being as there were no
survivors, no one knows what happened on the boat, so the film was
essentially a work of fiction. The case went on.
Otherwise, things were looking good. To show the esteem in which he's
held in TV-land, Clooney was allowed by Les Moonves, now president of
CBS, to put together a live action drama, Fail Safe, starring Richard
Dreyfuss and Clooney himself. George, said Moonves, "likes the idea
of being a trapeze artist without the net". And it worked.
He's a great guy, and a good guy. Heavily
influenced by his father's journalistic sense of justice and habit of
campaigning for good causes, Clooney has certainly stood up to be
counted. Aside from the fracas on the Three Kings set, he also demanded
the reinstatement of (and offered to pay the fines for) three unknown
actors expelled from the Screen Actors' Guild for working during the big
strike. It wasn't fair, said George, that they should be kicked out when
more famous strike-breakers like Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal and
Elizabeth Hurley (as in "Elizabeth Scabley, you make me
hurl!") were simply fined.
Then there was the fight with Hard Copy, the tabloid TV news show.
Clooney was annoyed with the way reporters would resort to aggression,
like insulting a star's partner at the airport or in a restaurant, just
to get a "newsworthy" reaction from the star, which they could
then sell to Hard Copy. He boycotted them, others followed - and, well,
George is the one still standing. There was also the case of TV Guide,
George publicly taking umbrage with the fact that Eriq La Salle, his
co-star in ER, had done three photo-sessions for their front cover, but
never actually appeared on it. Was it because he was black?
And, most famously, George was heavily involved in the organisation of
America: A Tribute To Heroes. This was a telethon screened just after
the attacks of September 11th. Clooney got EVERYONE involved - Tom
Cruise, Julia Roberts, Jim
Carrey, the lot - raising over $150 million for the families of the
dead.
Movie-wise, the best was yet to come. Clooney had been bugging Steven
Soderbergh to make another movie with him ever since Out Of Sight. He'd
sent him twenty scripts, to each of which Soderbergh had said "No
way, dude" ("He's a snob", explained Clooney). Then
Clooney came up with the idea of remaking Ocean's Eleven, the old Rat
Pack heist hit (coincidentally, most of the Rat Pack had earlier
appeared on George's aunt's TV show).
Soderbergh liked the idea, they got Brad
Pitt on board. Then Soderbergh, having just hit big with Erin
Brockovich, sent a copy of the script to his Erin, Julia
Roberts. Inside was tucked a $20 bill and a note saying "I hear
you get 20 a picture now". Roberts was in, as Tess, the ex-wife of
Clooney's Danny Ocean. Next came Matt
Damon. All the stars took upfront pay cuts to get the movie made,
and it was a big hit, topping the US charts.
In true Clooney fashion, the stars
publicised the movie in the nicest possible way - visiting US troops in
Turkey. And some great stories came from the shoot. Clooney had
constantly booby-trapped his co-stars' rooms, often soaking Pitt with
well-placed buckets of water (Remember Thelma And Louise? Well, take
THAT you brilliant GIT!). Then there was the gambling. Clooney is a
terrible gambler, horribly unlucky, but, on location in Las Vegas, he
began playing blackjack, accompanied by Damon.
Having lost 25 hands on the trot, he ran
out of money and had to borrow $600 from his co-star, money that he lost
near-instantly. The next morning, Damon found an envelope shoved under
his hotel-room door. It was a cheque for $600 - prompt payment, very
Clooney. But, looking closer, he saw that George had filled in the
section on the cheque where you can say what the payment is for. If he
tried to bank the cheque, the cashier would think he'd been lap-dancing
for George. $600-worth! Again, very Clooney.
Of course, Clooney is well known for his way with the ladies, and he's
had many high-profile relationships. After Talia Balsam, there were a
couple of years, up until 1999, with Celine Balitran, a French model
studying the law. Then came Charlize
Theron and Kimberly Russell, from whom George split when marriage
and kids were mentioned ("He told me flat out it was never going to
happen again"). And there was British model and TV presenter Lisa
Snowdon, with whom George had an on-off thing, continuing through 2005.
In one of the Off periods, he saw Renee Zellweger. That he did not stay
with her was proof positive of his inability to commit. There was also
actress Krista Allen. Oh, and there WASN'T Julia
Roberts, despite reports that Clooney had ruined her relationship
with Benjamin Bratt.
After Ocean's Eleven (and a cameo in Spy Kids, directed by his old From
Dusk Till Dawn buddy Robert Rodriguez) would come Welcome To Collinwood,
a lower budget heist movie produced by Section 8, a company formed by
Clooney and Steven Soderbergh and named after the military clause
dealing with discharge on the grounds of insanity. Here Luis Guzman
would lead a shambolic gang in an attempt to bust into a pawn shop,
Clooney playing a wheelchair-bound former safecracker who, for a small
fee, teaches them how to pull off the job. It was a chaotic comedy and,
quite literally, worlds away from his next project.
This was Solaris, a remake of Tarkovsky's
haunting 1972 sci-fi classic. Once more directed by Soderbergh, this saw
George as a psychiatrist who's called to a space-station circling the
planet of the title when the astronauts begin sending back wholly
disturbed messages. Solaris, it seems, in order to keep hold of any
visitors, recreates people they loved and have lost.
Thus Clooney's dead wife, a suicide,
turns up in bed beside him, alive once again. But now he must cope with
the fact that she is a construct built from his memories of her. Is this
real, is it right, is it what he wants? Delving deep into the nature of
human relationships, the movie was contemplative, sad and very
intelligent, drawing a subdued but genuinely moving performance from its
star.
Now a big star and producer, it was
logical that Clooney would turn to directing, and this he did with
Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. With its screenplay written by Charlie
Kaufman, this was adapted from gameshow host Chuck Barris's notorious
autobiography, in which he claimed to have moonlighted as a hitman for
the CIA. Starring as Barris would be Sam Rockwell, one of the dodgy
robbers in Welcome To Collinwood, with George appearing as the CIA
smoothie who recruits him. Clooney would also use his burgeoning
influence to entice both Julia
Roberts and Drew Barrymore onto the picture, working for scale. Brad
Pitt and Matt
Damon would pop up, too, as contestants on The Dating Game. These
were sequences director Clooney, who as a kid had spent so much time
backstage on his father's productions, would simulate superbly.
Next up would come more comedy when Clooney reunited with the Coen
brothers for Intolerable Cruelty. This saw him as a divorce lawyer
famous for drawing up an unbreakable pre-nup agreement, who defeats
gold-digger Catherine Zeta-Jones when she goes after her cheating
husband's fortune. Knowing the kind of girl she is (and fancying her
like crazy), he's intrigued when she then hires him to work out a pre-nup
for her next marriage, to bashful Texas oil billionaire Billy
Bob Thornton. He marvels at her skill in manipulation, skill that
mirrors his own, and plots to win her - a fascinating and hilarious
battle of wills between two of the best-looking film stars of modern
times.
With so many irons in the fire, Clooney's screen appearances would now
be limited. On top of work, there was politics (which would soon spill
over into his work). George spoke out against the war in Iraq and,
alongside Sean
Penn, Susan Sarandon and Ed Norton, featured on an infamous pack of
playing cards called The Weasels. Furthermore, 2004 would see him
backing John Kerry against George Bush (Clooney had actually bought a
villa on Lake Como from Kerry and his rich wife Teresa Heinz) and
helping his dad Nick when he campaigned for a Congressional seat, hoping
to represent Kentucky.
Though George managed to raise over
$600,000 from his celebrity buddies, Nick would be beaten by Republican
Geoff Davis. 2005 would see George back in organizational mode when he
helped put together a telethon to aid victims of the Asian tsunami,
which had struck on Boxing Day, 2004. And this he did despite having to
publicize his own Ocean's Twelve, and having just undergone an operation
to stop fluid leaking out of his spinal column (an injury he'd suffered
while filming the forthcoming Syriana).
On the production front, Section 8 was
going great guns. Aside from high profile (but always classy and
interesting) projects like Far From Heaven, The Jacket and A Scanner
Darkly, they'd moved into TV with the acclaimed and very witty series
Unscripted, which saw three young actors struggling to make it in
Hollywood, Frank Langella tearing it up as a feisty acting coach. But
the world knew Clooney best as a film star and Ocean's Twelve, released
at the end of 2004, cemented his position as one of the biggest. This
time the action would shift to Europe, as the gang have to pull off
three daring robberies in order to pay back Andy Garcia, the Vegas
casino owner they turned over in the original. All the big boys (and
girls) returned to the fray - it was Clooney calling, after all - with
the addition of his Intolerable Cruelty co-star Zeta-Jones, who'd
earlier starred in Soderbergh's Traffic.
Back on top, Clooney would move on to Syriana, based on Robert Bauer's
book See No Evil: The True Story Of A Ground Soldier In The CIA's War On
Terrorism. Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan (who'd also written
Traffic), this gradually brought together many disparate characters as
it explored the shady world of American foreign policy, with its
government intrigue, legal battles and dealings in oil and guns. Clooney
would play Bauer himself, an operative hunting down terrorists in the
Middle East, with Matt
Damon (who, following Mark
Wahlberg, had seemingly become George's latest protégé) as an oil
price analyst drawn into the murk.
Following Syriana, Clooney would return to the director's chair with
Goodnight And Good Luck which, like Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind,
would take him back to the TV studios of days long gone. Here, the
admirable David Strathairn (who could forget his brilliant turn in
Dolores Claiborne?) would play Edward R Murrow, the CBS news anchorman
who challenged notorious senator Joseph McCarthy and helped bring about
the end of the Communist witch-hunt, and the cruel and unusual
punishment of "un-American" activities. George would play Fred
Friendly, Morrow's producer and the movie, co-written by the
ever-expanding Clooney, would see him bring his political vision to the
screen for the first time.
Marriage may not be on the cards, but further success is. Now a film
star, producer, writer and active charity fundraiser and politico,
George Clooney has forged a massive success. Onscreen, not only has he
made the difficult step from TV to film, he's also moved from action
star and romantic lead to become something of an auteur. Off-screen, you
never, ever hear a bad word said about him (apart from those people who
think he's a weasel, of course). Artistically and politically, he has
become a force for Good in this world. All hail The Cloonster! ~ Dominic
Wills.
After leaving ER, Clooney starred in major Hollywood successes, such as Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In 2001, he teamed up with Soderbergh again for Ocean's Eleven, a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name. Alongside Clooney, the film also starred Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, and Julia Roberts. To this day, it remains Clooney's most commercially successful movie, earning approximately US$444,200,000 worldwide. The film spawned two sequels, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. In 2001, Clooney founded the production studio Smoke House with Steven Soderbergh.
He made his directorial debut in the 2002 film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an adaptation of the autobiography of TV producer Chuck Barris. Though the movie didn't do well at the box office, Clooney's direction was praised among critics and audiences alike.
In 2005, Clooney starred in Syriana, which was based loosely on former Central Intelligence Agency agent Robert Baer and his memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. The same year he directed, produced, and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck, a film about 1950s television journalist Edward R. Murrow's famous war of words with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both films received critical acclaim and decent box-office returns despite being in limited release. At the 2006 Academy Awards, Clooney was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. He became the first person in Oscar history to be nominated for directing one movie and acting in another in the same year. He would go on to win for his role in Syriana. More recently, he appeared in The Good German, a film-noir directed by Soderbergh. The film is set in post-World War II Germany.
Clooney is active in advocating a resolution of the Darfur conflict. His efforts include an episode of Oprah and speaking at the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2006.
In 2006, he was involved in several events to highlight the issue. In April, he spent ten days in Chad and Sudan with his father to make a film in order to show the dramatic situation of Darfur's refugees. In September, he spoke in front of the Security Council of the U.N. with Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel to ask the U.N. to find a solution to the conflict and to help the people of Darfur. In December, he made a trip to China and Egypt with Don Cheadle and two Olympic winners to ask both governments to pressure Sudan's government.
Clooney is involved with Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities, along with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub. He narrated and was co-executor producer of the documentary "Sand and Sorrow.
On March 25, 2007, he sent an open letter to German chancellor Angela Merkel, calling on the European Union to take "decisive action" in the region in the face of Omar al-Bashir's failure to respond to the U.N. resolutions.
Clooney also appears in the documentary film Darfur Now, a call to action film for people all over the world to help stop the ongoing crisis in Darfur. The film was released on November 2, 2007.
On December 13, 2007, Clooney and fellow actor Don Cheadle were presented with the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates at the 8th Annual Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. In his acceptance speech Clooney said that he and Cheadle "Don and I…stand here before you as failures. The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur…those people are not better off now than they were years ago."
On January 18, 2008, the United Nations announced Clooney's appointment as a United Nations peace envoy, effective from January 31.
Clooney is one of only two people to have been given the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" twice by People Magazine, first in 1997 and again in 2006. The other is Brad Pitt . Clooney also received the American Cinematheque Award in October 2006, an award that honors an artist in the entertainment industry who has made "a significant contribution to the art of motion pictures". On January 22, 2008, Clooney was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Michael Clayton, but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood. As of January 2007, Clooney is represented by Bryan Lourd, Co-Chairman of Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
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