George Clooney Analysis

About This Project

George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961 – ) went from picking tobacco on a farm, to working a small part in a film that was never released to one of the biggest stars on the planet and the “Sexiest Man Alive.” George grew up in the Lexington, Kentucky-Cincinnati, Ohio area where his father worked as a news reporter and anchor at the local news station. Though he hadn’t necessarily aspired early on to work in show business, George made his television debut at the age of five in one of his father’s sketches for his program. Growing up, Clooney focused more on athletics growing up than grades, though he reportedly looked back on his old report cards to see that he received As and Bs. At 16, George earned a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds, to no avail and so he began working in and around the Cincinnati area until he entered the Northern Kentucky University for broadcast journalism. His cousin, Miguel Ferrer, soon asked him to be a part of movie, filming in the area and he was hooked, moving to Los Angeles to become a movie star shortly after filming ended. (The film was never released.) His aunt was also the famous singer Rosemary Clooney, who George worked for when he arrived in Hollywood until he landed on his feet. George worked regularly as an actor early on, partially due to his charm and good looks, but also due to his eagerness to prove himself as a top-notch actor. He had a few small television roles in the 1980s as ace on E/R (1984-1985), and then landed a reoccurring role on the popular teen series The Facts of Life (1985-1987). Ever the workingman, and bringing in a pretty healthy salary on such TV series as Hunter (1986), Baby Talk (1991), Roseanne (1988-1991), Bodies of Evidence (1992-1993) and Sisters(1993-1994), but the breakthrough role eluded him. Clooney’s world was turned upside-down in 1994 when he joined the cast of the medical drama ER and he was launched into superstardom as the handsome and caring Dr. Doug Ross.

While working ER, consistently, the top rated drama on television, George was cast in a number of great leading man roles like Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk to Dawn (1996), playing atman in Batman and Robin (1997), Out of Sight (1998) opposite Jennifer Lopez, the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and taking on the role of Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven (2001), first portrayed by Frank Sinatra in the original 1960 Ocean’s 11. He would reprise the role twice more in Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). Clooney won his first of three Golden Globe Awards for his work on O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? Though he eventually left the highly successful ER in 2006, Clooney’s star continued to rise and more opportunities appeared around every corner. He made his directorial debut in the film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), a biopic about Gong Show host Chuck Barris and soon followed it with the critically acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination for directing. However, that same year, George won the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor for the film Syriana (2005), which he also produced. He has since earned critical acclaim for roles in Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009), The Ides of March (2011), The Descendants (2011) and Gravity(2013), among 70 other TV and film credits. George Clooney has also given back as he has capitalized on his superstardom to bring oppression and misfortune around the world to light, most specifically in Darfur and Sudan. He has teamed with some of his celebrity pals and Ocean’s Eleven stars like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle to create the charitable organization Not on Our Watch to help the people in Darfur. Clooney and his chums have also assisted in the recovery of victims of September 11^th, and personally donated $1-million to the United Way Hurricane Katrina Response Fund. In 2007, Clooney and Cheadle won the Peace Summit Award. On a lighter note, People Magazine named him the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1997 and 2006.