Join us for a Career Retrospective of actor George Clooney, moderated by Dave Karger, Turner Classic Movies.

BIO:

George Clooney is recognized as much for his global humanitarian efforts as he is for his accomplishments in the entertainment industry.

Clooney’s achievements as a performer and a filmmaker have earned him two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes including the Cecil B. DeMille Award, four SAG Awards, one BAFTA award, two Critics’ Choice Awards, an Emmy, four National Board of Review Awards and an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. When Clooney received his eighth Academy Award nomination, he earned a special spot in the Oscar record books, having been nominated in more categories than anyone else in Oscar history.

Most recently, Clooney earned a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in Good Night, and Good Luck in which he starred as Edward R. Murrow in the stage adaptation of his 2005 Oscar- nominated film, which he co-wrote with Grant Heslov. Making history as the first live Broadway performance to be simultaneously televised, the show aired on CNN to audiences across the world Through Smokehouse Pictures, Clooney’s most recent directorial project was The Boys in the Boat, which he both directed and produced for MGM, alongside his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov. The film is based on the bestselling novel by Daniel James Brown.

Other recent Smokehouse projects include The Tender Bar (Amazon Prime), which he also directed and produced, based on the J.R Moehringer’s memoir of the same name; and The Midnight Sky based on the science fiction novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, which he directed and starred in for Netflix. 

Clooney most recently produced the political thriller series The Agency for Showtime, based on the acclaimed French series Le Bureau des Legendes, which has been renewed for a second season. Prior to The Agency, Clooney’s most recent television series was Catch-22 (Hulu), the six-part limited series that he directed, served as executive producer and acted in. Catch-22 was based on the Joseph Heller novel of the same name.

On screen, Clooney will next star opposite Adam Sandler and Billy Crudup in Jay Kelly for Netflix. Clooney was last seen in Jon Watts’ film Wolfs alongside Brad Pitt, which Clooney also co-produced through Smokehouse Pictures, and Ticket To Paradise (Universal Pictures,) in which he co-starred with Julia Roberts in 2022. Furthermore, he produced and directed Suburbicon (Paramount Pictures,) produced and starred in Money Monster (TriStar Pictures), produced Our Brand is Crisis (Warner Bros.), and produced, directed and starred in The Monuments Men (Sony Pictures).  In 2016 he also starred in the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! (Universal Pictures). In 2015, Clooney was seen in director Alfonso Cuarón’s drama Gravity (Warner Bros.), and sci-fi film Tomorrowland (Disney).

In 2013, Smokehouse, along with Jean Doumanian Productions, produced a film adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County (The Weinstein Company).

Other Smokehouse films include the Academy Award winning drama Argo (Warner Bros) and The Ides of March (Columbia Pictures), which Clooney starred in, co-wrote and directed, received Golden Globe nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture Drama. In addition, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

In 2011, Clooney starred in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (Fox Searchlight) Clooney won the Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and National Board of Review Award for Best Actor. In addition, he received a SAG nomination and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

In 2009, Clooney starred in the critically acclaimed film Up in the Air (Paramount Pictures). He received an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor for his performance. He also won National Board of Review and New York Film Critics’ Circle Awards.

When Clooney received his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana (Warner Bros.) in 2006, he also earned Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, And Good Luck (Warner Independent Pictures).  This was the first time in Academy history that an individual had received acting and directing nominations for two different films in the same year.

Clooney and Heslov first worked together at Section Eight, a company in which Clooney partnered with Steven Soderbergh.  Section Eight productions included Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12, Ocean’s 13, Michael Clayton, The Good German, Good Night, and Good Luck., Syriana, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Jacket, Full Frontal, and Welcome To Collinwood.

Before his film career, Clooney starred in several television series, becoming best known to TV audiences for his five years on the hit NBC drama ER.  His portrayal of Dr. Douglas Ross earned him Golden Globe, SAG, People’s Choice Award, and Emmy Award nominations.

For Section Eight’s television division, Clooney was an executive producer and directed five episodes of Unscripted, a reality-based show that debuted on HBO.  He also was executive producer and cameraman on K Street, another show featured on HBO.

Clooney was executive producer and co-star of the live television broadcast of Fail-Safe, an Emmy-winning telefilm developed through his Maysville Pictures. Fail-Safe was nominated for a 2000 Golden Globe Award as Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.  The telefilm was based on the early 1960s novel of the same name.

Clooney is a strong First Amendment advocate with a deep commitment to humanitarian causes. In 2006, Clooney and his father, Nick, went to drought-stricken Darfur, Africa, to film the documentary Journey to Darfur. Clooney’s work on behalf of Darfur relief led to his addressing the United Nations Security Council. He also narrated the Darfur documentary Sand and Sorrow. In 2006, he received the American Cinematheque Award and the Modern Master Award from the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

In 2007, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Jerry Weintraub founded “Not On Our Watch,” an organization whose mission is to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities in Darfur. 

 Among the many honors received as a result of his humanitarian efforts in Darfur, one of them was the 2007 Peace Summit Award, given at the eighth World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. In 2008, Clooney was designated a U.N. Messenger of Peace, one of eight individuals chosen to advocate on behalf of the U.N. and its peacekeeping efforts.

 In January of 2010, Clooney, along with Joel Gallen and Tenth Planet Productions, produced the Hope for Haiti Now! telethon, which raised more than $66 million, setting a new record for donations made by the public through a disaster-relief telethon.

 The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Clooney with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2010 Primetime Emmys.  Later that year, Clooney received the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award for his dedication to humanitarian efforts in Sudan and Haiti.

In December of 2010, Clooney, along with the United Nations, Harvard University and Google, launched The Satellite Sentinel Project, an effort to monitor violence and human-rights violations between Southern and Northern Sudan. “Not on Our Watch” funds new monitoring technology, which allows private satellites to take photographs of any potential threats to civilians, detect bombs, observe the movement of troops and note any other evidence of possible mass violence.

In March of 2012, Clooney was part of the delegation that peacefully demonstrated in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., calling worldwide attention to the human-rights violations being committed in Sudan, which resulted in his arrest.

In October of 2012, Clooney was the honoree at the Carousel of Hope Ball, which benefits the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes (BDC.)