George Clooney

Profession: Actor, Director, Producer & Screenwriter
Place/Date of Birth: Lexington, Kentucky, USA, 06 May 1961
Associated with: Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez

George provided a morale boost and some light-hearted Hollywood glamour to the serious work of diplomacy as he toured UN headquarters for a ceremony.

He’s just back from a two-week trip to 19 locations in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Central African Republic, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, arriving in the US by way of India, UN officials said.

"Each conflict zone has difficulties that are unique, but there’s always one unifying thread: the worst atrocities are saved for the poorest and most vulnerable," the star told a news conference.

As the ninth UN peace envoy, the Oscar winner was selected for his ability to focus public attention on critical international political and social issues.

He told reporters it was a tremendous honour. As he spoke his parents, Nick and Nina Clooney, accompanying him throughout the day, beamed with pride.

George took on the job of promoting the world body’s peacekeeping missions after waging his own campaigns for an end to the four-and-a-half-year war in Darfur and for more humanitarian aid for the millions caught up in the conflict.

He said he plans to focus his attention on Darfur and other spots he knows best, but has ambitions to travel broadly in his UN role.

Clooney invited to Nigeria - Jan 21 2008
Militants in Nigeria’s restive oil region have invited actor George Clooney to visit the area and asked for United Nations intervention in the conflict.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated George as a UN "messenger of peace" to promote the UN’s activities, especially in its far-flung peacekeeping missions.

The 46-year-old actor has been campaigning for an end to the war in the Darfur region of Sudan and for humanitarian aid for the millions caught up in the conflict.

Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta congratulated George on his appointment and invited him to visit the impoverished region, which has been wracked by two years of fighting, bombings and kidnapping of foreign workers.

The group said the unrest in the region was building up to a crisis that would dwarf Darfur’s and asked for the UN to take an unspecified role in the conflict.

"We suggest that the UN should take a proactive step to nip the Niger Delta unrest in the bud before it is too late," it said in a statement.

George speaks in support of Britney - Jan 18 2008
George Clooney has apparently spoken out in support of troubled pop star Britney Spears.

"Somewhere in there you hope she’ll get a chance to get some help," he told Extra at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures awards gala. "That’s what you think she might need."

George also commented on a happier topic - the fact that his good friend Nicole Kidman recently announced she is expecting a baby with her country star hubby Keith Urban.

"I’m excited. When does it happen? Soon?," he joked. "What’s the gestation period nowadays?"

However, the ongoing saga of the writers’ strike was still on everyone’s minds at the awards do, with rumours that the Oscars and Grammy ceremonies could be cancelled.

But George dismissed reports that he could step in to negotiate.

"I’m not a negotiator at all," said the actor, who stepped out on the red carpet with girlfriend Sarah Larson.

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Biography

Irish American George Timothy Clooney was always destined to be an entertainer with a former pageant queen mother (Nina) and Game Show Host and Anchorman father (Nick). He is also the nephew of acclaimed Singer Rosemary Clooney and Actor Jose Ferrar.

As a child George often spent time on set with his father, even taking part in shows he was involved in. Despite some early promise as an athlete - even trying out for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team in 1977 - and an attempt at further education (never a promising student, he dropped out of both Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati), George soon followed in the showbiz family footsteps, auditioning for several parts in television series’. He was first noticed thanks to a role on the popular sitcom Roseanne during the 1980s but it wasn’t until 1994 and a part as handsome, moody Doctor Doug Ross in fast paced drama ER (not to be confused with Clooney’s earlier role in comedy E/R), that the actor really hit the big time.

With five years as Dr Doug under his belt Clooney made the leap to movies, starring in From Dusk ’Til Dawn, Three Kings, The Perfect Storm and O Brother, Where Art Thou? to much acclaim. He had also starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight and taken on the role of Batman during his ER years, ensuring he was now Hollywood A-list.

However it was his relationship with Out of Sight Director Stephen Soderburgh that would ensure Clooney made film history. The duo paired up for the first in a blockbusting franchise in 2001 - Ocean’s Eleven, and its successors, would team Clooney with fellow heartthrobs Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and hit the number one spot worldwide. Although the role of Danny Ocean would ensure Clooney’s continuing popularity with the public he was also determined to show he was more than a pretty face and a winning smile. In 2002 he made his directorial debut with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, although not a huge box office success the film won critical acclaim.

This was just the beginning of Clooney’s critical success. He soon followed Confessions with Good Night and Good Luck, which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. In the same year he was nominated for, and went on to win, Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana.

Clooney has since teamed up with Soderburgh not only on further Oceans movies but on The Good German, released in 2006. Away from the film set he is an active campaigner having been outspoken about not only the Iraq war but the Darfur crisis and global warming. There have even been rumours that he may enter politics, however Clooney himself says ’run for office? No...I’ve slept with too many women, taken too many drugs and I’ve been to too many parties.’

A confirmed bachelor, George was previously married to fellow actor Talia Balsam, from 1989 to 1993 and was linked to British model Lisa Snowdon on and off for some time. However he claims he will never again marry or have children, preferring to spend time with friends including Oceans co-stars Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts and, until recently, his pot bellied pig Max, who died in 2006.
March 2008