Clooney George

American actor with several appointments to annual Best-dressed, Most Stylish, Most Eligible and Sexiest Man Alive lists. A good-looking guy, Clooney is also noted as being courteous, polite and well-mannered – when he’s not fooling around with practical jokes, rowdy pranks and good humor or not righting a perceived injustice. Julianna Margulies, his friend and former ER costar, remarks, "George is a grown-up with a kids heart." The son of journalist and TV personality Nick Clooney, George grew up around sound stages. He was interested in baseball as a kid but did not make the team when he tried out for the Cincinnati Reds. Then his uncle, actor Jose Ferrer, along with two of his sons – Miguel and Rafael – came to Kentucky to make a film about horse racing, and George was given a minor role in the movie. The movie never made it to the screen, but George was captivated. He took off for Hollywood in 1982, driving a rusty 1976 Monte Carlo and $300 in his pocket to visit his aunt, Rosemary Clooney. She gave him lodging and a job as her chauffeur. Hollywood was tough. He moved into little more than a closet-sized room with a fellow aspirant, Tom Matthews, and worked construction jobs while doing a few commercials, auditioning and taking acting classes. He began to get bit parts on various series such as "The Golden Girls," "Hunter, "Riptide," and a role in "Return of the Killer Tomatoes," 1988. He appeared in fifteen failed television pilots and was a semi-regular on several series, including sitcoms such as "The Facts of Life" and "Roseanne" and the weekly drama "Sisters." Clooney’s big break was on TV. In 1994 he started his role as Dr. Ross on "ER," where he stayed for five seasons. During that time, starting in 1995, Clooney and fellow cast members took four consecutive Screen Actors Guild ensemble awards. He always said that ER, the show itself, was the real star – he was just lucky enough to be part of it. The credits began to accumulate: "One Fine Day," 1996, "Batman & Robin," 1997, "The Perfect Storm," 1999, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" 2000. For the latter, he was awarded the 2000 Golden Globe’s Best Actor in a Comedy. On 15 December 1989, Clooney married actress Talia Balsam and they were together until 1992. He revealed in an interview that he felt "cornered," and by the end of the marriage hed put on 25 pounds and developed a stomach ulcer. He swore that he would never marry again and that he had no desire for kids. His most serious romance, a three-year live-in relationship with French model Céline Balitran, 26, ended when she moved out in 1999, citing his lack of commitment. His close friend, actor and writer Mark Adler reveals that "the longest, probably most well-nurtured relationship in Georges life was with Max "the 150-pound potbellied pig Clooney parented from the mid-80s until the pig’s death in early December 2006. Adler shared Clooney’s eight-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for two years after his own marriage broke up in 1995. "His idea of a great day is playing basketball with his friends, having a barbecue… and watching a basketball game that night," says Adler. A real guys guy, his circle consists of eight long-time friends who hang out together. Always helpful with his friends, Clooney also actively supports Project ALS. His art-work drawing put $1,725 into the ALS coffers in an AOL sponsored auction in November 2000. With a strong social conscience and political awareness, he put toge Read less