Skip to main content

George Clooney Biography Quotes 34 Report mistakes

34 Quotes
Born asGeorge Timothy Clooney
Occup.Actor
FromUSA
BornMay 6, 1961
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Age64 years
Early Life and Family
George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, into a family steeped in media and entertainment. His father, Nick Clooney, was a journalist, anchorman, and television host, and his mother, Nina Bruce (nee Warren), had been a beauty pageant winner. The performing arts were part of the family fabric: his aunt, the celebrated singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, was a household name, and her marriage to actor Jose Ferrer connected George to a wider artistic lineage that included his cousin, the actor Miguel Ferrer. Clooney spent his childhood in Kentucky and Ohio and attended Augusta High School. As a teenager he experienced Bell's palsy, a temporary facial paralysis that he has said taught him resilience and a sense of humor. An avid baseball fan, he even tried out for the Cincinnati Reds, an early brush with professional ambition that ended with the encouragement to try again later. Instead, he would pursue stories and performance, attending Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati without completing a degree, before committing to an acting career.

Finding His Way in Hollywood
Clooney moved to Los Angeles and worked his way through the industry's margins, taking small roles and learning the business from the ground up. Early credits included appearances on The Facts of Life and a memorable turn on Roseanne, as well as a part in the cult comedy Return of the Killer Tomatoes! He also landed a guest role on The Golden Girls and a recurring role on Sisters. These years were marked by steady, incremental progress and shaped by example: he often cites Nick Clooney's professionalism and Rosemary Clooney's tenacity as touchstones for how to navigate public life with grace.

Breakthrough on ER
The decisive break came in 1994, when Clooney was cast as pediatrician Doug Ross on the NBC drama ER. Working alongside Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, and Eriq La Salle, he became one of television's most recognizable faces. ER gave him a platform to balance charisma with dramatic depth, and it propelled him into the front rank of American entertainers. By the time he left the series in 1999, with later cameo returns, he had become a bankable leading man. The exposure also opened the door to feature films, even as he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" during the decade.

Film Stardom and Signature Collaborations
Clooney's early film choices showed range. He led Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, acted opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day, and weathered the critical drubbing of Batman & Robin. The real inflection point was Out of Sight (1998), which began a sustained collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh and paired Clooney with Jennifer Lopez in a stylish, critically acclaimed caper. With Soderbergh he built Section Eight, a production company that backed ambitious projects and culminated in the starry Ocean's trilogy. In Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, he led an ensemble that included Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Julia Roberts, cementing his persona as an urbane ringleader with comic snap.

Clooney flourished with other auteur directors as well. He worked with David O. Russell on Three Kings, the Coen brothers on O Brother, Where Art Thou? (winning a Golden Globe), Burn After Reading, and Hail, Caesar!, and Tony Gilroy on Michael Clayton, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He teamed with Jason Reitman on Up in the Air, receiving another Best Actor nomination, and with Alexander Payne on The Descendants, a tender drama that further affirmed his range. He appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, a technical landmark. Even late-career studio fare like Money Monster, directed by Jodie Foster and co-starring Julia Roberts, and Ticket to Paradise, which reunited him with Roberts, demonstrated his enduring ability to anchor mainstream releases.

Director, Producer, and Entrepreneur
Clooney established himself as a filmmaker with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (directorial debut), followed by Good Night, and Good Luck., a black-and-white chronicle of Edward R. Murrow's challenge to McCarthyism that he co-wrote with Grant Heslov. He continued to direct with Leatherheads, The Ides of March, The Monuments Men, Suburbicon, The Midnight Sky, The Tender Bar, and The Boys in the Boat, frequently collaborating with Heslov through their company Smokehouse Pictures, which succeeded Section Eight. As a producer, he shared the Best Picture Academy Award for Argo with Heslov and Ben Affleck, a recognition of his commitment to shepherding smart, politically aware films.

His work extended into prestige television with Catch-22, a miniseries on which he served as executive producer, director, and actor. Beyond entertainment, Clooney co-founded Casamigos Tequila with Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman, a venture that grew into a major spirits brand and was sold to Diageo. His long-running association with Nespresso also underscored his comfort navigating the intersection of culture and commerce.

Awards and Recognition
Clooney has received some of the industry's highest honors. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana and earned multiple Oscar nominations across categories, including Best Actor (Michael Clayton, Up in the Air, The Descendants), Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (Good Night, and Good Luck.), and Best Adapted Screenplay (The Ides of March). As a producer, he won Best Picture for Argo. He is among the rare artists to have received nominations in six different Academy Award categories. He has also collected multiple Golden Globes and other guild and critics' awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented him with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the American Film Institute recognized his career with its Life Achievement Award.

Humanitarianism and Public Life
Influenced by Nick Clooney's example of public service and by stories he covered as a journalist, George Clooney has been a prominent advocate for human rights. He helped found Not On Our Watch with friends Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and producer Jerry Weintraub to focus attention on mass atrocities, particularly in Darfur. In 2008 he was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace. With activist John Prendergast and partners, he launched the Satellite Sentinel Project to use commercial satellite imagery to monitor violence in Sudan and South Sudan. He later co-founded The Sentry, an initiative that investigates how conflict and corruption finance war. In 2012, he and Nick Clooney were arrested during a peaceful protest outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., an event that spotlighted their shared commitment to the issue.

With his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, he co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which supports initiatives like TrialWatch to monitor and respond to unfair trials around the world. The couple has contributed to disaster relief and civic causes, supporting efforts such as earthquake and hurricane aid and campaigns against gun violence. Clooney has also raised funds for U.S. political candidates and causes, including events supporting Barack Obama and other national campaigns, reflecting his belief that celebrity can be leveraged to drive attention and resources to public concerns.

Personal Life
Clooney married actress Talia Balsam in 1989; the marriage ended in 1993. Over the years he was linked with several high-profile partners, including Elisabetta Canalis and Stacy Keibler, before marrying Amal Alamuddin in Venice, Italy, in 2014. Amal Clooney's global legal work became a central part of the couple's shared public identity, and in 2017 they welcomed twins, Alexander and Ella. Friends and collaborators such as Grant Heslov, Steven Soderbergh, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Rande Gerber form a close professional and personal network around him, and his long-standing ties to his parents and sister Ada have remained visible throughout his career. Clooney is known to divide time between the U.S. and Europe, notably at his home on Lake Como, where he frequently hosts friends and colleagues.

On the set of Syriana he suffered a serious on-the-job injury that resulted in a spinal fluid leak and chronic headaches; he has spoken openly about the experience as a reminder of the physical demands of filmmaking and the importance of workplace safety. Such episodes, alongside his early bout with Bell's palsy, have shaped a public image of resilience beneath the polished exterior.

Legacy
Over four decades, George Clooney has crafted a rare balance of mainstream star power, craft-driven filmmaking, and principled advocacy. He is a leading man who deliberately sought out directors like Steven Soderbergh, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, and Jason Reitman to stretch his range, and a producer-director who used his clout to tell historically and politically grounded stories with Grant Heslov and Ben Affleck. Anchored by the influence of Nick and Rosemary Clooney and enriched by partnerships with collaborators such as Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, his career arc traces the evolution of a television heartthrob into a global figure whose work on screen and off has left a durable mark on contemporary culture.

Our collection contains 34 quotes who is written by George, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Motivational - Justice - Funny - Leadership.

Other people realated to George: Ryan Gosling (Actor), Ice Cube (Musician), Trey Parker (Artist), Mark Cuban (Businessman), Mark Wahlberg (Actor), Scott Caan (Actor), Krista Allen (Actress), Jean Dujardin (Actor), Lisa Snowdon (Model), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Actress)

Source / external links

34 Famous quotes by George Clooney

George Clooney