GORGEOUS GEORGE TURNS 60!
LIFE IS ONLY GETTING SWEETER FOR THE HOLLYWOOD SUPERSTAR
As he approached his milestone birthday on May 6, George Clooney played it characteristically cool. “As far as turning 60, listen, I’m not thrilled with it but it’s better than dead,” he cracked in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “So, I’ll take it. I got two options.”
Even with all he’s accomplished, the late-blooming star is hitting a hot streak, thanks in large part to his happy home life with wife Amal and three-year-old twins Ella and Alexander. “Fatherhood has given me everything,” he told (US) Today show. “A sense of belonging, a sense of home, a sense of unconditional love. All the things that you were hoping that you could get with a really good career – and a dog.”
STARTING OUT
Clooney grew up in Kentucky with his mother Nina, a beauty queen and city councilwoman, and his father Nick, a TV host. “I was sure that he would in one way or another be in a public profession because he just had that knack,” his father has said.
When Clooney finally moved to Hollywood, he crashed on the couch at his aunt’s place, who was famous singer Rosemary Clooney, and shot eight TV pilots that failed to make it to air. In 1984, he was cast in his first recurring role in a TV sitcom, coincidentally named E/R, and appeared in movie flops like 1986’s Combat Academy, 1987’s Return to Horror High and 1988’s Return of the Killer Tomatoes. Small TV parts on The Facts of Life, Roseanne and Sisters followed.
THE ER ERA
Clooney’s role as complicated children’s doctor Doug Ross for five seasons on the medical drama ER catapulted him to super-stardom. “When you look at the show, it’d be hard to say that we could do it again at the level that we did it,” he recently noted, when asked about the potential for a reboot. “Because boy, I’ve actually been watching it a bit because my wife’s been watching it, which is very odd. And I have to say, it’s such great television.”
MOVIE MAN AND BEYOND
While still on ER, Clooney churned out six movies. It was his post-TV career, however, that cemented his spot as a bona fide film star in flicks such as the Ocean’s franchise. He then evolved into an award-winning producer, director and writer for films like Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck. Promoting his movie Hail, Caesar! in 2016, Clooney said he was happy to have expanded his skill set.
“It’s infinitely more creative to be directing,” he told BBC. “I think nobody really wants to see anybody really age. You know, it’s a very unforgiving thing, the camera is, and so ageing becomes something that you know, you try to do less and less on screen.” The dad-of-two has also turned his focus to humanitarian work, founding several philanthropic organisations and donating huge sums of money to various causes.
BACHELOR LIFE
Clooney was married to Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. Although he was linked throughout his career to a string of stunners, including Elisabetta Canalis, Sarah Larson, Lisa Snowdon and Stacy Keibler, he remained stubborn about his single status. “This fascination with my love life is really something,” he told reporters in 2014. “I keep saying I’ll never get married again or have children but people just don’t want to believe me.”
A FRIEND INDEED
While he’s notorious for playing pranks on his A-list buddies such as Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts, Clooney is beyond generous to those closest to him. In 2013, he gifted $1 million each to 14 of his closest friends. “They loaned me money
when I was broke,” the actor later reflected in an interview with GQ magazine. “They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years. We’re all good friends. And I thought, you know, without them, I don’t have any of this.”
Clooney’s biggest payday came when his premium Casamigos Tequila brand, which he founded with friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman in 2013, was sold to spirits giant Diageo in 2017 for a rumoured $1.3 billion.
ENTER AMAL
Clooney first met British-Lebanese human rights attorney Amal Alamuddin in July 2013, after she joined the actor and his parents for dinner at his Lake Como home in Italy. “There is no question that having Amal in my life changed everything for me,” Clooney told CBS’ Sunday Morning. “It was the first time that everything that she did and everything about her was infinitely more important than anything about me.”
The pair tied the knot in Venice, Italy, in September 2014, and in 2017 Clooney became a doting first-time dad to twins at age 57. “He tells anyone who will listen that he hit the jackpot with Amal,” a friend tells Us Weekly. “He feels beyond lucky to have wound up where he is now.”
• By Jennie Noonan