5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME
THE OSCAR-WINNING ACTOR OPENS UP ABOUT HIS EARLY YEARS AND HOW HE WON AMAL’S HEART
I DIDN’T ALWAYS WANT TO BE AN ACTOR As a teenager in Augusta, Ky., George had his sights set on a baseball career. “I could catch anything. I was a great outfielder in high school,” recalls the star, 59. He tried out for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but didn’t make the cut.
I WAS BULLIED In middle school, George suffered from Bell’s palsy, a condition that partially paralyzes the face. “I was mocked and taunted, but the experience made me stronger,” says George. “Those kinds of things give you personality, they teach you how to make fun of yourself.”
A PIG SAVED MY LIFE In the late ’80s, George adopted a potbellied pig named Max. Not only did Max appear in interviews with the actor, he also saved his life! “About three minutes before the [1994 Northridge, Calif.,] earthquake, Max woke me up and kept nudging me, like he was trying to warn me,” George says. “That’s how smart he was.”
FAME RUNS IN MY FAMILY Legendary stars Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer were his aunt and uncle, but George shares a family tree with someone even more famous: Abraham Lincoln. It turns out Honest Abe’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was the half-sister of George’s fourth great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow!
MY DOG HELPED ME WOO MY WIFE Early in their relationship, George sent Amal emails — from his dog Einstein! “She’s a human rights lawyer, so I would write letters from Einstein to her saying, ‘I’m being held hostage and I need a lawyer.’”