George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. His honors include the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2015, the Honorary César in 2017, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2018, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2022, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Clooney's breakthrough came with his role as Dr. Doug Ross in the NBC medical drama ER (1994–1999), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He established himself as a film star with roles in From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Out of Sight (1998), Three Kings (1999), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), and the Ocean's film series (2001–2007). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a CIA officer in Syriana (2005). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles in Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009) and The Descendants (2011). He has also starred in Burn After Reading (2008), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Gravity (2013), Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Jay Kelly (2025).
Clooney has directed nine feature films including the spy film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), the historical drama Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), the political drama The Ides of March (2011), the war film The Monuments Men (2014), and the coming-of-age film The Tender Bar (2021) starring Ben Affleck. He received the Academy Award for Best Picture for co-producing the political thriller Argo (2012). He made his Broadway debut portraying Edward R. Murrow in the play adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck (2025), for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
Clooney was included on Time's annual Time 100 list, which identifies the most influential people in the world, every year from 2006 to 2009. He is also noted for his political and economic activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since 2008. Clooney is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been married since 2014 to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, with whom he has two children. He and his wife became naturalized citizens of France in 2025.
George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce (née Warren), was a beauty queen and city councilwoman. His father, Nick Clooney, is a former anchorman and television host, including five years on the AMC network. Clooney is predominantly of Irish descent. His direct ancestor Nicholas Clooney, a poor cottier from Windgap, County Kilkenny, was given little alternative but to leave Ireland, due to being driven out by the landowning class. Nicholas Clooney migrated to the United States in 1855, settling in Kentucky. His maternal fourth great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow, was the half-sister of Nancy Lincoln, mother of President Abraham Lincoln, making Clooney and President Lincoln half-first cousins five times removed. Clooney had an older sister named Adelia (1960–2025). Cabaret singer and actress Rosemary Clooney was his aunt. Through Rosemary, his cousins include actors Miguel Ferrer, Rafael Ferrer, and Gabriel Ferrer.
Clooney was raised a strict Roman Catholic stating "yes, we were Catholic, big-time, whole family, whole group". He began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. After his family moved to Ohio he attended St. Michael's School in Worthington, Ohio, then Western Row Elementary School in Mason, Ohio, and finally St. Susanna School in Mason, where he served as an altar boy. The Clooneys moved back to Kentucky when he was midway through the seventh grade.
In middle school, Clooney developed Bell's palsy, a medical condition that partially paralyzes the face. The malady went away within a year. In an interview with Larry King, he stated that "yes, it goes away. It takes about nine months to go away. It was the first year of high school, which was a bad time for having half your face paralyzed." He also described one positive outcome of the condition: It's probably a great thing that it happened to me because it forced me to engage in a series of making fun of myself. And I think that's an important part of being famous. The practical jokes have to be aimed at you.After moving to Augusta, Kentucky, Clooney attended Augusta High School. He has stated that he earned all As and a B in school, and played baseball and basketball. He tried out to play professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but he did not pass the first round of player cuts and was not offered a contract. He attended Northern Kentucky University from 1979 to 1981, majoring in broadcast journalism, and very briefly attended the University of Cincinnati, but did not graduate from either. He worked odd jobs selling women's shoes, selling insurance door to door, stocking shelves, working in construction, and cutting tobacco.
Clooney's first role was as an extra in the television miniseries Centennial in 1978, which was based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener and was partly filmed in Clooney's hometown of Augusta, Kentucky. Clooney's first major role came in 1984 in the short-lived CBS sitcom E/R (not to be confused with ER, the long-running medical drama). He played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life and appeared as Bobby Hopkins, a detective, on an episode of The Golden Girls. In 1986, Clooney made his theater debut in the play Vicious about Sex Pistols musician Sid Vicious.
Clooney's first prominent role was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's supervisor Booker Brooks, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk, a co-starring role on the CBS drama Bodies of Evidence as Detective Ryan Walker, and then a year-long turn as Det. James Falconer on Sisters. In 1988, Clooney played one of the lead roles in the comedy-horror film Return of the Killer Tomatoes. In 1990, he starred in the ABC police drama Sunset Beat. During this period, Clooney was a student at the Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school for five years.
Breakthrough and stardom (1994–1999)
Clooney rose to fame when he played Dr. Doug Ross, alongside Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Eriq LaSalle and Noah Wyle, in the hit NBC medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999. ER was a cultural phenomenon and is now considered one of the all-time greatest television shows. It was the most-watched show in television for three years — in its second, third and fifth seasons — and average viewing figures often exceeded 30 million. At its peak, the show attracted 47.8 million viewers. After leaving the series in 1999, he made a cameo appearance in the sixth season and returned for a guest spot in the show's final season. For his work on the series, Clooney received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1995 and 1996. He also earned three Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1995, 1996, and 1997 (losing to co-star Anthony Edwards).
Clooney began appearing in films while working on ER. His first major Hollywood role was in the horror comedy-crime thriller From Dusk till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez and co-starring Harvey Keitel. He followed its success with the romantic comedy One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer, and the action-thriller The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman. Clooney was then cast as Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, which was a modest box office performer, but a critical failure (with Clooney himself calling the film "a waste of money"). In 1998, he co-starred in the crime-comedy Out of Sight opposite Jennifer Lopez, marking the first of his many collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. He also starred in Three Kings during the last weeks of his contract with ER.