George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has received three Golden Globe Awards for his work as an actor, and two Academy Awards — one for acting and the other for producing. Clooney is also noted for his political activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since January 31, 2008.[1][2][3] Clooney made his acting debut on television in 1978, and later gained wide recognition in his role as Dr. Douglas Doug Ross on the long-running medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations. While working on ER, he began attracting a variety of leading roles in films including Batman & Robin (1997) and Out of Sight (1998), in which he first worked with long-term collaborator Steven Soderbergh. In 1999 Clooney took the lead role in Three Kings, a well-received war satire set during the Gulf War. In 2001, Clooney's fame widened with the release of his biggest commercial success, Ocean's Eleven, the first of a profitable film trilogy, a remake of the film from 1960 with the members of the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean. He made his directorial debut a year later with the 2002 biographical thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and has since directed Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Leatherheads (2008), and The Ides of March (2011). He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Middle East thriller Syriana (2005) and subsequently gained Best Actor nominations for such films as Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009) and The Descendants (2011). In 2013, he received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the film Argo, alongside Ben Affleck and Grant Heslov. He is the only person to ever be nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories.[4] In 2005, TV Guide ranked Clooney #1 on its 50 Sexiest Stars of All Time lists.[5] Clooney's humanitarian work includes his advocacy of finding a resolution for the Darfur conflict, raising funds for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2004 Tsunami, and 9/11 victims, and creating documentaries such as Sand and Sorrow to raise awareness about international crises. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Clooney has advocated a resolution of the Darfur conflict.[48] He spoke at a 2006 Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C. In April 2006, he spent ten days in Chad and Sudan with his father to make the TV special A Journey to Darfur reflecting the situation of Darfur's refugees, and advocated for action. The documentary was broadcast on American cable TV as well as in the UK and France. In 2008, it was released on DVD with the sale proceeds being donated to the International Rescue Committee.[49][50][51][52] In September of the same year, he spoke to the UN Security Council with Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel to ask the UN to find a solution to the conflict and to help the people of Darfur.[53] In December, he visited China and Egypt with Don Cheadle and two Olympic winners to ask both governments to pressure Sudan's government. On March 25, 2007, he sent an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling on the European Union to take decisive action in the region given the failure of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir to respond to UN resolutions.[55] He narrated and was co-executor producer of the 2007 documentary Sand and Sorrow.[56] Clooney also appeared in the documentary film Darfur Now, a call-to-action film released in November 2007 for people all over the world to help stop the Darfur crisis.[57] In December 2007, Clooney and fellow actor Don Cheadle received the Summit Peace Award from the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. In his acceptance speech, Clooney said that Don and I stand here before you as failures. The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur those people are not better off now than they were years ago.[58][59] On January 18, 2008, the United Nations announced Clooney's appointment as a UN messenger of peace, effective January 31.[1][2] Clooney conceived of and, with John Prendergast, human rights activist, co-founder of the Enough Project, and Strategic Advisor for Not On Our Watch Project, initiated the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), after an October 2010 trip to South Sudan. SSP aims to monitor armed activity for signs of renewed civil war between Sudan and South Sudan, and to detect and deter mass atrocities along the border regions there.

• published: 31 Mar 2014
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