George Clooney

Biography

George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an Irish-American film and television actor, known for his former role in the long-running television drama ER (1994-99). He started his acting career in a similarly named sitcom, E/R and played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life. He has also appeared in a number of movies such as Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), One Fine Day (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), Out of Sight (1998), Three Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Welcome to Collinwood (2002), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and Ocean's Twelve (2004), along with guest appearances on sitcoms such as Roseanne and Friends. He made his debut as a film director in the 2002 feature Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an adaptation of the implausible autobiography of groundbreaking TV producer Chuck Barris.
Clooney actually got his start in Los Angeles, a young college dropout from Kentucky who spent a good chunk of his struggling actor years riding to auditions on a bicycle. During his time, he also befriended another actor named Grant Heslov, a close friend and frequent collaborator with Clooney who co-wrote Good Night and Good Luck, and is the president of Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh's production company Section 8 Entertainment. Many speculated if Clooney would follow the same career path as David Caruso who infamously left N.Y.P.D. Blue at the height of its success for a failed screen career, when Clooney made the decision to leave ER. As a stipulation in a new contract, Clooney would return to the series in an occasional guest spot, which he only had to do once when his film career ignited, most famously with The Perfect Storm (2000).
He is the son of Nina Bruce Warren and Cincinnati news anchor and TV host Nick Clooney, a nephew of actress and singer Rosemary Clooney, and a cousin of actor Miguel Ferrer; another cousin, Gabriel Ferrer, is an Episcopal priest, married to Debby Boone. He is a strong supporter of the Democratic Party.
He has battled a bad back which had caused him to cancel some promotional appearances, and made it impossible to find insurance cover to make a film. For this reason, he has put up his house for collateral and continues his professional career.
On July 8, 2005, news reports said that George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon will be working with Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas just off the Las Vegas Strip. Mr. Gerber's is the one behind Green Valley Ranch resort and spa's Whiskey Sky, so he is already familiar with the Las Vegas entertainment market. Pitt has some design experience, having worked with Frank Gehry on a project in England. On August 29, 2005, Clooney officially announced his involvement with the Las Ramblas Resort project.
Brain Injury
In 2004, Clooney was playing former CIA agent Robert Baer in the movie Syriana, based on Baer's memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. During the filming of a scene in which Baer was tortured, Clooney was tied to a chair, and the chair was accidentally kicked over. Clooney hit his head on the concrete floor, tearing his dura. His doctors dismissed his complaints until his nose began leaking spinal fluid, and he has since undergone multiple operations to correct this.