Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beaty (born
March 30,
1937), now known as
Warren Beatty, is an
American actor,
producer,
screenwriter, and
director. He long had a reputation as a womanizer and playboy, but that reputation has faded since his
1992 marriage to
Annette Bening. The
Academy Awards honored him with the
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in
2000, presented by his close friend
Jack Nicholson, while in
2004 he received a
Kennedy Center Honor.
Beatty was born in
Richmond, Virginia to an
American father whose family had lived there for several centuries, and a
Canadian mother of half
Scottish and half
Irish descent; the family was devoutly
Baptist.
His elder sister is the actress and writer
Shirley MacLaine.
Beatty got his start in film under
Elia Kazan's direction and opposite
Natalie Wood in
Splendor in the Grass (1961), though he had previous television experience in
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959).
At age 30 he achieved critical acclaim and power as a producer and star of
Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.
Subsequent Beatty films include
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971),
The Parallax View (1974),
Shampoo (1975), and
Heaven Can Wait (1978). The last film gave him the box-office power he hadn't had since
Bonnie & Clyde.
He used this to make
Reds (1981), a historical epic about famed Communist journalist
John Reed in the Russian
October Revolution. It won Academy Awards for Best Director (Beatty), Best Cinematography, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (
Maureen Stapleton) while losing Best Picture to
Chariots of Fire.
It was nominated for eight other Oscars and joined a handful of films to win Best Director but not Best Picture. Other critically acclaimed works include
Bugsy (1991) and
Bulworth (1998).
Beatty is the only person other than
Orson Welles to receive Oscar nominations in the same year for acting, directing, writing, and producing, and he did it twice, in 1978 and 1981.
Beatty's career as a ladies' man has been marked by a series of well-publicized romances, including
Madonna,
Isabelle Adjani,
Candice Bergen,
Leslie Caron,
Julie Christie,
Joan Collins,
Catherine Deneuve,
Janice Dickinson,
Faye Dunaway,
Britt Ekland,
Jane Fonda,
Melanie Griffith,
Daryl Hannah,
Goldie Hawn,
Margaux Hemingway,
Barbara Hershey,
Bianca Jagger,
Diane Keaton,
Elle Macpherson,
Joni Mitchell,
Michelle Phillips,
Diana Ross,
Jessica Savitch,
Diane Sawyer,
Stephanie Seymour,
Carly Simon (whose song "
You're So Vain" is thought by many to be representing him, although Simon has never confirmed or denied this),
Inger Stevens,
Barbra Streisand,
Liv Ullmann,
Natalie Wood (who was rumored to have left her first marriage to
Robert Wagner for him, which in reality was completely false. The Wagner-Wood marriage ended after filming of "Splendor In The Grass" was finished, at the time that Beatty was in Europe, shooting his second movie "The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone" with Vivien Leigh. Over a year after "Splendor" was finished, Beatty and Wood fell in love and entered a brief relationship, while on promotional tour for their movie), and
Susannah York.
He settled down at 55, marrying
Annette Bening, his co-star in the gangster film
Bugsy, in 1992. They have four children: Kathlyn (b. 1992), Benjamin (b. 1994), Isabel (b. 1997) and Ella Corinne (b. April 8, 2000).
Though perhaps not respected for his acting ability as much as some of his contemporaries, Beatty has played a wide range of characters to critical acclaim and has always involved himself heavily in the production of his movies.
In May 2005, Beatty sued
Tribune Co. for 30 million dollars in damages, claiming he still maintains the rights to
Dick Tracy (1990). Beatty received the rights in 1985 and is now claiming that 17 years later Tribune moved to reclaim them in violation of various notification procedures. Dick Tracy grossed over $100,000,000 USD upon its release in 1990, making it the highest grossing film of Beatty's career. There are also rumors that he plans to make a sequel.
A longtime activist in various
liberal political causes, Beatty has, at various times, been extremely active in the presidential politics of the
Democratic Party.
In
1968, he hit the campaign trail for the first time, supporting Senator
Robert F. Kennedy's bid for his party's presidential nomination. His involvement in the senator's campaign, which included stump speaking and fundraising, was cut short when Kennedy was shot and killed by
Sirhan Sirhan on the same night that he won a crucial primary in
California.
Four years later, Beatty joined the campaign of Senator
George McGovern as an advisor. As part of the so-called "Malibu Mafia," a group of Hollywood celebrities who were part of the candidate's "inner circle," Beatty gave McGovern's campaign manager
Gary Hart advice about the handling of public relations and was instrumental in organizing a series of rock concerts which raised over $1 million for the senator's campaign.
In
1984, and again in
1988, Beatty was to play a similar role in Hart's own presidential campaigns. Hart, who had, by that time, become a senator himself, had become friends with Beatty during the
1972 campaign and the relationship had grown closer during the intervening decade. After Hart's second campaign imploded over allegations that he had committed adultery with a former beauty queen named
Donna Rice, a mutual friend of the two explained why they were so close: "Gary always wanted to have Warren's life and Warren always wanted to have Gary's. It was a match made in heaven."
Beatty himself was to become presidential timber during the summer of
1999. After it became clear that the only two contenders for the Democratic Party's nomination were to be Vice President
Al Gore and former Senator
Bill Bradley of
New Jersey, Beatty made it generally known that he was dissatisfied with the two choices and began to drop hints that he might be willing to seek the nomination himself. After meeting with several powerful liberal activists and influential Democratic operatives, including pollster
Pat Caddell, who had worked previously for Hart, McGovern, and President
Jimmy Carter, and adman
Bill Hillsman, who had worked on the campaigns of Senator
Paul Wellstone and Governor
Jesse Ventura, Beatty announced in September of 1999 that he would not seek the nomination. However, he continued to be courted by members of a different political party, the
Reform Party, who were looking for an alternative to
Pat Buchanan, a
conservative who had switched parties after losing the
Republican Party's presidential nomination for the third time in a row. Despite frequent entreaties by Governor Ventura, real-estate magnate
Donald Trump, and syndicated columnist
Arianna Huffington, Beatty refused to enter the race and Buchanan eventually won the Reform Party's nomination.
Despite his decision not to seek the presidency in 2000, Beatty intimated that he might still run at a later time, telling reporters that he would do so if he thought he "could make an impact on the debate."
As
California governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity with California voters dropped, Beatty campaigned against the special election in November 2005. He was the keynote speaker at the
California Nurses Association's 2005 convention, and recorded radio ads urging voters to reject Schwarzenegger's ballot proposals. The propositions were defeated at the ballot box, increasing speculation that Beatty may run against Schwarzenegger in the
2006 election. But, in early 2006, Beatty announced he would not seek the democratic gubernatorial nomination.
* Beatty studied acting at Northwestern University and joined the
Sigma Chi Fraternity, but dropped-out prior to graduation.
* He is a good friend of
Jack Nicholson,
Dustin Hoffman and
Garry Shandling, with whom he has worked on several films.
* Beatty graduated from Washington and Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. [
1] [
2]
* Beatty is 6'2".
* Made "Top 10 stars of the year" once,
1978.
* The political views mentioned by the title character in
Bulworth (who is played by Beatty) very closely mirrors Beatty's own.
* Turned down roles in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
The Way We Were,
The Great Gatsby and
The Godfather.
* Was interested to play the main character in
Crimson Tide.
* The part of
Bill in the film
Kill Bill was originally written for him.
* While attending
Northwestern University, Warren Beatty once rode a
motorcycle into his
European History class. When he turned the engine off, the class and
professor were still in a stunned silence. Before anyone could say a word, Beatty ripped out an electric guitar and performed what was reported to be a very rousing rendition of
Good Golly, Miss Molly. He then got back on the motorcyle, rode out of class, and never returned to the university again.
(This particular stunt is one of several urban legends that have been attributed to several actors in Mr. Beatty's generation at various universities.)* One of his first jobs was as a "rat catcher" in a Virginia movie theater.
* Has starred in two of the biggest flops of all time,
Ishtar and
Town & Country.
* He is one of the many people rumored to be the subject of
Carly Simon's song, "
You're So Vain". In November 2005 Handbag.com had the following regarding these rumors: Rocker Sir Mick Jagger and actor Warren Beatty have been ruled out as the inspiration for Carly Simon's hit single You're So Vain. The singer/songwriter has romanced both men but insists neither is the elusive person behind the 30-year-old classic. And she is reluctant to ever reveal the self-obsessed character who prompted her to musically vent her anger, insisting the enduring speculation keeps her entertained. She says, "I'm amused by the interest in that song. "There's one obvious answer that nobody has yet come up with, so it just goes on. "But I know revealing his identity would be somewhat of an anti-climax."
Splendor in the Grass (
1961)
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (
1961)
All Fall Down (
1962)
Lilith (
1964)
Mickey One (
1965)
Promise Her Anything (
1965)
Kaleidoscope (
1966)
Bonnie and Clyde (
1967) (also producer)
The Only Game in Town (
1970)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (
1971) (also writer)
$ (
1971)
Year of the Woman (
1973) (documentary)
The Parallax View (
1974)
Shampoo (
1975) (also producer and co-writer with Robert Towne)
The Fortune (
1975)
Heaven Can Wait (
1978) (also director, producer, and writer)
Reds (
1981) (also director, producer, and writer)
George Stevens: A Filmmakers Journey (
1984) (documentary)
Ishtar (
1987) (also producer)
Dick Tracy (
1990) (also producer and director)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (
1991) (documentary)
Bugsy (
1991) (also producer)
Writing with Light: Vittorio Storaro (
1992) (documentary)
Love Affair (
1994) (also writer)
Bulworth (
1998) (also producer, director and writer)
The Book That Wrote Itself (
1999) (cameo)
Town & Country (
2001)
Dean Tavoularis: The Magician of Hollywood (
2003) (documentary)
One Bright Shining Moment (
2005) (documentary)
IMDB : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000886/bioallmovie.com : http://www.allmovie.com/ (search for "warren beatty"); resulting URL does not seem to be bookmarkable.; Academy's database : http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp (search for "beatty"); resulting URL does not seem to be bookmarkable.
E!Online : http://www.eonline.com/Facts/People/Bio/0,128,1367,00.html; Yahoo! Movies bio : http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800020836/bio
AP story on Tracy suit: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=763937; Amburn bio : Ellis Amburn,
The Sexiest Man Alive : A Biography of Warren Beatty, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York, 2002. ISBN 0-06-018566-X
* Detailed references available in a
subpage.
(incomplete)*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Warren Beatty
