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01
During the 1990s, Clooney often said he would never remarry or have children, but Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman each bet $10,000 he would become a father before 40. They were wrong and sent checks; he returned the money and bet double or nothing he wouldn’t have kids by 50. At 53, he married Amal Clooney, and in early 2017 the couple announced they were expecting twins.
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02
He committed to O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2000 before reading the script because he wanted to work with the Coen brothers and accepted a lower salary.
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03
Clooney has been friends with Sandra Bullock for around 25 years; they appeared together for the first time in Gravity 2013.
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04
He suffers from a form of malaria that surfaces from time to time and will affect him for life.
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05
In 1979, while working in the women’s shoe department of a Cincinnati store, he found it disturbing that some women had their fourth toe removed to fit into shoes; he would pass those customers to coworkers.
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06
He reportedly got into a fistfight with Three Kings 1999 director David O. Russell after Russell shouted at extras. Russell later said he wouldn’t make another Clooney movie for $20 million.
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07
His famous Roman haircut in From Dusk Till Dawn 1996 was an accident; he wanted a chopped-off look for his character, but it became popular.
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08
Clooney is known for self-mocking humor; he was spoofed on South Park and in Team America: World Police and said he would have been disappointed if he hadn’t been spoofed.
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09
He tried out for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
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10
Early in his career as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he lived in a friend’s closet.
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11
He auditioned five times for the role of J.D. in Thelma & Louise 1991, which went to Brad Pitt and launched Pitt’s stardom.
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12
A renowned practical joker, he once replaced Brad Pitt’s license plate frame with one that said Fuck Cops which led to Pitt being pulled over by LAPD.
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13
He suffered from Bell’s palsy for a time during high school.
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14
He and his father Nick Clooney were arrested in March 2012 for protesting outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C.
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15
His production company Section Eight Productions was named after Maxwell Q. Klinger’s attempted Section 8 discharge on MASH.
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16
He is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln Lincoln’s aunt is Clooney’s great-great-great-great grandmother and also a distant cousin of Tom Hanks via Lincoln’s mother.
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17
In December 2006, he traveled to China and Egypt to plead with officials to use ties with Sudan to stop violence in Darfur.
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18
He loves South Park and asked Trey Parker for a role; he voiced Sparky the gay dog, and later had a speaking role in the South Park movie as an ER surgeon.
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19
After a 2005 accident on the set of Syriana, he suffered back pain, headaches, and memory loss; he recovered after several spine surgeries.
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20
George and Amal Clooney’s twins, Ella and Alexander, were born on June 6, 2017.
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21
He was the second man after Richard Gere to appear on the cover of Vogue.
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22
He was originally to star in Jack Frost 1998 but chose Batman & Robin instead; Michael Keaton took the role.
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23
He shared an L.A. home with Kelly Preston when both were struggling actors.
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24
In 2006, he and Steven Soderbergh closed Section Eight Productions; he and Grant Heslov founded Smokehouse Pictures.
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25
He got his start in a movie with his cousin Miguel Ferrer; later Ferrer and aunt Rosemary Clooney made guest appearances on ER.
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26
Clooney worked in tobacco fields as a youth, smoked in his 20s, and quit when his uncle died of lung cancer; his parents were non-smokers.
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27
He loves beer, voiced Budweiser commercials, and reportedly had a beer keg in his dressing room during Ocean’s Eleven.
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28
On the Good Night, and Good Luck. DVD commentary, Clooney said Grant Heslov loaned him $200 for headshots in 1982 and they’ve been friends since.
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29
He frequently works on projects set in television’s Golden Age: Fail Safe 2000, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 2002, and Good Night, and Good Luck. 2005.
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30
He helped raise funds to rebuild a Louisiana hospital after Hurricane Rita, alongside former President George H.W. Bush in 2006.
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31
He owned a pet pig named Max, given by Kelly Preston, for 18 years until Max died on December 1, 2006.
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32
He and partners sold tequila brand Casamigos to Diageo for $1 billion.
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33
His singing voice was dubbed in O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2000.
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34
He attended Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky.
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35
He auditioned for Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs 1992 but lost to Michael Madsen.
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36
In 2006, Nicole Kidman presented him his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
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37
In 2008, he quit the WGA after they denied him a co-writer credit for Leatherheads.
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38
His uncle is Oscar winner José Ferrer.
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39
He has suffered from bleeding stomach ulcers and remains on medication for stomach pain.
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40
To set the mood for his proposal to Amal, he programmed a playlist of aunt Rosemary Clooney’s records, including ‘Why Shouldn’t?.
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41
His Lake Como villa, Villa Oleandra, has 15 rooms, a wine cellar, a master suite, a collection of Piaggio motorbikes, and a Colombo boat. He bought it in 2002 for EUR 11.7 million.
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42
He and his cousin Miguel Ferrer both played a role shared with their fathers: Nick Clooney played the older version of George’s character in The Monuments Men, and Miguel Ferrer played the younger version of José Ferrer’s character on TV.
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43
His role as Danny Ocean in the Ocean’s trilogy was parodied on Robot Chicken, voiced by cousin Miguel Ferrer.
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44
His first steady TV role was on E/R 1984 with Elliott Gould; ten years later, ER 1994 launched him to stardom.
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45
He boycotted Entertainment Tonight after it aired footage of him without permission.
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46
He turned down roles in Wild Wild West and A Prairie Home Companion, both later played by Kevin Kline.
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47
He has Irish, English, German, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Dutch, Welsh, and French Huguenot ancestry.
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48
As of 2006, he was the only regular ER cast member to win an Oscar for Syriana.
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49
He rode a bicycle to auditions as a struggling actor.
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50
He sought the role of Jack Cole in Sideways 2004, but director Alexander Payne turned him down as too famous; Thomas Haden Church played it.
