At 65, the megastar belongs to a rare breed of Hollywood actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise whose names have become globally famous.

His dark good looks, natural charm and on-screen charisma have drawn comparisons to 20th century Hollywood legend Cary Grant.

Tony Gilroy, who directed him in the 2007 thriller “Michael Clayton,” once said of him, “I think he’s better at being a movie star than anybody else.”

“Clooney cannot be limited only to his looks and charm, which are undeniable,” Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera told AFP on Tuesday.

The festival honored the actor with a lifetime achievement award on Wednesday.

Barbera said, he is “a tremendous actor” and someone who is “able to take stands, sometimes in radical, courageous ways, on social and political issues.”

However, success was slow in his native Kentucky for the son of a local TV host, who has an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor but no Best Actor award.

“I’ve been an actor for 45 years now, and looking back, it feels like it was intentional, like I had a plan,” Clooney told an audience in Venice on Wednesday.

He said, “But I didn’t do that. I was just trying to pay the rent to avoid going back to Kentucky to cut tobacco, which I used to do.”

He arrived in Los Angeles in 1984 to try his luck on the advice of his cousin Miguel Ferrer, also an actor, and spent 10 years moving from one part to another.

He shot 15 pilots for shows that never saw the light of day.

– decisive –

He had to wait until 1994 for his career and fame, thanks to his role as the dashing Dr. Doug Ross in the NBC medical series “ER”, a ratings phenomenon that ran for 15 years.

“A film career is really all about luck from start to finish,” Clooney said Wednesday.

After five seasons, he refused to renegotiate his contract to prioritize a film career.

But the first step was uncertain: His first leading role, in 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” was widely panned as a disaster.

After receiving his award on Wednesday, he quipped, “By the way, my two kids are the only two people who thought I was good at Batman. I didn’t let them watch the whole movie.”

But the following year, he changed things up by playing bank robber Jack Foley opposite Jennifer Lopez in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller “Out of Sight.”

The 2000s saw a hot streak for the American actor, first starring in the Coen brothers’ comedy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” , acclaimed by critics.

In 2001, he formed a production company with his friend Steven Soderbergh and produced major hits such as the “Ocean’s” trilogy, allowing him to share top billing with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts.

He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “Syriana”, an espionage thriller produced by his company.

In 2013, he co-produced the Best Picture Oscar winner “Argo” and shared top billing in “Gravity,” a critical and commercial success that became one of the most important space films of the 21st century.

In 2002, he directed his first film, the dark drama “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”.

– Politics and Activism –

In the early 2000s, as the face of Nespresso coffee, one of several brands he endorses, Clooney began political and humanitarian work that began to appear almost as frequently as his film career.

He became involved in the issue of Darfur, condemning the atrocities committed against civilians in Sudan.

He led campaigns, regional tours, and interventions with international institutions.

In 2014, he married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, the mother of his Batman-loving twins.

Together they founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which works to protect human rights and freedom of expression.

Clooney, a longtime supporter of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden, has also gradually become an influential figure in Democratic politics in the United States.

When he obtained French citizenship in late 2025 to move to France with his family, President Donald Trump mocked the actor, saying, “He’s known more for politics than his rare, utterly mediocre movies.”

Bar-Agu-ADP/ACH

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