By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood gave George Clooney the
respectability that long has eluded his acting career. He won
his first Oscar on Sunday for his performance as a weary CIA
agent in the oil industry thriller “Syriana.”
Clooney, 44, won the best supporting actor award. He also
is nominated this year in the director and original screenplay
categories for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
Heading into the ceremony, Clooney was widely expected by
Oscar watchers to be shut out of those two categories against
favorites for movies such as “Brokeback Mountain.”
“Wow. So I’m not winning director,” Clooney quipped in his
acceptance speech before paying tribute to his four fellow
nominees in the best supporting actor category, saying they had
all given “stellar performances.”
Clooney’s Oscar win cemented his journey from the man once
dubbed the “sexiest man alive” by People magazine to a leading
Hollywood heavyweight with a passion for making films on risky
subjects.
He is also one of Hollywood’s best known liberals and an
actor who has no qualms about wearing his political heart on
his sleeve.
OUT OF TOUCH
“We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once
in a while,” Clooney acknowledged referring to an earlier joke
by Oscar host Jon Stewart.
“We were the ones who talked about AIDS when it was being
whispered. We talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really
popular,” he said.
“I’m proud to be part of this Academy. I’m proud to be part
of this community. I’m proud to be out of touch,” Clooney
added.
For his role as U.S. spy Bob Barnes, the handsome leading
man gained more than 30 pounds (13.6 kg) to look the part of a
haggard man. While filming a scene in which his character is
tortured, Clooney was injured and needed several surgeries
after rupturing his spinal fluid sack.
Clooney first won fame in the television hospital drama
“ER.” Since leaving the show, he has appeared in high-profile
movies such as 2000’s “The Perfect Storm” and subsequently in
“Ocean’s Eleven” and “Ocean’s Twelve.”
He has suffered a few flops, too, such as science-fiction
drama “Solaris” and his turn as superhero Batman in 1997’s
“Batman & Robin” was panned by movie reviewers.
He proved a critics’ darling in the Coen brothers’
low-budget comedy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and for the
first time Clooney directed and starred in a film in 2002,
“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.”
Clooney is the nephew of the late singer Rosemary Clooney
and the son of a TV newscaster, Nick Clooney, who worked in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
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