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 started out his career by doing several auditions, and he was first choice (after Elvis Presley) for the lead role in West Side Story, but the role eventually went to Richard Beymer. In fact, several other actors like Anthony Perkins, Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, Gary Lockwood, and Bobby Darin were competing for the role.
Eventually, he 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 left her first marriage to Robert Wagner for him), 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 (Born 1992), Benjamin (Born 1994), Isabel (Born 1997) and Ella Corinne (Born 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.
Heaven Can Wait (2001)
