Before ER, George Clooney failed a Reds tryout and sold women's shoes
In 1977 a teenage George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and was cut in the first round. He dropped out of college, sold shoes and insurance, cut tobacco, and spent years in forgettable TV parts. Stardom only arrived at 33, playing a paediatrician on NBC's ER.
Clooney was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 6 May 1961. His mother was a beauty queen turned city councillor and his father, Nick Clooney, a television anchor and host; the singer Rosemary Clooney was his aunt. Family research traces the line to Nicholas Clooney, a poor cottier pushed off the land in County Kilkenny, who reached the United States in 1855. Through a distant grandmother he is also a half-first cousin, five times removed, of Abraham Lincoln.
Middle school brought Bell's palsy, which paralysed half his face for about nine months at the start of high school. He later said the episode taught him to make himself the target of the joke, which he thought a useful habit for anyone famous. He studied broadcast journalism at Northern Kentucky University from 1979 to 1981 but never graduated.
His first screen job was as an extra in the miniseries Centennial in 1978, partly shot in his home town of Augusta. A long apprenticeship followed: a handyman on The Facts of Life, Roseanne's supervisor on Roseanne, a lead in Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and five years of classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
ER changed everything. As Dr. Doug Ross from 1994 to 1999, he was part of a show that topped the ratings three times and peaked at 47.8 million viewers. Films followed, though his turn as Batman in Batman & Robin flopped with critics and he himself called it a waste of money. He won Best Supporting Actor for Syriana, shared a Best Picture Oscar as a producer of Argo, and has directed nine features. He married the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney in 2014; the couple became French citizens in 2025.
Source: George Clooney
