Background

Warren Beatty was born on March 30, 1937 in Richmond, Virginia, United States. He is a son of Ira Owens Beaty and Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean). His older sister is an actress, dancer and writer Shirley MacLaine. When Beatty was a child his family moved from Richmond to Norfolk and then to Arlington and Waverly, then back to Arlington.

Education

Warren Beaty studied at Washington-Liberty High School where he was a star football player. He also worked as a stagehand at the National Theatre in Washington District of Columbia during the summer before his senior year. After graduation Beaty entered Northwestern University in 1954 where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. After his first year, he left college to move to New York City, where he studied acting under Stella Adler at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Career

Warren Beatty started his career as an actor in 1957 when he appeared on television shows such as Studio One. In 1959 he earned a recurring role in the television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis but left the show before the first season ended to make his only Broadway appearance, in A Loss of Roses. Beatty made a strong screen debut as a tortured teenager in love in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass. Later he starred in such films as All Fall Down, Lilith, Promise Her Anything and Mickey One. Taking command of his career, Beatty assigned himself the duties of star and producer for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), the story of Great Depression-era bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

After that, Warren Beatty acted with Elizabeth Taylor in The Only Game in Town. He also appeared in such films as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Parallax View and The Fortune. He produced, co-wrote and acted in the film Shampoo, directed by Hal Ashby. In 1978 Beatty was producer, co-director, co-writer, and star of Heaven Can Wait, a successful remodeling of the classic romantic comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Popular with the public and lauded by critics, Heaven Can Wait was followed by Reds, which turned out to be a sprawling romantic epic with political overtones.

Then came Ishtar. An out-of-control budget and costly delays resulted in Hollywood's worst financial disaster since Heaven's Gate. The film was only a temporary embarrassment for Beatty, who regained box-office success three years later as Dick Tracy. In 1991, he produced and starred as the real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in the critically and commercially acclaimed Bugsy, directed by Barry Levinson. Later he appeared in the film Love Affair and in 1998, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the political satire Bulworth. After that Beatty has appeared briefly in numerous documentaries, including Madonna: Truth or Dare and One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern. In 2016, Beatty wrote, co-produced and directed the film Rules Don't Apply, a fictionalized true-life romantic comedy about Howard Hughes, set in 1958 Hollywood and Las Vegas.

Achievements

• Warren Beatty is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who is famous for his roles in such films as Heaven Can Wait, Splendor in the Grass, Bonnie and Clyde and others. Eight of the films he has produced have earned 53 Academy nominations, and in 1999, he was awarded the Academy's highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award. He is still the only person in Academy Award history that was twice nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor, writer, director and producer of the same film. Beatty received the Academy Award in 1982. He has been nominated for eighteen Golden Globe Awards, winning six, including the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he was honored with in 2007.
  
  Warren Beatty was also awarded the BAFTA Award in 2002 and the PGA Milestone Award in 2004. In 1992, he was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. He was nominated for a Golden Lion for Best Film in 1998. In March of 2013, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

Works

More photos

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  • Ishtar

    (With a song in their hearts, the CIA on their backs, a go...)

    1987
  • Love Affair

    (Academy Award and Golden Globe-winner Warren Beatty and r...)

    1994
  • Bonnie and Clyde

    (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are the legendary Depressi...)

    1967
  • All Fall Down

    (Brandon de Wilde co-stars in this evocative coming-of-age...)

    1962
  • The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

    (Warren Beatty and Vivien Leigh star in this story about a...)

    1961
  • Mickey One

    (A mediocre stand-up comic (Warren Beatty) with gambling d...)

    1965
  • Lilith

    (Upon returning to the bleakness of his small hometown, wa...)

    1964
  • Splendor in the Grass

    (Warren Beatty, in an auspicious debut, and Natalie Wood a...)

    1961
  • The Fortune

    (A married man gets his friend to marry an heiress so he c...)

    1975
  • Dick Tracy

    (Based on the popular comic strip, the famed police detect...)

    1990
  • What's New Pussycat?

    (A notorious womanizer, fashion editor Michael James (Pete...)

    1965
  • Town & Country

    (A romantic comedy about life, love, friendship and the so...)

    2001
  • The Absent-Minded Professor

    (A professor invents an anti-gravity substance which a bus...)

    1961
  • Shampoo

    (Wicked social satire about a sexy male hairdresser that d...)

    1975
  • McCabe & Mrs. Miller

    (A deeply moving film about love and the pursuit of wealth...)

    1971
  • Heaven Can Wait 1978
  • Bugsy 1991
  • Rules Don't Apply 2016
  • Becoming Iconic: Jonathan Baker 2018
  • Reds 1981

Religion

Warren Beatty was brought up as a Baptist.

Politics

Warren Beatty is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party. In 1972, Beatty was part of the "inner circle" of Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign. Despite different views on politics, Beatty was also a friend of Republican Senator John McCain.

Views

Quotations: "When you mutilate movies for mass media, you tamper with the hearts and minds of America."

"You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play."

"For me, the highest level of sexual excitement is in a monogamous relationship."

"I don't think there's anything to be admired in lying, cheating or philandering. But there might be something to be admired in not burning people at the stake because they have those weaknesses."

"It's best not to act and direct at the same time. When I direct myself, I do more takes than if I'm being directed by someone else. Rather than stop and look at it, I just do it again. And I like to have my fellow actors feel that they're directing it at the same time. I try to lead them into thinking it's sort of a fake democracy, when it's actually, ultimately, kind of a fascist dictatorship, one would have to admit."

Membership

Warren Beatty is a member of the Center for National Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a founding member of the Progressive Majority. Beatty has served as the Campaign Chair for the Permanent Charities Committee.

Warren Beatty served on the Board of Trustees at the Scripps Research Institute, and the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation. He was named Honorary Chairman of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in 2004.

Personality

Warren Beatty is a perfectionist about his work. He has been known to shoot numerous takes of the same scene. Beatty has a reputation for having a keen eye for details as well.

Quotes from others about the person

• Arthur Penn: "He makes everyone demand the best of themselves. Warren stays with a picture through editing, mixing and scoring. He plain works harder than anyone else I have ever seen.

Connections

Warren Beatty began dating actress Joan Collins in 1959. They were engaged in the early 1960s, but his infidelity led to their split. Beatty married Annette Bening on March 12, 1992. The marriage produced four children: two daughters and two sons.

Beatty's Eldest daughter, Kathlyn Beatty, transitioned to male at the age of 14 and changed her name from Kathlyn Elizabeth to Stephen Ira Beatty.

Father:

Ira Owens Beaty

Mother:

Kathlyn Corinne

Sister:

Shirley MacLaine

Wife:

Annette Bening

Son:

Stephen Beatty

Son:

Benjamin Beatty

Daughter:

Ella Beatty

Daughter:

Isabel Beatty

colleague:

Elizabeth Taylor

colleague:

Dorothy Dunaway

References

• The Sexiest Man Alive: A Biography of Warren Beatty The Sexiest Man Alive is the first in-depth biography of Warren Beatty, a man who blazed a trail of sex and high artistic achievement across the twentieth century as Hollywood matinee idol, founder of the New Hollywood with his groundbreaking Bonnie and Clyde, and international Don Juan.
  2002
• Warren Beatty: A Private Man
  2005
• Warren Beatty: His Life, His Loves, His Work Explores the life and cinematic achievements – as an actor, director, and producer – of the man viewed both as an enduring sex symbol and an innovative filmmaker
  1990
• Warren Beatty: A Life and a Story
  1987
• Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America
  2010