Warren Beatty

Beatty was born in Richmond, Virginia. His mother was Canadian teacher Kathlyn Corinne and doctor Ira Owens. He was raised in Arlington, Virginia. His older sister is actress Shirley MacLaine. He studied at Northwestern University for a year from 1954 through 1955.

Beatty enlisted in the California Air National Guard on February 11, 1960 under his original name, Henry W. Beaty.[4] On January 1, 1961, Beatty was discharged from the Air National Guard due to physical disability.

Beatty started his career making appearances on television shows such as Studio One (1957), Kraft Television Theatre (1957), and Playhouse 90 (1959). He was a semi-regular on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis during its first season (1959–60). Beatty made his movie debut in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961), opposite Natalie Wood.

In 1967, when he was 28, he produced and acted alongside Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman in Bonnie and Clyde. It was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and seven Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

After Bonnie and Clyde, Beatty acted with Elizabeth Taylor in The Only Game in Town (1970), directed by George Stevens; McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman; Dollars (1971), directed by Richard Brooks; The Parallax View (1974), directed by Alan J. Pakula; and The Fortune (1975), directed by Mike Nichols.

Beatty starred in Reds (1981), an historical epic about American Communist journalist John Reed who observed the Russian October Revolution.[5] Beatty won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

Following Reds, Beatty did not appear in a movie for five years until 1987's Ishtar, written and directed by Elaine May.[6]

Beatty produced, directed and played the title role as comic strip based detective Dick Tracy in the 1990 movie of the same name. The movie received critical acclaim and was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year.[7] It received seven Academy Award nominations, winning three for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Original Song.[8] It also received four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture.[9] In 1998, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the political satire Bulworth, which was critically acclaimed and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[10]

Following the very bad box office performance of Town & Country (2001), in which Beatty starred, he did not appear in or direct another movie for 15 years.

In 2016, Beatty returned to acting and directing in the movie Rules Don't Apply, which was about a fake romance story about Howard Hughes.[11]

Beatty has been married to actress Annette Bening since 1992. They have four children. His eldest son Stephen Ira came out as transgender in 2006.[12]

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.

• Ellis Amburn, The Sexiest Man Alive: A Biography of Warren Beatty, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York, 2002. ISBN 0-06-018566-X
• Suzanne Finstad, Warren Beatty: A Private Man, Random House, Inc., New York, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4606-8
• Mark Harris, "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of New Hollywood", Penguin Press, New York, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59420-152-3
• Suzanne Munshower, "Warren Beatty: His Life, His Loves, HIs Work", St. Martin's Press, New York, 1990. ISBN 0-8065-0670-9
• Lawrence Quirk, "The Films of Warren Beatty", Citadel Press, New Jersey, 1979. ISBN 0-8065-0670-9

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warren Beatty.

• Warren Beatty on IMDb
• Warren Beatty at the Internet Broadway Database
• Warren Beatty at AllMovie
• The Carolyn Jackson Collection, no. 13 – Interview with Warren Beatty, from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
• AFI Tribute to Warren Beatty, 2008 at YouTube, with Elaine May speaking