Warren Beatty

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American actor, strikingly handsome with a style that is self-consciously cool and opaque, the classic screen idol of his day. He has been nominated for 14 Oscars, including 1967 for his performance in "Bonnie and Clyde." He won the Oscar as Best Director in 1981 for "Reds." Appearing effortless on screen, his other films include "Splendor in the Grass," 1961 and "Heaven Can Wait," 1978. Since 1981, he made only four films in the following 16 years, the enjoyable "Dick Tracy" and "Bugsy," and the stinkers "Ishtar," and "Love Affair." Beatty was raised in Arlington, VA, by a strict, domineering high school-principal dad and an adoring, ethereal, acting-teacher mom who had an intense and dramatic marriage. He had one older sister, now named Shirley MacLaine. A high school football star and class president, he played the piano well. By the time of college, he turned down football scholarships, deciding that he wanted to direct theater. A notorious womanizer, his affections are righteously claimed by every female in Hollywood and beyond, singly and in pairs. Various tallies include Madonna, Diane Keaton, Liv Ullmann, Julie Christie, Michelle Phillips, Joan Collins, Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Caron, and on-and-on, certainly the co-star of the moment. Another list adds Carly Simon, Elle MacPherson, Goldie Hawn, Isabelle Adjani, Brigitte Bardot, Candice Bergen, Cher, Kate Jackson, Vivien Leigh, Diana Ross, Susan Strasberg, Barbra Streisand, Britt Ekland, Connie Chung, Jessica, Savitch and Diane Sawyer. The most appropriate list seems to be the Hollywood phone book. To his credit, he steadfastly refuses to discuss his love-life with any one of his ladies to any of the media. Beatty married late, at 56, to Annette Bening, 35 (born 29 May 1958). When they married on 3 March 1992, they already had an 18-month old child, Kathlyn (now their son Stephen Ira, who came out as transgender in 2006). As a family man, he and Bening added three more children in the following years: Benjamin (23 August 1994), Isabel (11 January 1997) and Ella (8 April 2000). Their home on a Hollywood hilltop was ravaged by the Northridge earthquake on 17 January 1994. The floors caved in and the walls fell, causing damage that amounted to $7 million and left the place uninhabitable. On 15 May 1998, he directed and starred in a political farce, "Bulworth." Beatty has been passionate about politics from an early age with Bobbie Kennedy as an early idol. In 1972 he campaigned for George McGovern, and later, for Gary Hart. Dissatisfied with the Democratic Party candidates, vice president Al Gore and former senator Bill Bradley, he toyed with the idea of running for the presidential ticket himself in an interview of 12 August 1999. Link to Wikipedia biography Link to Astrodienst discussion forum