Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008.
Beatty has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, three for Original Screenplay, and one for Adapted Screenplay – winning Best Director for Reds. He was nominated for his performances as Clyde Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde, a quarterback mistakenly taken to heaven in the sports fantasy drama Heaven Can Wait, John Reed in the historical epic Reds, and Bugsy Siegel in the crime drama Bugsy.
Beatty made his acting debut as a teenager in love in the Elia Kazan drama Splendor in the Grass. He later acted in John Frankenheimer's drama All Fall Down, Robert Altman's revisionist western McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Alan J. Pakula's political thriller The Parallax View, Hal Ashby's comedy Shampoo, and Elaine May's road movie Ishtar. He also directed and starred in the action crime film Dick Tracy, the political satire Bulworth, and the romance Rules Don't Apply, all of which he also produced.
On stage, Beatty made his Broadway debut in the William Inge kitchen sink drama A Loss of Roses for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Early life and education
Henry Warren Beaty was born on March 30, 1937, in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne, was a teacher from Nova Scotia. His father, Ira Owens Beaty, studied for a PhD in educational psychology and was a teacher and school administrator, in addition to working in real estate. His grandparents were also teachers. The family was Baptist. During Warren's childhood, Ira Beaty moved his family from Richmond to Norfolk and then to Arlington and Waverly, then back to Arlington, eventually taking a position at Arlington's Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in 1945. During the 1950s the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington. Beatty's older sister is actress, dancer and writer Shirley MacLaine. His uncle by marriage was Canadian politician A.A. MacLeod.Beatty became interested in movies as a child, often accompanying his sister to theaters. One film that had an important early influence on him was The Philadelphia Story, which he saw when it was re-released in the 1950s. He noticed a strong resemblance between its star, Katharine Hepburn, and his mother, in both appearance and personality, saying that they symbolized "perpetual integrity". Another film that influenced him was Love Affair, starring one of his favorite actors, Charles Boyer. He found it "deeply moving", and recalled that "his is a movie I always wanted to make." He remade Love Affair in 1994, starring alongside his wife Annette Bening and Katharine Hepburn.
Among his favorite TV shows in the 1950s was the Texaco Star Theatre, and he began to mimic one of its regular host comedians, Milton Berle. Beatty learned to do a "superb imitation of Berle and his routine", said a friend, and often used Berle-type humor at home. His sister's memories of her brother include seeing him reading books by Eugene O'Neill or singing along to Al Jolson records. In Rules Don't Apply, Beatty plays Howard Hughes, who is shown talking about and singing Jolson songs while flying his plane.
MacLaine noted — on what made her brother want to become a filmmaker, sometimes writing, producing, directing and starring in his films: "That's why he's more comfortable behind the camera ... He's in the total-control aspect. He has to have control over everything." Beatty doesn't deny that need; in speaking about his earliest parts, he said "When I acted in films I used to come with suggestions about the script, the lighting, the wardrobe, and people used to say 'Waddya want, to produce the picture as well?' And I used to say that I supposed I did."
Beatty played football at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington. Encouraged to act by the success of his sister, who established herself as a Hollywood star, he decided to work as a stagehand at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. during the summer before his senior year. After graduation, he was reportedly offered ten college football scholarships, but turned them down to study liberal arts at Northwestern University, where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. Beatty left college after his first year and moved to New York City to study acting under Stella Adler at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. He often subsisted on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and worked odd jobs, including dishwasher, piano player, bricklayer's assistant, construction worker, and, relatively briefly, a sandhog.
Career
1957–1969: Early roles and breakthrough
Beatty started his career making appearances on television shows such as Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, and Playhouse 90. He was a semi-regular on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis during its first season. His performance in William Inge's A Loss of Roses on Broadway garnered him a 1960 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play and a 1960 Theatre World Award. It was his sole appearance on Broadway. Beatty enlisted in the California Air National Guard in February 1960 but was discharged the following year due to a physical disability. He remained on inactive duty after that time.Beatty made his film debut in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass opposite Natalie Wood. The film was a major critical and box office success; Beatty was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and received the award for New Star of the Year – Actor. The film was also nominated for two Oscars, winning one.Author Peter Biskind points out that Kazan "was the first in a string of major directors Beatty sought out, mentors or father figures from whom he wanted to learn." Years later during a Kennedy Center tribute to Kazan, Beatty told the audience that Kazan "had given him the most important break in his career." Biskind adds that they "were wildly dissimilar—mentor vs. protegé, director vs. actor, immigrant outsider vs. native son. Kazan was armed with the confidence born of age and success, while Beatty was virtually aflame with the arrogance of youth." Kazan recalls his impressions of Beatty:
Beatty followed his initial film with Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, with Vivien Leigh and Lotte Lenya, directed by Jose Quintero; All Fall Down, with Angela Lansbury, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint, directed by John Frankenheimer; Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Peter Fonda, directed by Robert Rossen; Promise Her Anything, with Leslie Caron, Bob Cummings and Keenan Wynn, directed by Arthur Hiller; Mickey One, with Alexandra Stewart and Hurd Hatfield, directed by Arthur Penn; and Kaleidoscope, with Susannah York and Clive Revill, directed by Jack Smight. In 1965, he formed a production company, Tatira, which he named for Kathlyn and Ira.
1967–1977: Stardom and acclaim
At age 30, Beatty produced and acted in Bonnie and Clyde, released in 1967. He assembled a team that included the writers Robert Benton and David Newman, and the director Arthur Penn. Beatty selected most of the cast, including Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Gene Wilder and Michael J. Pollard. Beatty also oversaw the script and spearheaded the delivery of the film. Beatty chose Gene Hackman because he had acted with him in Lilith in 1964 and felt he was a "great" actor. Upon completion of the film, he credited Hackman with giving the "most authentic performance in the movie, so textured and so moving", recalls Dunaway. Beatty had been so impressed by Gene Wilder after seeing him in a play, that he cast him without an audition for what became Wilder's screen debut. Beatty already knew Pollard: "Michael J. Pollard was one of my oldest friends", Beatty said. "I'd known him forever; I met him the day I got my first television show. We did a play together on Broadway."Bonnie and Clyde became a critical and commercial success, despite the early misgivings by studio head Jack Warner who put up the production money. Before filming began, Warner said, "What does Warren Beatty think he's doing? How did he ever get us into this thing? This gangster stuff went out with Cagney." The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and seven Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Beatty was originally entitled to 40% of the film's profits but gave 10% to Penn, and his 30% share earned him more than US$6 million. After Bonnie and Clyde, Beatty acted with Elizabeth Taylor in The Only Game in Town, directed by George Stevens; McCabe & Mrs. Miller, directed by Robert Altman; and Dollars, directed by Richard Brooks.
In 1972, Beatty produced a series of benefit concerts to help with publicity and fundraising in the George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign. Beatty first put together Four for McGovern at The Forum in the Los Angeles area, convincing Barbra Streisand, Carole King and James Taylor to perform. Streisand brought Quincy Jones and his Orchestra, and recorded the album Live Concert at the Forum. Two weeks later, Beatty mounted another concert at the Cleveland Arena, in which Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon joined James Taylor. In June 1972, Beatty produced Together for McGovern at Madison Square Garden, reuniting Simon and Garfunkel, Nichols and May, and Peter, Paul and Mary, and featuring Dionne Warwick. With these productions, campaign manager Gary Hart said that Beatty had "invented the political concert". He had mobilized Hollywood celebrities for a political cause on a scale previously unseen, creating a new power dynamic.
Beatty appeared in the films The Parallax View, directed by Alan Pakula; and The Fortune, directed by Mike Nichols. Taking greater control, Beatty produced, co-wrote and acted in Shampoo, directed by Hal Ashby, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, as well as five Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture and Best Actor.