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Warren Beatty Bio

Warren Beatty Biography

WARREN BEATTY

Date of Birth: March 30, 1937

Henry Warren Beaty (he added the second 't' later) got the acting bug early as he started performing as a child along with his older sister, Shirley Maclaine. His mother was a drama coach in Richmond, Virginia, and cast her children in amateur productions. After studying at Northwestern University, he eventually drifted back to his roots and began taking acting classes with the legendary Stella Adler.

After scoring some work in TV series' -- The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and Love of Life -- he made an impressive big screen debut with Natalie Wood (who he also dated) in Splendor in the Grass (1961). But it was not till Bonnie and Clyde (1967) that Beatty hit his stride as the multi-talented actor, director and producer we know today. Although he didn't direct that now classic film, he did produce it and took a sizeable cut of the film's profits after no one else was willing to bet that a story of a couple of depression-ear bankrobbers would capture audiences the way it did.

Beatty went on to make an equally impressive directorial debut when he went behind the camera (with co-director Buck Henry) for his remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978). As well known for his supposed priapic powers as for his talent and good looks, Beatty finally settled down in 1992 when he married actress Annette Bening. The couple now have four children -- Kathlyn, Benjamin, Isabel and Ella Corinne.

But before marriage, the man known around Hollywood as something of a Lothario said: "I've always been antagonized by the Freudian Victorian assumption that a hyperactive life with women was necessarily a manifestation of misogynistic feelings or latent homosexuality."

Content to be a family man, Beatty was recently offered the role of Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003) but turned it down because of the extreme violence in the film.

FILMOGRAPHY (actor):

Town and Country (2000)
Bulworth (1998)
Love Affair (1994)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991)

Bugsy (1991)
Dick Tracy (1990)
Ishtar (1987)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1984)
Reds (1981)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
The Fortune (1975)
Shampoo (1975)
The Parallax View (1974 )

Year of the Woman (1973)
$ (1972)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
The Only Game in Town (1970)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967 )

Promise Her Anything (1966 )

Kaleidoscope (1966)
Mickey One (1965)
Lilith (1964)
All Fall Down (1962)
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)