San Francisco Frontiers - George Clooney: a Hollywood icon and campaigner

At 65, the megastar belongs to a rare caste of Hollywood actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise whose names have become globally famous.

His dark good looks, natural charm and on-screen charisma have also earned him frequent comparisons to 20th-century Hollywood giant Cary Grant.

"I think he's better at the job of being a movie star than anybody who has ever done it," Tony Gilroy, who directed him in 2007 thriller "Michael Clayton", once said about him.

Clooney "absolutely can’t be reduced to just his looks and charm, which are indisputable," Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the Venice Film Festival, told AFP on Tuesday.

The festival honored the actor with a lifetime achievement award on Wednesday.

He is "a tremendous actor" and a figure "capable of taking a stand on social and political issues, sometimes in radical, courageous ways," Barbera added.

Success, however, was slow to take shape for the son of a local TV host in his native Kentucky who has an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor ("Syriana") but not a Best Actor gong.

"I've been an actor for 45 years now and looking back it sounds like it's intentional, like I had a plan," Clooney told the audience on Wednesday in Venice.

"But I didn't. I was just trying to pay the rent avoid moving back to Kentucky to cut tobacco, which is what I used to do," he added.

He arrived in Los Angeles in 1984 to try his luck on the advice of his cousin Miguel Ferrer, also an actor, and spent 10 years going from one bit-part to another.

He shot 15 pilots for shows that never saw the light of day.

- Breakthrough -

He had to wait until 1994 for his career and fame to finally take off, thanks to his role as dashing doctor Doug Ross in the NBC medical series "ER," a ratings phenomenon that ran for 15 years.

"A film career really takes luck from beginning to end," Clooney said on Wednesday.

After five seasons, he refused to renegotiate his contract in order to prioritise a movie career.

But the first steps were uncertain: his first major role, in 1997’s "Batman & Robin," was widely panned as a disaster.

"By the way, my two kids are the only two people that thought I was good in Batman. I haven't let them see the whole film," he quipped on Wednesday after receiving his award.

But the following year, he turned things around, playing bank robber Jack Foley opposite Jennifer Lopez in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller "Out of Sight."

The 2000s saw a hot streak for the American actor, first thanks to the Coen brothers' comedy "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000), acclaimed by critics.

In 2001, he created a production company with his friend Steven Soderbergh and produced major hits such as the "Ocean's" trilogy, which allowed him to share top billing with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts.

With "Syriana" (2005), a spy thriller also produced by his company, he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2013, he co-produced Best Picture Oscar winner "Argo" and shared top billing in "Gravity", a critical and commercial success that became one of the most important space films of the 21st century.

In 2002, he directed his first film, the dark drama "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind."

- Politics and activism -

Starting in the 2000s, the face of Nespresso coffee, one of many brands he promotes, Clooney embarked on political and humanitarian work that became almost as visible as his film career.

He became involved with the issue of Darfur, in Sudan, denouncing atrocities committed against civilians.

He fronted campaigns, field visits and interventions with international institutions.

In 2014, he married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, the mother of his Batman-loving twins.

Together they founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which works to defend human rights and freedom of expression.

Clooney, a longtime supporter of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden, has also gradually become an influential figure in Democratic politics in the United States.

When he obtained French citizenship at the end of 2025 to move with his family to France, President Donald Trump mocked the actor, saying he "became better known for politics than for his rare, totally mediocre films."

H.Davis--SFF