Warren Beatty

Biography

Henry Warren Beatty (born 1937 in Richmond, Virginia), known as Warren Beatty, is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director whose career has spanned more than six decades. He rose to international fame with Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and went on to become one of the few Hollywood figures to combine stardom with lasting control over his own projects, which places him at the centre of the New Hollywood era.

The younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine, he left Northwestern University after a year and trained as an actor in New York with Stella Adler. He worked in television and theatre before his Broadway debut in William Inge's A Loss of Roses (1960), which earned him a Tony nomination. His film debut came with Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961), in which he played a lovestruck teenager. He then worked with directors such as John Frankenheimer and Arthur Penn. From Bonnie and Clyde onward he insisted on creative control over the films he made, a stance that shaped his working method.

He established himself as a director-star with Heaven Can Wait (1978), a comedy with nine Oscar nominations, and Reds (1981), a portrait of journalist John Reed that brought him the Academy Award for Best Director. Among his notable collaborations were Hal Ashby on Shampoo (1975) and Robert Altman on McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). In the 1980s and 1990s he appeared mostly in other directors' projects, and in 1990 he directed and starred in Dick Tracy, which took more than $160 million at the box office. His output slowed considerably afterwards, with roughly twenty films across five decades.

Off screen, his romantic life fed a reputation as Hollywood's most sought-after bachelor, a reputation his sister liked to joke about. In 2016 he wrote, directed and starred in Rules Don't Apply, a romance about Howard Hughes that received lukewarm reviews. At the 2017 Academy Awards he mistakenly announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of Moonlight, an incident that became a famous moment in the ceremony's history. His legacy rests on a body of work built around control and collaboration, though a smaller one than his early career suggested.

Key films

• Splendor in the Grass (1961): his film debut, as a lovestruck teenager, directed by Elia Kazan.
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967): the role of Clyde Barrow that made him a star and earned his first Oscar nomination.
• Heaven Can Wait (1978): a comedy he also directed, with nine Oscar nominations.
• Reds (1981): the story of journalist John Reed, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director.
• Dick Tracy (1990): a comic-book adaptation he directed and starred in, a major commercial success.
• Bugsy (1991): a portrait of a Hollywood gangster opposite Annette Bening, for which he received an Oscar nomination.