Warren Beatty

In Rules Don't Apply (2016), he writes, produces, directs and stars in. Only Beatty and Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) have been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor, a director, a writer, and a producer for the same film.

Premiere Magazine ranked him as #29 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature. [2005]

In December 2004, Beatty received The Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D. C. In addition, he is the recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, the HFPA Cecile B. DeMille Award and many others.

Received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000), presented to him by his friend and neighbor Jack Nicholson.

His political views expounded by the "new" Jay Bulworth in the movie Bulworth (1998) are really his own.

Turned down the role of Jack Horner in Boogie Nights (1997). He later said that it was one of the few choices in his career that he regretted. Burt Reynolds garnered an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the film. Ironically, Reynolds disliked the experience of working on the film, as has been well documented.

Was originally cast as the president in Mars Attacks! (1996).

Was offered the lead role in Jade (1995) but turned it down. David Caruso signed on to star instead.

In 1992, he was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France; in Italy he received the David di Donatello award in 1968 and again in 1981 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998; in 2001, he received the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Sebastian International Film Festival; in 2002, he received the British Academy Fellowship from BAFTA; and in 2011, he was awarded the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.

In his prime, Warren was almost as famous for his love life as he was for his movie-making, having been connected with a galaxy of female stars and starlets, a who's who list reported to include (in alphabetical order): Tracey Adams, Isabelle Adjani, Barbara Allen, Carol Alt, Eve Babitz, Diane Baker, Brigitte Bardot, Jaid Barrymore, Justine Bateman, Candice Bergen, Colleen Brennan, Bebe Buell, Maria Callas, Claudia Cardinale, Judy Carne, Leslie Caron, Cher, Greta Chi, Julie Christie, Connie Chung, Marina Cicogna, Pat Cleveland, Joan Collins, Janice Dickinson, Nancy Dussault, Carole Eastman, Samantha Eggar, Britt Ekland, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Morgan Fairchild, Jane Fonda, Charlene Gehm, Sandra Grant, Germaine Greer, Melanie Griffith, Dayle Haddon, Daryl Hannah, Barbara Harris, Goldie Hawn, Brooke Hayward, Joey Heatherton, Lillian Hellman, Christa Helm, Margaux Hemingway, Barbara Hershey, Elizabeth Hubbard, Lauren Hutton, Joyce Hyser, Iman, Kate Jackson, Bianca Jagger, Christine Kaufmann, Diane Keaton, Christine Keeler, Jacqueline Kennedy, Carole King, Bitten Knudsen, Sylvia Kristel, Diane Ladd, Jennifer Lee Pryor, Vivien Leigh, Tsipi Levine, Charlotte Lewis, Ali MacGraw, Elle Macpherson, Madonna, Phyllis Major, Carole Mallory, Princess Margaret, Diane McBain, Linda McCartney, Marisa Mell, Robin Menken, Barbara Minty, Laura Misch Owens, Joni Mitchell, Sharon Mitchell, Constance Money, Mary Tyler Moore, Stacey Nelkin, Christina Onassis, Bernadette Peters, Michelle Phillips, Maya Plisetskaya, Juliet Prowse, Jeanne Rainer, Suze Randall, Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Reid, Diana Ross, Adrianne Sachs, Jessica Savitch, Diane Sawyer, Jean Seberg, Edie Sedgwick, Serena, Stephanie Seymour, Cynthia Sikes, Carly Simon, Lori Singer, Inger Stevens, Stella Stevens, Alexandra Stewart, Susan Strasberg, Barbra Streisand, Annette Stroyberg, Dewi Sukarno, Twiggy, Kathleen Tynan, Liv Ullmann, Mamie Van Doren, Vanity, Diane von Fürstenberg, Veruschka von Lehndorff, Raquel Welch, Lana Wood and Natalie Wood. Notorious for his alleged "love 'em and leave 'em" treatment of many of these women, an aging Beatty had the tables turned on him by sultry supermodel Seymour, who unceremoniously dropped Warren in February 1991 to pursue Axl Rose of the rock band Guns N' Roses. Soon after that, he settled down with Annette Bening and they've been together ever since.

Oliver Stone tried casting him twice--once as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987) and then as Richard M. Nixon in Nixon (1995).

In 1982 he won the Academy Award for Directing and in 2000 was given the Academy's highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award. He was awarded Best Director from the Directors Guild of America and Best Writer three times from the Writers Guild of America. He has received the Milestone Award from the Producers Guild, the Board of Governors Award from the American Society of Cinematographers, the Directors Award from the Costume Designers Guild, the Life Achievement Award from the Publicists Guild, and the Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award from the Art Directors Guild. The National Association of Theater Owners has honored him as Director of the Year, as Producer of the Year and as Actor of the Year. He has won 16 awards from the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics, the National Board of Review, and the Golden Globes.

In 1981, Beatty was a founding board member of the Center for National Policy. He is a founding member of The Progressive Majority, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has participated in the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Beatty serves on the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of The Scripps Research Institute for several years. He has received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Americans for Democratic Action, the Brennan Legacy Award from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, and the Philip Burton Public Service Award from The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. In multiple forums he has addressed campaign finance reform, the increasing disparity of wealth, universal health care and the need for the Democratic Party to return to its roots.

Beatty is the only person ever to have done it twice, for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and again for Reds (1981). Beatty has been nominated 15 times by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and 8 films he has produced have earned 53 Academy nominations.

Claims he was offered the lead role in Rocky (1976).

Based his Shampoo (1975) character "George Roundy" on celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring.

Was the first choice to play the lead in The Way We Were (1973).

In 1972 he took a year off from motion pictures to campaign with George McGovern.

Rejected Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) because he wanted to work with George Stevens on The Only Game in Town (1970). He turned down The Sting (1973) and The Great Gatsby (1974) so that he could devote his time to George McGovern's presidential campaign.

Kennedy in his 1968 presidential campaign. That same year he traveled throughout the United States speaking in favor of gun control and against the war in Vietnam.

Lived with Julie Christie from 1967 to 1973, albeit non-monogamously.

Beatty first espied future long-term lover Julie Christie at the 1966 Royal Command Performance of Born Free (1966) in London, which he attended with his then-girlfriend Leslie Caron. Caron and Beatty were situated near Christie in the reception line for Queen Elizabeth II, and Beatty first saw her in person when he turned to watch the Queen shake hands with her. Beatty inveigled his friend Richard Sylbert to tell her to call him. She did, he flew up to the San Francisco location of the Petulia (1968) shoot and, after a rocky start, they became lovers. She made her first public appearance with Beatty at a sneak preview of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) for the Hollywood elite. It took them several months to rid themselves of their then-current lovers before they came together in a committed relationship, although they usually maintained separate households for the length of their long romance. Most of those who knew them said they shared a passion for the truth. Beatty told his friends he had asked Christie to marry him, but she refused as she did not want children. While filming Shampoo (1975) in 1974, Beatty bought his dream house and brought Christie over to view it. When she realized he had already assigned several rooms as nurseries, it dawned on her that their ideas for the future were too far apart to be able to maintain their relationship. She ended her long affair with him by phone in the fall of 1974. His longest and most lasting relationship until he married Annette Bening, the mother of his four children, Beatty considered Christie his wife and told the press in 1971 that he would pay her alimony if they split up, if she wanted it. They did, but she didn't. When he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in 2000, Christie was one of the friends and co-workers who appeared in a filmed tribute to him.

What's New Pussycat (1965), a name he often called girlfriends, was written for him, but he turned down the role when Leslie Caron--his main girlfriend at the time--was turned down by producers for the female lead.

John F. Kennedy wanted Beatty to play him in PT 109 (1963), after learning that director Elia Kazan had said that if anybody were to play JFK, it should be Beatty since they had so much in common. As Kazan stated, "Warren had everything Jack had: looks, intelligence, cunning and a commanding eye with the girls. Warren also suffered from lower back trouble." Kennedy himself suggested Beatty to Warner Bros to play him. Jack L. Warner asked Beatty to fly over to Washington to meet JFK and talk about the movie with him, but Beatty did not want to make the trip, nor play the part. He found the script too weak and that there was a surprising lack of action. His assessment turned out to be right: Cliff Robertson played the part and the movie flopped. Months later, JFK and Beatty met and Kennedy had to concede that Beatty's decision not to make the movie had been right. Beatty and Kennedy remained very good friends up until Kennedy's death in 1963. Coincidentally, Beatty and John Kennedy Jr. dated two of the same women: Daryl Hannah and Madonna. Beatty was also once linked to Jacqueline Kennedy, though in a 1997 interview he denied they ever consummated it. Christina Onassis, Jackie's stepdaughter from her post-widowhood marriage to Aristotle Onassis, dated Beatty as well.

Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, and actor, and few have evidenced so high a level of integrity in a body of work.

Politically active since the 1960's, Beatty campaigned with Robert F.