George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American film and television actor, known for his former role in the long-running television drama ER (1994–99).

He is the son of Nina Bruce Warren and Cincinnati news anchor and TV host Nick Clooney, a nephew of actress and singer Rosemary Clooney, and a cousin of actor Miguel Ferrer; another cousin, Gabriel Ferrer, is an Episcopal priest, married to Debby Boone. He is a strong supporter of the Democratic Party and is of mostly Irish American heritage, although he also has some distant German ancestry. He currently has a house in Italy where he spends much of his time.

Clooney got his start in Los Angeles, a young college dropout from Kentucky who spent most of his "struggling actor" years riding to auditions on a bicycle. During this time, he also befriended another actor named Grant Heslov, a close friend and frequent collaborator with Clooney who co-wrote Good Night, and Good Luck.. Heslov is also the president of Section 8 Entertainment, Clooney's and director Steven Soderbergh's production company. In a bit of trivia, Clooney said in an interview that he was driving an RV through the country with Heslov, while Heslov was getting over a broken engagement. Clooney said he got a phone call from his agent telling him that NBC just picked up E/R for a full season when Clooney said "I think I just got my career."

His first major role was in a television comedy, E/R. But he first gained attention in his semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's overbearing boss. After E/R was cancelled, he played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life. He has also appeared in a number of movies such as Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), One Fine Day (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), Out of Sight (1998), Three Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Welcome to Collinwood (2002), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and Ocean's Twelve (2004), along with guest appearances on sitcoms such as Roseanne and Friends. He made his debut as a film director in the 2002 feature Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an adaptation of the implausible autobiography of groundbreaking TV producer Chuck Barris.

Many speculated if Clooney would follow the same career path as David Caruso who infamously left N.Y.P.D. Blue at the height of its success for a failed screen career, when Clooney made the decision to leave ER. As a stipulation in a new contract, Clooney would return to the series in an occasional guest spot, which he only had to do once when his film career ignited, most famously with The Perfect Storm (2000).

On July 8, 2005, news reports said that George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon will be working with Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas just off the Las Vegas Strip. Mr. Gerber is the one behind Green Valley Ranch resort and spa's Whiskey Sky, so he is already familiar with the Las Vegas entertainment market. Pitt has some design experience, having worked with Frank Gehry on a project in England. On August 29, 2005, Clooney officially announced his involvement with the Las Ramblas Resort project.

In 1995, Clooney recieved a tape version of The Spirit of Christmas, the video greeting card which would inspire South Park. Clooney thought it was so funny that he made copies and sent it around the LA area. When he heard the short's creators were expanding it into a TV series, he phoned them hoping to make an appearance on the show. He ended up voicing Stan Marsh's gay dog Sparky in the episode Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride, a role with no dialogue except normal dog noises. He later appeared in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Despite this history, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lampooned Clooney for his outspoken political views in their feature film Team America: World Police.

He has battled a bad back which had caused him to cancel some promotional appearances, and made it impossible to find insurance cover to make a film. For this reason, he has put up his house for collateral and continues his professional career.

In 2004, Clooney was playing former CIA agent Robert Baer in the movie Syriana, based on Baer's memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. During the filming of a scene in which Baer was tortured, Clooney was tied to a chair, and the chair was accidentally kicked over. Clooney hit his head on the concrete floor, tearing his dura mater. His doctors dismissed his complaints until his nose began leaking Cerebrospinal Fluid, and he has since undergone multiple operations to correct this.