Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty began his film career in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and has since been noted for his long and distinguished presence in the film industry. He has taken on multiple roles in film production, including those of producer, director, writer, and actor, and is recognized for maintaining a high standard of integrity in his work. In Rules Don't Apply (2016), Beatty served in all four capacities. He and Orson Welles are the only actors to have been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the categories of actor, director, writer, and producer for the same film. Beatty is the only person to have achieved this twice, for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981). He has received 15 Academy Award nominations and eight of the films he has produced have earned 53 Academy nominations. In 1982, he won the Academy Award for Directing, and in 2000, he received the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award. He has also won the Best Director award from the Directors Guild of America and the Best Writer award three times from the Writers Guild of America. Beatty has been honored with 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. He has also been recognized as Director of the Year, Producer of the Year, and Actor of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners. He has won 16 awards from the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics, the National Board of Review, and the Golden Globes. 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 December 2004, Beatty received The Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D.C. He has also received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award and the HFPA Cecile B. DeMille Award, among others. Beatty has been politically active since the 1960s, having campaigned with Robert F. 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. In 1972, he took a year off from motion pictures to campaign with George McGovern. 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 and 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. In March of 2013, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Beatty was born in Richmond, Virginia. He and his wife, Annette Bening, live in Los Angeles and have four children. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. His sister is actress Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty). His ancestry is mostly English and Scottish.