Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty, born in 1937, American motion-picture actor, producer, screenwriter, and director, many of whose works focus on the values of American society. He was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia, the younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine. (He later added a t to his last name.) After attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for one year, Beatty left in 1956 to study with acting teacher Stella Adler in New York City. After working in television and theater for several years, Beatty made his motion-picture debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961), directed by Elia Kazan. Beatty subsequently appeared in such motion pictures as All Fall Down (1962) and Mickey One (1965). In Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which he also produced, he portrayed Clyde Barrow, an American criminal during the Great Depression of the 1930s. He was widely praised for his performance in the innovative Western drama McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman.

In the mid-1970s Beatty assumed increased creative control over his projects. He produced, cowrote, and starred in the satire Shampoo (1975), and he produced, cowrote, codirected, and starred in Heaven Can Wait (1978), a comedy about a football player who is reincarnated. Beatty won the 1981 Academy Award for best director for Reds (1981), a detailed historical work in which he portrayed radical American journalist John Reed. Later Beatty produced, directed, and played the title role in Dick Tracy (1990), based on the comic strip of the same name, and he coproduced and starred in Bugsy (1991), about a Hollywood, California, gangster. In 1994 he starred with his wife, Annette Bening, in the romance Love Affair. A longtime political activist, Beatty played a United States senator in Bulworth (1998), portraying a depressed man who after years of compromise suddenly finds the freedom to say what he believes. Beatty also wrote, directed, and produced the film.