12:13PM, Mar 04, 2009
Clooney has successfully dumped the matinee idol image in favour of a self-deprecating star unafraid of taking risks role-wise.
A shrewd judge of decent parts, his appearances in O Brother, Where Art Thou, Three Kings and Michael Clayton show an actor of considerable range.
He is also impressing as a director with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and the critically acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck.
He began working at the age of five on his father's talk show, The Nick Clooney Show, but quit because he didn't want to be in competition with his father.
Showbiz runs in the family - his aunt was famous Fifties singer, Rosemary Clooney.
He studied at Northern Kentucky University and returned to acting at the age of 21 after his trial for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team was unsuccessful.
Clooney could be heard in a few radio commercials and featured in 15 failed TV pilots as well as appearing in low-budget affairs.
These included Return To Horror High, Return of the Killer Tomatoes and Grizzly II: The Predator.
In 1993, he appeared as a "lip-synching transvestite" in The Harvest before landing the part of Dr Doug Ross on the hugely successful ER.
His role as the hunky doctor made him a star and brought numerous movie roles, starting with Quentin Tarantino in Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn.
He also stepped out as Batman - the sixth actor to take the role - in the disappointing Batman & Robin and starred in the thriller The Peacemaker and Terrence Malik's The Thin Red Line.
"I don't like to share my personal life... it wouldn't be personal if I shared it."
The critics were effusive for his part opposite Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight and he went onto further praise for Gulf War satire Three Kings with Mark Wahlberg.
Roles in the Coen brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou (he took the part without reading the script) and as a fishing boat captain in The Perfect Storm cemented a career firmly in the ascendant.
Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven was a marked improvement on the original and Clooney went on to star in the director's excellent Solaris (another remake).
He made his directorial debut with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, in which he also starred, and also played seductive lawyer Miles Massey in the Coen's Intolerable Cruelty.
In 2004, he reprised the role of Danny Ocean alongside Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta Jones in Soderbergh's sequel Ocean's Twelve.
He also starred in his second directorial effort - the McCarthy era drama Good Night, and Good Luck - which failed to win an Oscar despite six nominations.
But the Academy did provide a sizeable consolation for Clooney by naming him Best Supporting Actor for his turn as a burnt-out CIA spook in the political thriller Syriana.
In 2006, he starred in the Berlin-set post World War II thriller The Good German opposite Cate Blanchett and headed back to Vegas for Ocean's Thirteen.
Recent work includes the critically-acclaimed thriller Michael Clayton with Clooney as a burnt-out corporate legal eagle, and the Coens' latest comedy, Burn After Reading.
Future projects include two book adaptations. Firstly, Clooney will lend his voice to Wes Anderson's animated version of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox , which will soon be followed by the adaptation of the bizarre US military book, Men Who Stare At Goats.
