Warren Beatty Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
Here is a look at the life of actor, director, producer, and writer Warren Beatty.
Personal
Birth date: March 30, 1937
Birth place: Richmond, Virginia
Birth name: Henry Warren Beaty
Father: Ira O. Beaty, school administrator
Mother: Kathlyn (MacLean) Beaty, drama teacher
Marriage: Annette Bening (March 1992-present)
Children: Stephen, Benjamin, Isabel and Ella
Education: Attended Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1956; Attended the Stella Adler Theatre School, New York, New York, 1957
Other Facts
He is the younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine.
Beatty turned down several football scholarships to study drama at Northwestern University instead.
Beatty dated many famous women, such as Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Julie Christie and Madonna, before he was married at age 54 to actress Annette Bening.
Nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won once. He has also received an honorary award.
Beatty is one of a small group to have been nominated for an Oscar as writer, director, producer and actor on an individual film. Beatty did it twice, for “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds.” Orson Welles was the first, for “Citizen Kane.”
Honorary chair of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, originally founded by the much-admired acting teacher. Other prominent alumni include Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
In November 2015, singer-songwriter Carly Simon admitted to People magazine the second verse of her 1972 song, “You’re So Vain,” is about Beatty, a former beau, confirming a decades-old rumor.
Timeline
1957 – Makes his television debut, in the lead role of a hitchhiker, on NBC’s “The Curly Headed Kid.”
1959-1963 – Appears in five episodes of the TV series “the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” Changes his last name to “Beatty.”
November 28, 1959 – Debuts on Broadway in “A Loss of Roses.”
1961 – Beatty makes his film-acting debut as Bud Stamper in “Splendor in the Grass” opposite Natalie Wood.
1967 – Makes his producing debut (and also stars) in the film “Bonnie and Clyde.” Initially panned, the film later receives critical recognition and is now considered a movie classic.
1975 – Makes his writing debut with “Shampoo,” co-written with Robert Towne, in which he also stars and produces.
1978 – Makes his directing debut with “Heaven Can Wait,” in which he is also the star, producer and writer.
1981 – For the second time, he serves as actor, director, producer and writer, for “Reds.”
March 29, 1982 – Winner, Academy Award for Best Director, for “Reds.” This is his only Academy Award win.
1987 – Produces and stars, with Dustin Hoffman, in the famous flop, “Ishtar,” about two lounge singers traipsing around North Africa.
1990 – Produces, directs and stars in the film, “Dick Tracy,” based on the hero police detective of the comic strip.
1991 – Meets his future wife, Annette Bening, when they star in the film “Bugsy,” a biopic about mobster Bugsy Siegel.
1998 – Produces, writes, directs and stars in the political satire, “Bulworth.”
August 12, 1999 – The New York Times reports Beatty, a Democrat, is considering a run for the White House in the 2000 election.
March 26, 2000 – Receives the Academy’s highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award, which is presented to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
December 5, 2004 – Receives the Kennedy Center Honors.
March 25, 2011 – Wins a long-running legal fight in federal court against Tribune Media Services over rights to the Dick Tracy character.
February 26, 2017 – Beatty and Faye Dunaway — on hand to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Bonnie and Clyde” — announce the wrong winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture after being handed the wrong envelope by one of the two partners from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “Moonlight” finally accepts the award for best picture after “La La Land” is mistakenly announced.
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