George Clooney could join an elite club Feb. 26 if his name is called in the Best Actor category at the 84th annual Academy Awards. A win for Best Actor for his role in the Best Picture-nominated dramedy "The Descendants" would give Clooney his second acting Oscar, behind his win for Best Supporting Actor in the 2005 thriller "Syriana."
Of course, Clooney's career didn't start in films, as he made his name most prominently on the NBC medical drama "ER" as Dr. Doug Ross from 1994-1999. Before that, he landed recurring roles on hit shows as the sitcoms "The Facts of Life" (NBC) and "Roseanne" (ABC), following his big break in 1984 a CBS comedy series titled, oddly enough, "E/R."
But even getting a shot at television was a struggle, as Clooney -- born May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Ky. -- learned his famous surname had little impact as a fresh face in Hollywood.
"I don't think in 1982 when I moved out to California and I got off the plane they said, 'Rosemary Clooney's nephew? Come on, we have a series for you,'" Clooney recalled for me with a smile in a 1999 interview for the action war drama "Three Kings." "The only great advantage to having someone in your family that worked in the industry and certainly had the ride that my aunt Rosemary did, is not that it helps you get a job -- Rosemary couldn't get a job when she started, so it didn't help me like that.
"What did help me, was when things started working for me, was understanding what not to do because she made all those mistakes in the '50s and she made some big ones," Clooney continued. "So that's a great lesson and people don't always get that, so I was very lucky just because of that."
Slideshow: Films of George Clooney then, now
And those lessons appear to have paid off. Since he started his film career in earnest in 1996 (unless he'd like to claim his turn in 1988's "Return of the Killer Tomatoes!") with director Robert Rodriguez's horror thriller "From Dusk 'til Dawn," Clooney has appeared in more than two dozen films, and in addition to his Oscar win for "Syriana," has been nominated for three Best Actor Oscars, including "The Descendants."
In addition to acting, Clooney has also found Oscar success as a filmmaker, having earned nominations for writing (along with creative partner Grant Heslov) and directing "Good Night and Good Luck," as well as co-writing with Heslov the screenplay one of this year's Best Adapted Screenplay nominees, "The Ides of March."
Think you remember all of Clooney's film roles? Click into this slideshow to recall most of Clooney's films throughout his illustrious film career.
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