Oscar Profile #213: Warren Beatty

Born March 30, 1977, (Henry) Warren Beaty (later Beatty) is the younger brother of actress/dancer/writer Shirley MacLaine. Their mother, Kathlyn (née McLean) was a Canadian born drama teacher, their father, a school administrator. Both Warren and his sister were taught to excel from an early age.

A star football player in high school, Beatty turned down ten football scholarships to study liberal arts. After a year, he quit school to move to New York to study acting with Stella Adler. By 1957 he was making appearances in TV dramas and was a semi-regular on the comedy series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in its first season, 1959-60. He made his Broadway debut in 1959’s A Loss of Roses for which he was nominated for a Tony.

Beatty made his film debut in 1961’s Splendor in the Grass opposite Natalie Wood for which he received the first of his 18 Golden Globe nominations to date. He was immediately cast in the same year’s The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Vivien Leigh, followed by 1962’s All Fall Down opposite Eva Marie Saint. He took 1963 off, returning in 1964 with Lilith opposite Jean Seberg, then two in 1965, the title role in Mickey One and Promise Her Anything opposite Leslie Caron and one in 1966, Kaleidoscope opposite Susannah York.

The actor’s career reached a peak with 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde for which he received his first Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Actor, then took another three years off, returning in 1970’s poorly received The Only Game in Town opposite Elizabeth Taylor. Critics and audiences were more appreciative of 1971’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller opposite Julie Christie, the same year’s $ opposite Goldie Hawn and 1974’s The Parallex View opposite Paula Prentiss. He peaked again with 1975’s Shampoo opposite Christie and Hawn for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, but faltered with the same year’s The Fortune with pal Jack Nicholson.

With 1978’s Heaven Can Wait he became the first person nominated for Best Picture, Actor, Writer and Director Oscars for the same film, a feat he repeated three years later with Reds for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.

Beatty took the next six years off, returning with one of the biggest flops of all time, 1987’s Ishtar, co-starring Dustin Hoffman. Three years later he returned with the popular Dick Tracy, followed by 1991’s Bugsy and Oscar nods for Best Picture and Actor opposite Annette Bening who became Hollywood’s most elusive bachelor’s wife a year later. Together Beatty and Bening re-made Leo McCarey’s Love Affair in 1994. In 1998 he starred in the political comedy, Bulworth for which he received his 14th and final Oscar nomination to date for Best Original Screenplay. The following year he received the Academy’s Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

Beatty’s last released film to date was 2001’s flop, Town & Country. His still untitled film about Howard Hughes is in post-production and will be released in 2015. Beatty remains one of Hollywood most iconic figures at 77.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961), directed by Elia Kazan

Beatty was an immediate sensation opposite Natalie Wood in Kazan’s seamy tale of unrequited forbidden love in 1920s Kansas from a screenplay by William Inge who also wrote A Loss of Roses for which Beatty received a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut two years earlier. The film version, retitled The Stripper starred Joanne Woodward and Wood’s West Side Story co-star Richard Beymer. Beatty and Wood were an item off-screen as well. Audiences didn’t have to wait long for their second dose of the actor who returned two months later opposite Vivien Leigh in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.

BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), directed by Arthur Penn

Beatty received his first two of fourteen Oscar nominations thus far as producer and star of the revolutionary gangster film about the notorious bank robbers of the 1930s. The film made a major star of Faye Dunaway who was also Oscar nominated as were Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons who won as Clyde’s sister-in-law.

The film initially split the critics over its perceived excessive violence but many of the original naysayers later changed their opinions as did veteran N.Y. Times critic Bosley Crowther. It was too late for him, though, as the out-of-touch veteran was forced to retire by the end of the year.

SHAMPOO (1975), directed by Hal Ashby

Beatty and Robert Towne received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay although the film was loosely based on William Wycherley’s 1675 restoration comedy The Country Wife in which the protagonist fakes impotence in order to seduce women out from under the noses of their husbands. Three hundred years later it’s Beatty’s profession as a hairdresser for which the husbands think he’s gay. His conquests include Julie Christie (one of his off-screen paramours), Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant and a pre-Star Wars Carrie Fisher. It all takes place on the night of Nixon’s election in 1968.

REDS (1981), directed by Warren Beatty

With 1978’s Heaven Can Wait, his remake of 1941’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Beatty became the first person nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Writer and Actor, a feat he duplicated three years later with Reds, his most ambitious project about John Reed, the American journalist who becomes involved in the Communist Revolution. Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant, Jack Nicholson as Eugene O’Neill and Maureen Stapleton as Emma Goldman were also nominated for their performances, with Stapleton winning. Beatty won for his direction. The film features unique on-screen narration by “witnesses”, famous people with first-hand knowledge of the people and events portrayed.

BUGSY (1991), directed by Barry Levinson

Not a groundbreaking gangster film like Bonnie and Clyde but an extremely popular one for which Beatty received his twelfth and thirteenth Oscar nominations, one for producing and one for acting, his fourth nomination in both categories. Beatty plays Bugsy Siegel, the gangster who created Las Vegas. The film is a fascinating look at 1940s Los Angeles and Las Vegas with standout performances from Annete Bening, Ben Kingsley and Harvey Keitel, the latter two also nominated for their performances. Bening didn’t get an Oscar nomination for her portrayal ofVirginia Hill, but she did get Beatty who until that point had been notorious for loving and leaving his co-stars. The two have been married since 1992 and have four children.