Today, the silver fox, Hollywood hunk George Clooney turns the ripe old age of 54. Like Carey Grant and other handsome stars before Clooney seems to be managing to improve with age...no fair.
Happy Birthday Mr Clooney.
Here’s some of his words of wisdom over the years:
“I love my grey hair and wrinkles. I love the fact that my face has more of an edge and more character than it did when I was in my twenties and thirties. No Botox for me.”
“Failures are infinitely more instructive than successes.”
“You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk.”
“On Christmas morning, before we could open our Christmas presents, we would go to this stranger's home and bring them presents. I remember helping clean the house up and putting up a tree. My father believed that you have a responsibility to look after everyone else.”
“I'm kind of comfortable with getting older because it's better than the other option, which is being dead. So I'll take getting older.”
“I don't like to share my personal life... it wouldn't be personal if I shared it.”
“I don't believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you live long enough to watch your friends die. It's a mean thing, life.”
“I don't tweet, I don't go on Facebook. I think there's too much information about all of us out there. I'm liking the idea of privacy more and more.”
“I had to stop going to auditions thinking, 'Oh, I hope they like me.' I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem.”
“Run for office? No. I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs, and I've been to too many parties.”
“I love children and I get along with them great. It's just that I believe if you're going to be a parent, there has to be something inside you that says, 'I want a family.' I don't feel that sense of urgency.”
“It's incredibly unfair. You don't see a lot of 60-year-old women with 20-year-old men on screen.’
“I think you should automatically donate your organs because that would turn the balance of organ donation in a huge way. I would donate whatever anybody would take, and I'd probably do the cremation bit.”
George Clooney’s Irish connection is an interesting one. Recently new research by Eneclann, a history and heritage company based out of Trinity College, discovered the previously unknown story of the Hollywood star’s Irish ancestors.
Renowned genealogist Fiona Fitzsimons discovered Clooney’s Irish ancestors didn’t jump, but were pushed. Originally Clooney’s Irish ancestors were small farmers from Windgap, County Kilkenny.
Nicholas Clooney (George’s great great grandfather) was one of many cottiers in Windgap the 1850s who fell foul of "middlemen" who tried to force farmers off the land so they could amalgamate small holdings into bigger farms.
This situation often tipped-over into violence.
New court records prove that in 1852 Nicholas Clooney (George’s great great grandfather) was violently assaulted and for months was harassed through the court-system.
“Nicholas Clooney decided shortly after to leave Ireland and settle in Kentucky. The rest is history,” says Fitzsimons.
Research showed that Nicholas’ widowed mother (George Clooney’s great great great grandmother) remained behind in Ireland.
“Now through a family connection and for the first time, we have photographs of the old Clooney house and farm taken in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The photos show a way of life now vanished. It’s closer in time, and probably also in terms of experience, to the life of the immigrant Clooneys,” explained Fitzsimons.
The silver fox, Hollywood star, known to billions was born in Kentucky in 1961 into a well-known family of media types and entertainers including his aunt, the actress and singer Rosemary Clooney.
The name Clooney is an anglicized version of the Gaelic O’ Cluanaigh, which translates as a descendant of Clughnach, meaning a rogue or a flatterer. His father’s mother’s maiden name, meanwhile was Guilfoyle.
Speaking about his ancestral home Clooney said, “I’ve been to Dublin before with my folks.
“My Dad went to Ireland when he told them his name, he said everyone insisted on buying him drinks and he got smashed and had a great time!”
Far from the humble begins of his family’s tale in the 1850s!
H/T: www.brainyquote.com and Find My Past.
Comments