Warren Beatty, Lifetime Achiever
Warren Beatty will be the next recipient of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, both for his on-screen performances and his work as a director. The award will be presented on June 12.
Like Cary Grant, Paul Newman and George Clooney, Beatty is one of those actors who has had to overcome a problem a lot of us would like to be cursed with, good looks that kept him from being taken seriously early in his career. (A reputation as Hollywood’s most famous seducer didn’t help. You’ve no doubt heard that he was the inspiration for Carly Simon’s hit song “You’re So Vain.) In the 70s he became more interested in directing than acting. And in the 90s, when he finally succumbed to marriage and raising a family, he seemed to lose interest in movies, and hasn’t appeared on screen since the box office flop Town and Country in 2001. Despite his rumored flirtations with politics, though, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him.
Which Warren Beatty film is his best? Take our poll or tell us in a comment:
Splendor In The Grass and Heaven Can Wait are my two favorite films of his. However, Natalie Wood's performance was most captivating in Splendor In The Grass.
I remember paying to see Heaven Can Wait four different times in the theaters and then sitting through maybe a 4 hour epic movie he had a zillion credits on: REDS.
Think he was in is his 40's then and I in my teens. Beatty was my first actor crush. Two viewings of REDS and a couple of bags of licorice cured that.