On This Day
Birthday of Warren Beatty
March 30th 1937
09:37 30 March 2024
American actor, director, producer and screenwriter Warren Beatty was born on this day in 1937. Beatty began his acting career with appearances on American television, before going on to make his film debut in Elia Kazan’s ‘Splendor in the Grass’ (1961) opposite Natalie Wood. The film was a critical and commercial success and earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.
His initial feature was followed by starring roles in ‘The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone’ (1961), ‘All Fall Down’ (1962), ‘Lilith’ (1963), ‘Promise Her Anything’ (1964), ‘Mickey One’ (1965) and ‘Kaleidoscope’ (1966). In 1965 Beatty formed his own production company and aged 29 produced and starred in ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967). Despite early misgivings by studio head Jack Warner, the movie was a major success both critically and commercially and went on to receive ten Academy Award nominations. Beatty was now at the forefront of the "New Hollywood" and starred in a number of significant American films throughout the 1970s including 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' (1971), 'The Parallax View' (1974), 'Shampoo' (1975) and 'Heaven Can Wait' (1978), the last of which marked his directorial debut (alongside Buck Henry).
His next film 'Reds' (1981), an historical epic about American Communist journalist John Reed and set during the Russian October Revolution, was a project he had been working on as far back as 1970. The movie was nominated for 12 Academy Awards with Beatty winning the Best Director Oscar. His only other 1980s film was the Elaine May adventure-comedy 'Ishtar' which was a notorious critical and box office failure. He was back on track with 'Dick Tracy' (1990) which was a box office hit.
Other notable film credits include 'Bugsy' (1991), 'Love Affair' (1994), 'Bulworth' (1998), 'Town & Country' (2001) and 'Rules Don't Apply' (2016). In a career that spans six decades and 23 films, Warren Beatty is most definitely a case of quality over quantity but 53 Oscar nominations for eight films where he's served as producer, speaks for itself. Happy Birthday Warren.