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Golden Globes 2015: George Clooney, man in love, accepts DeMille award

George Clooney accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement on Sunday at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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George Clooney received the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes on Sunday for his “impact on the world of entertainment.”

The 53-year-old actor took the opportunity to spotlight the “Je suis Charlie” marches that happened Sunday around the world in solidarity against terrorism and also to acknowledge something more personal: His love for and marriage to Amal Alamuddin, now Amal Clooney, who had accompanied him to the ceremony.

“It’s a humbling thing to find someone to love, and it’s even better if you’ve been kind of waiting for it your whole life ... ,” he said while accepting his award.

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“Amal, whatever alchemy it is that brought us together, I couldn’t be more proud to be your husband.

Clooney gave a nod to the spirit of the evening as well, telling his peers that even though most of them would not win, “If you are in this room, you’ve caught the brass ring.”

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Julianna Margulies, Clooney’s “ER” costar, and Don Cheadle, his compatriot in “Ocean’s Eleven” — and Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen” — talked about their friend and introduced a compilation reel of his work before presenting the statue.

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Mention of the honor had come early in the evening, when hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler rattled off an impressive list of Amal Clooney’s professional accomplishments before noting that it was her husband who was getting the lifetime achievement award.

Clooney has previously won four Globes on 13 nominations: lead actor in a comedy or musical for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” supporting actor for “Syriana,” lead actor in a drama for “The Descendants” and as a producer of best picture winner “Argo.”

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One of Hollywood’s favorite leading men, the 53-year-old actor and filmmaker was born into a show business family as the son of broadcast journalist Nick Clooney and the nephew of singer and actress Rosemary Clooney.

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After a string of small recurring roles in TV series including “The Facts of Life,” “Roseanne” and “Sisters,” Clooney scored his big break with the hit 1994 medical drama “ER,” playing a dedicated pediatrician and notorious ladies’ man.

He followed up with big-screen roles in Quentin Tarantino’s “From Dusk Till Dawn,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” and Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.” Though it often seems Clooney can do no wrong, he has made his share of clunkers, including the ho-hum rom-com “One Fine Day” and the overly campy superhero sequel “Batman & Robin.”

More often than not, though, the two-time Sexiest Man Alive (so named by People magazine in 1997 and 2006) has represented the epitome of Hollywood glamour, as when he and Soderbergh dusted off the Rat Pack caper film “Ocean’s Eleven” and parlayed it into a star-studded trilogy.

Clooney’s other notable films as an actor include “Three Kings,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Michael Clayton” and “Up in the Air.”

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Behind the camera, Clooney has directed five films: “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Leatherheads,” “The Ides of March” and “The Monuments Men.” He also co-owns and operates the production company Smokehouse Pictures with longtime collaborator Grant Heslov.

Clooney’s upcoming projects include the sci-fi film “Tomorrowland,” the Coen brothers’ comedy “Hail, Caesar,” the financial drama “Money Monster” and the News Corp. phone-hacking film “Hack Attack.”

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