Warren Beatty and his sister, Shirley MacLaine , grew up in Richmond, Virginia.
Warren Beatty turns 70 today, although you wouldn’t guess it from his well-preserved features – and the fact that he is still as famous for his philandering as his film-making, writes David Usborne in The Independent.
“His extraordinary accomplishments were the reason that just this January Beatty was honoured with the lifetime achievement Cecil B DeMille award at the annual Golden Globes show. After receiving it from presenter Tom Hanks, he made his own self- deprecating jokes about his advancing years. ‘Forget about Hanks,” he told the audience, ‘I’ve got bottles of moisturiser older than Tom Hanks.’
“Beatty, who in his very young years found himself overshadowed by his older sister Shirley MacLaine, first broke through under the direction of Elia Kazan in Splendor in the Grass, a film that in fact first brought him to the attention of the Golden Globes judges who declared him most promising newcomer. The year was 1962.
“Beatty has often credited Kazan with launching his career. When he received a controversial lifetime award at the Oscars in 1999, Beatty publicly defended Kazan against those who continued to spurn him for co-operating with a congressional committee exposing alleged communist sympathisers in the dark days of the McCarthy hearings…”
For Beatty’s profile and his films please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.