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Beatty does have a second Oscar--the Irving Thalberg Award of 2000, presented to "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production." With a "remarkable and seldom predictable career," wrote David Thomson in The New York Times at the time of the award, "maybe no one did more to reinvent (the motion picture) business than Warren Beatty." "Bonnie and Clyde" changed everything and American films after it was markedly different from what preceded it. The first-time 30-year-old producer made the film as an independent movie--at Warner Bros. and before anyone had uttered the term "indie." Thomson writes that Beatty "kept the script 'wild,' took the unit away on location; he let Arthur Penn shoot in ways that alarmed old-timers; he used a new breed of actor; he saw how to chase laughter with dread, and to make a merry riot out of slaughter; and…he argued and cajoled and manipulated the studio into making it a success." Perhaps most importantly, Beatty "educated a generation of young filmmakers on how to use the studio setup to their advantage," giving birth to what turned out to be the last golden age of American cinema. "Bonnie and Clyde" was a movie so new and different that upon its initial release it was severely panned, quickly disappeared from theaters, and deemed an utter failure. At Beatty's insistence, it was released again a few months later and subsequently proclaimed a brutal and exquisite masterpiece by the very same critics who had earlier dismissed it. The film both disturbed and thrilled the youthful, rebellious audiences of 1968, and ended up one of the year's biggest moneymakers, as well as a contender for 10 Oscars. Its influence was widespread: from making stars out of Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons, actors who would dominate American movies for the following decade, to revolutionizing the fashion industry with its depression-era costumes, makeup and hairstyles. Beatty is the younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine. In 1992, he married actress Annette Bening. They have four children: Kathlyn, Benjamin, Isabel and Ella Corinne. Beatty studied acting with the internationally acclaimed Stanislavsky teacher Stella Adler and made his Broadway debut in 1960 in William Inge's A Loss of Roses. Although the play closed after a few performances, Beatty made an impression and was nominated for a Tony Award. More importantly, the veteran playwright took notice of his young star, which led to Beatty making a riveting film debut as the rich and handsome Bud Stamper in "Splendor in the Grass." Boasting an Academy Award-winning screenplay by Inge and heartbreaking direction by Elia Kazan, the movie remains one of the finest explorations of teenage love and frustration ever filmed. In the movie, Natalie Wood's Deanie becomes enthralled with Bud--just as filmgoers everywhere became enthralled with Warren Beatty. Four decades later, the love affair continues, not just with the actor, but with the artist as well.
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