George Clooney is one of those actors who has been playing the game for three decades. A lot has changed for him, especially in recent years. He’s gone from eternal bachelor to happily married after his wedding to Amal Alamuddin and now he’s a father of two, twins Ella and Alexander. We think he seems a lot happier, and more satisfied with his life. He also has a birthday coming up! In honor of that, here are 10 things you didn’t know about the television turned movie star:
10. Terrible Accident
He cracked his head open while filming a torture scene for 2005’s Syriana, for which he won an Oscar, and it took doctors weeks to figure out that fluid was also leaking from his spine and that he had torn his dura, the outermost layer enveloping the spinal cord. “We started doing these things called myelograms, where they shoot contrast into your system and you can see what’s leaking out. I had a two-and-a-half-inch tear in the middle of my back and a half-inch tear in my neck,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. Although he still struggles with pain, he claims that it’s become more manageable.
c) Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection