AFI honoring Warren Beatty with lifetime achievement :: Film & TV News :: Articles

The American Film Institute (AFI) has selected Warren Beatty as the recipient of the 36th AFI Life Achievement Award. While the actual ceremony is nearly a year away, taking place on June 12, 2008, the announcement still comes as a pleasant surprise for fans of the influential actor.

"Warren Beatty has charmed movie-goers as a dynamic leading man from his first moment on screen and continues to do so today," said Howard Stringer from the AFI's board of trustees. "He is also a master filmmaker—a writer, producer and director of such artistry and influence that his movies–Bonnie and Clyde to Reds–have left an indelible mark on the cultural legacy of American film. AFI is proud to present him with its 36th Life Achievement Award."

While Beatty was successfully acting on television and in musicals for years before making the jump to film, it was his role in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde that first put the actor into the collective imaginations of film viewers. The film is considered a spiritual predecessor to the New Hollywood movies that would follow and his own acting was both distinct and natural, making him one of the most important faces of the 1970s.

Beatty is certainly best-known for his acting, including films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Shampoo and Bullworth, but he's done just as much work behind the camera, producing, writing or directing a majority of his films after his success overseeing Bonnie and Clyde. This led to the oddity of one of America's iconic actors from the era winning an Academy Award for Best Director (Reds) but never for Best Actor. A lifetime achievement award seems fitting for a man who's changed so much in the world of cinema.