His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Beatty is the only person to have been nominated for acting, directing, writing, and producing in the same film, and he did so twice: first for Heaven Can Wait with Buck Henry as co-director and again for Reds. Miller , and Shampoo His father, Ira Owens Beaty, studied for a PhD in educational psychology and was a teacher and school administrator, in addition to working in real estate.
The family was Baptist. During the s the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington. His uncle by marriage was Canadian politician A. Beatty became interested in movies as a child, often accompanying his sister to theaters. One film that had an important early influence on him was The Philadelphia Story , which he saw when it was re-released in the s. He noticed a strong resemblance between its star, Katharine Hepburn , and his mother, in both appearance and personality, saying that they symbolized "perpetual integrity".
He found it "deeply moving", and recalled that "[t]his is a movie I always wanted to make. Among his favorite TV shows in the s was the Texaco Star Theatre , and he began to mimic one of its regular host comedians, Milton Berle. Beatty learned to do a "superb imitation of Berle and his routine", said a friend, and often used Berle-type humor at home.
His sister's memories of her brother include seeing him reading books by Eugene O'Neill or singing along to Al Jolson records. MacLaine noted β on what made her brother want to become a filmmaker, sometimes writing, producing, directing and starring in his films: "That's why he's more comfortable behind the camera He's in the total-control aspect.
He has to have control over everything. Encouraged to act by the success of his sister, who established herself as a Hollywood star, he decided to work as a stagehand at the National Theatre in Washington, D. After graduation, he was reportedly offered ten college football scholarships, but turned them down to study liberal arts at Northwestern University β55 , where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. He often subsisted on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and worked odd jobs, including dishwasher, piano player, bricklayer's assistant, construction worker, and, relatively briefly, a sandhog.
