{"id":333925,"date":"2025-10-26T13:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333925\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:31:13","slug":"george-clooney-recalls-early-hollywood-days-from-meeting-tony-bennett-to-getting-yelled-at-by-frank-sinatra-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333925\/","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney Recalls Early Hollywood Days, from Meeting Tony Bennett to Getting \u2018Yelled at by Frank Sinatra\u2019 (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<ul class=\"mb-4\">\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">George Clooney reminisced about his early years in Hollywood<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 64-year-old actor recalled meeting Tony Bennett and once getting \u201cyelled at by Frank Sinatra\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ml-4 list-disc\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clooney spoke to PEOPLE exclusively while at the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie, Jay Kelly<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tag\/george-clooney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:George Clooney;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">George Clooney<\/a> is telling tales of Hollywood yore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clooney, 64, caught up exclusively with PEOPLE on the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of his latest film, Jay Kelly, on Thursday, Oct. 23. During the conversation, PEOPLE asked the actor if he had any stories involving his aunt, famous singer <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/george-clooney-thankful-for-achieving-fame-in-mid-30s-reason-11822679\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Rosemary Clooney;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Rosemary Clooney<\/a>, who died in 2002.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">George shared that he worked as Rosemary\u2019s driver when he was first trying to break into Hollywood \u2014 and he ended up driving a number of famous artists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI remember being on the road [&#8230;] I was my Aunt Rosemary&#8217;s driver when she was singing,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Lester Cohen\/WireImage Rosemary Clooney and George Clooney in 1998\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d6d5dd34d21dbf9f2cf5f1e9ec4e2d0d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lester Cohen\/WireImage<\/p>\n<p> Rosemary Clooney and George Clooney in 1998<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAnd I hadn&#8217;t known her much when I was young because I lived in Kentucky. She was the Hollywood aunt. So I came out to make a living and I was her driver. And I got to drive [her] and <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tag\/tony-bennett\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tony Bennett;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Tony Bennett<\/a>, and all of these really wonderful singers around for a year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Oceans 11 star said that being in such close proximity to major stars taught him an important lesson early in his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI got a really good life lesson in success and failure, and handling it. And I always remember that [&#8230;] I felt very lucky that I got that lesson early in time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">George went on to say that he even once got yelled at by <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tag\/frank-sinatra\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Frank Sinatra;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Frank Sinatra<\/a>, which he said he wears as a badge of pride.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI remember he was mad at me once because I led this boycott about [&#8230;] some press freedoms, and he called me because people thought he was sick and there were helicopters flying over his [home], and he called me going, \u2018It&#8217;s not working what you&#8217;re doing!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-puzzler-8620185\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><strong>The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cBut he was great,\u201d he continued, adding, \u201cI got yelled at by Frank Sinatra!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/most-emotional-oscars-acceptance-speeches-11688392\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Oscar winner;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Oscar winner<\/a> also opened up about his decades-long friendships in the industry, specifically noting that he believes it\u2019s important to stay close to the people who knew you before you were famous.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Dave Benett\/Getty Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Andy Garcia in 2001\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"641\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/8cd590ed5d6381d3b22f84c872fcbd5d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dave Benett\/Getty<\/p>\n<p> Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Andy Garcia in 2001<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWell, I mean, most of my friends [&#8230;] we&#8217;ve been friends for 40 years. I slept on their couch when I was broke. And so they&#8217;re always around when things and people are giving you too much credit,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He added, \u201cThey&#8217;re the first people to remind you that they&#8217;re full of crap. That&#8217;s always helpful. It&#8217;s helpful to have people that know you long before you were defined by something else, by movies you&#8217;ve done or work you&#8217;ve done and that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/george-clooney-recalls-early-hollywood-getting-yelled-at-by-frank-sinatra-exclusive-11837083\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW George Clooney reminisced about his early years in Hollywood The 64-year-old actor recalled meeting Tony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":333926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,10035,13615,14107,74367,165460,165459,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-333925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-frank-sinatra","11":"tag-george-clooney","12":"tag-hollywood","13":"tag-jay-kelly","14":"tag-rosemary-clooney","15":"tag-tony-bennett","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115440719836162144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}