EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: George Clooney at 28: From Frat Boy Looks To Hollywood Glamour
March 22 2010, Published 11:35 a.m. ET
A young George Clooney rode into a celebrity photographer’s studio dressed like a “frat boy” and came out looking like a Hollywood star, and Breaking Celebrity News has the exclusive pictures.
Celebrity photographer Harry Langdon Jr. met George when he was 28 years old. He had done some failed pilots and just finished The Return Of the Killer Tomatoes. His career needed a boost—so his reps sent George to Harry hoping he could come out with a “young hunk picture.”
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“His hair was long,” says Langdon about the Sexiest Man Alive, “he had his motorcycle, which he brought into my studio.”
Clooney even wanted to incorporate his new Harley-Davidson into the layout, but that resulted in shots that were too predictable. Then at the end of the session, Langdon saw a white linen suit on the clothes rack. “It looked terrible in person,” Langdon said.
But then “I remembered Cary Grant and other leading men of yesterday—and they always wore white suits. So I said ‘Why don’t I just transpose that look on George?’ And, the final touch: Langdon asked George to slick back his hair.
“He thought I was wasting his time. When I’m shooting, I don’t care if they like it or not.” The shots only took five minutes, but they have a classically elegant quality that endures 21 years later.
The Clooney pictures are part of the Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection that is being auctioned off by Profiles of History on March 26 and March 27.
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