Warren Beatty - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Beatty was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia-born teacher, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a PhD. of educational psychology, a public school administrator, and dealt in real estate. Beatty's grandparents were also educators. The family was Baptist. In 1945, the family moved from Richmond to Arlington, Virginia. Beatty's elder sister is actress/dancer/writer Shirley MacLaine.

Beatty was a star football player at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington. Encouraged to act by the success of his sister, who had recently established herself as a Hollywood star, he decided to work as a stagehand at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., during the summer prior to his senior year. Upon graduation from high school, he reportedly rejected ten football scholarships to study liberal arts at Northwestern University (1954–1955). While at Northwestern, he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity but left after his freshman year to move to New York City, where he studied acting with Stella Adler. He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor and received a 1960 Theatre World Award for his performance in William Inge's A Loss of Roses. This role marked his sole appearance on Broadway.