The 2009 TIME 100

Heroes & Icons

Camilla Morandi / Corbis

George Clooney

Article Tools

George Clooney is a dangerous man. He needs to be watched... to be monitored... He's a new kind of American radical... a post-'60s, post-obvious, post-postmodern radical, not the left-leaning Hollywood bleeding-heart do-gooder that many think. Oh, no...

Clooney, 48, is a pragmatic idealist, and a patriot in a very different sense than the way that word is normally used. He believes that his country is a contagious idea that should be embraced by the world — but not by force, and not out of fear.

So what's the radical bit? Well, it starts with his strategic sensibility, and his almost peculiar ability to sublimate his ego to win a point — something completely out of character and perhaps against the law for a performer. (I should know...) The pieties of the actor-slash-activist are absent in Clooney. Humor is his not-so-secret weapon. He's very, very funny. Especially when he's off-script.

It has been said that after meeting with the great British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world, but after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the smartest person. That latter touch is the essence of George Clooney.

His commitment to ending the atrocities in Sudan is not a role, not a performance. It is real — and it is serious work. Some people think celebrities should stick to the script, stay feted and fetal in their air-conditioned trailers. Some people think it's an appalling juxtaposition to see the rich and famous in a photo call with the vanquished and the vulnerable.

It is. George knows that. But he also knows that the cameras trained on you and the column inches dedicated to you could be covering something a little more important than, well, you. Like the slaughter of innocents in Darfur. Like the refugee camps full of starving Sudanese.

And he knows the details, the nuances of his and your sides of the argument. Hey, if you're going to pay attention to George Clooney, he's going to insist you pay attention to this stuff. Now there's a radical idea.

Clooney's smile is as brilliant as ever, but if you look closer, his jaw is clenched. What he brings to the discussion on Darfur is not just star power. It's the power of conviction, and a growing impatience, and an undiminished sense that what's still — still! — happening in Darfur is an affront to what we say we believe. Our response, as yet, is unworthy of us.

So take his picture, shake his hand, but whatever you do, don't make this man mad — he just gets more organized.

Bono is the lead singer of U2 and a co-founder of ONE

View the full list for "The 2009 TIME 100"

Interactive

The People Behind the People

A peek at the circles of influence for this year's TIME 100

Video

The TIME 100 Gala in 100 Seconds

TIME celebrated the world's most influential people at a star-studded party in New York, where First Lady Michelle Obama was the featured guest

Video

The 2009 TIME 100 Red Carpet

Our correspondents ask some of the world's most influential people some really ridiculous questions

Video

M.I.A. Makes the TIME 100

Producer, DJ, singer, fashion designer. Sri Lankan pop star M.I.A. has global influence across many genres. That put her on this year's TIME 100

Video

Heroes & Icons

TIME Editor-at-Large Belinda Luscombe and Movie Critic Richard Corliss discuss some of the heroes and icons on this year's TIME 100 list

Video

World Leaders

TIME International Editor Michael Elliott discusses three of the many world leaders featured on the TIME's list of the world's most influential people

Video

American Leaders

TIME Deputy Managing Editor Romesh Ratnesar discusses some of the magazine's choices for U.S. political leaders on this year's TIME 100

Video

The Artists

TIME Deputy Managing Editor Josh Tyrangiel & writer Richard Lacayo discuss some of the many influential artists on this year's TIME 100 list

TIME 100 Poll

Your Results

See who was victorious in getting your votes this year

More Stories

And No. 1 Is...

I've ranked the TIME 100 based on the importance of their contributions. Their contributions to me