From Killer Tomatoes to Hollywood Icon: George Clooney on Tubi
Before the Oscars, directing gigs, and decades of movie-star charm, revisit five George Clooney movies and shows on Tubi as his career gets celebrated at Venice.
George Clooney has reached the point in his career where simply saying George Clooney comes with certain expectations. Movie-star smile. Perfectly tailored suit. Oscar winner. Director. International coffee-drinking man of mystery. But careers this long don't materialize fully formed on a red carpet, and Clooney's road to Hollywood royalty includes considerably more mutant produce and questionable hairstyles than you might remember.
With Clooney being celebrated during the 2026 Venice Film Festival, we're rewinding the résumé. These five George Clooney movies and TV shows on Tubi travel from his pre-ER acting days through leading-man stardom, with enough unexpected stops along the way to make you appreciate just how much ground he's covered.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Every Hollywood legend has to start somewhere. Young George Clooney's story involves tomatoes.
Years before ER, Oscars, and leading-man status, Return of the Killer Tomatoes! finds Clooney playing Matt Stevens in a horror-comedy where tomatoes can be transformed into humans and absolutely nobody is pretending the premise isn't ridiculous. Clooney meets the movie at its level, leaning into the comedy with the loose energy of a young working actor who hasn't yet developed the polished screen persona audiences would eventually recognize on sight. Half the fun is simply watching one of Clooney's early movie roles before the mythology: no Ocean's crew, no tuxedo required, just George and the tomatoes.
The Facts of Life
The tomatoes were handled. Television was calling.
By the time Clooney joined The Facts of Life as George Burnett, he was learning how to make an impression inside an ensemble that already had its own rhythm. Rather than commanding the room, Clooney plays George as an easygoing presence who can slide naturally into Mrs. Garrett and the girls' world, showing off the conversational timing that television would eventually put to considerably bigger use. And yes, the '80s hair is doing important historical work here. Future Dr. Doug Ross: currently fixing things in Peekskill.
Red Surf
Then came the kind of role that asked Clooney to carry more than a punchline and considerably more baggage.
In Red Surf, Clooney's Remar is a surfer and drug trafficker whose girlfriend's pregnancy forces him to consider whether the dangerous life he's built is one he actually wants to keep. Clooney gets more dramatic weight here, letting Remar's recklessness bump against the first real signs of responsibility as leaving the criminal world proves harder than simply deciding he's finished with it. The early George Clooney movie offers a glimpse of an actor beginning to figure out how to hold the center of a film. The surfboard is temporary. Leading-man territory is getting closer.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Fast-forward two decades and Clooney no longer needs to prove he can lead a movie. Now he gets to make the movie star weird.
That freedom is all over The Men Who Stare at Goats, where Clooney plays Lyn Cassady, a former member of a secret military unit trained in supposed paranormal warfare. Instead of winking at the absurdity, Clooney commits to Lyn's beliefs with deadly seriousness, letting Ewan McGregor handle the appropriate amount of what on Earth are you talking about? around him. By this stage of his career, Clooney knows audiences expect confidence and authority when he enters a scene and the joke is watching him deploy both while explaining psychic soldiers. Movie-star George Clooney: fully established. Normal role selection: optional, we guess?
Always at the Carlyle
And after years of becoming part of Hollywood history, Clooney gets to sit down and talk about some.
Always at the Carlyle explores New York's legendary Carlyle Hotel through the celebrities, employees, and stories that turned it into a magnet for Hollywood royalty. Clooney appears alongside Anthony Bourdain, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Lenny Kravitz and Harrison Ford, but his presence carries a funny extra weight after everything else on this list. He's no longer the young actor trying to find his place in the industry; he's one of the famous names helping tell its stories.
Which makes it a pretty fitting final stop for a career currently being honored during Venice Film Festival season. Killer tomatoes to Hollywood institution is one heck of a résumé.