--- title: Warren Beatty at 80: Best Vintage LIFE Photographs of a Star description: "The radiance of unquestioned virility pours out" when he smiles, LIFE said of the actor in 1967. See the magazine's best photos of him. canonical: https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T13:00:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:22.612Z og:title: Warren Beatty at 80: Best Vintage LIFE Photographs of a Star og:description: The star was born on March 30, 1937 og:url: https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a18dc09ba1d8474/6988bd2d0a4a2233969cd2e3/170306-warren-beatty-05.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Warren Beatty og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Warren Beatty at 80: Best Vintage LIFE Photographs of a Star twitter:description: The star was born on March 30, 1937 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a18dc09ba1d8474/6988bd2d0a4a2233969cd2e3/170306-warren-beatty-05.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beatty at 80: LIFE's Best Photos of Warren Beatty on the Rise by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 30, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  Warren Beatty sitting in field of flowers in 1967. Warren Beatty sitting in field of flowers in 1967.Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Mar 30, 2017 1:00 PM UTC It may be hard to believe these days, but [Warren Beatty](http://time.com/4683501/oscars-2017-best-picture-warren-beatty/) wasn’t always Hollywood royalty. As the star turns 80 on Thursday, his standing as a respected veteran of the movie business is solid — despite his [involvement](http://time.com/4686598/warren-beatty-academy-president-cheryl-boone-issac/) in the embarrassing [Best Picture snafu](http://time.com/4683998/oscars-2017-moonlight-la-la-land-mix-up/) at this year’s Academy Awards. But, as LIFE described in a major feature about Beatty that ran in [April of 1968](https://books.google.com/books?id=ylQEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA86#v=twopage&q&f=false), there was a moment when it seemed that his burgeoning career might fade. In 1961, he had broken into the business with a star turn in _Splendor in the Grass_ from filmmaker Elia Kazan with a script by William Inge — and, as LIFE pointed out, “you cannot break in much higher than that.” But he had followed that film with movies that were less than spectacular hits, and his reputation as a headstrong on-set personality and a headline-making celebrity serial monogamist (of whom LIFE declared that “the radiance of unquestioned virility pours out” when he smiled) threatened to overshadow his actual work. All that changed with _Bonnie and Clyde_, the 1967 movie in which he starred with Faye Dunaway. But it wasn’t just the movie itself that set Beatty right. With low expectations for its success, the studio buried its release in its calendar. The initial response from critics and audiences was middling. It was then that Beatty accomplished the remarkable feat of convincing the public to reconsider. In fact, TIME essentially reviewed the picture twice, [first](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-08-25/page/84/) as a “strange and purposeless mingling of fact and claptrap” in August of 1967 and a few months later, in a [cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-12-08/page/1/), as “the sleeper of the decade,” noting that the first review had made a “mistake.” By the time it was nominated for Best Picture, Beatty was set. In honor of his milestone birthday, here’s a look back at LIFE best portraits of the star from the 1960s and ’70s.  Actor Warren Beatty, 1961. Don Cravens—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Joan Collins whispering to boyfriend Warren Beatty as director Elia Kazan listens to actress Natalie Wood during filming of Splendor in the Grass. PIX inc.—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood, 1961. Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty images  Warren Beatty with Natalie Wood at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty sitting in field of flowers in 1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Enchanting his audience, Beatty is a gracious award winner at a dinner given by the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, which picked Bonnie and Clyde as the best picture of 1967. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty at the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures in 1967. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty at the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures in 1967. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty at the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures in 1967. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty at the ocean, 1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warren Beatty on the phone as he campaigns for Sen. George McGovern's democratic presidential nomination, 1972. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/"},"headline":"Beatty at 80: LIFE's Best Photos of Warren Beatty on the Rise","datePublished":"2017-03-30T13:00:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:22.612Z","description":"The star was born on March 30, 1937","url":"https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/","keywords":["photography","Hollywood","LIFE Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a18dc09ba1d8474/6988bd2d0a4a2233969cd2e3/170306-warren-beatty-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a18dc09ba1d8474/6988bd2d0a4a2233969cd2e3/170306-warren-beatty-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Warren Beatty","caption":"Warren Beatty sitting in field of flowers in 1967.","creditText":"Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/photography/","name":"photography"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4692403/warren-beatty-best-photos/","name":"Beatty at 80: LIFE's Best Photos of Warren Beatty on the Rise"}}]}] ```