4. Danny Ocean - Oceans Eleven (2001)
By 2001, Clooney's tenure on ER was over (having left officially in 1999,) and though he'd starred in Three Kings, O Brother Where Art Thou? (more of which later) and The Perfect Storm since leaving his career making role as Dr Doug Ross, it wasn't until he was attached to the uber-heist ensemble remake of Ocean's Eleven that his star really met his potential. Ocean was the perfect character and the perfect opportunity to turn his on-screen charisma into something more tangibly expressed, giving fans who had watched him play odd-ball roles and everyman the opportunity to see him genuinely playing the Hollywood star alongside a stellar cast including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts. Not everything was hugely successful about the movie - Don Cheadle's accent being the most jarring fault - but the decision to cast Clooney in a role that had been made originally famous by Frank Sinatra proved an inspired one, given that it is his charm, and the dynamic that he builds with Pitt and Damon particularly that make the film so irresistible, and which inspired two further (largely superfluous sequels.) Following on the trend set by Gecko, Clooney plays a loveable rogue, less morally repugnant perhaps, but not a great deal. He just gets away with an awful lot more because of the twinkle in his eyes, which went a long way to making the film a significantly bigger success than Clooney's first team up with director Steven Soderbergh for the critically acclaimed, but not fan-adored Out Of Sight.