The multihyphenate and humanitarian activist will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) honour at the 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards on January 11, 2015.

“The HFPA is honoured to bestow the Cecil B. DeMille Award to George Clooney to celebrate his outstanding contributions both in front of and behind the camera,” said HFPA president Theo Kingma.

The honour is presented each year to those “who have made an incredible impact on the world of entertainment.”

Woody Allen received the award earlier this year and previous honourees include Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Anthony Hopkins and Barbra Streisand.

Clooney has won three Golden Globes, for The Descendants, Syriana and O Brother, Where Art Thou? He will next be seen in Disney’s May 2015 sci-fi release Tomorrowland.