Warren Beatty moved his family from Richmond to Norfolk and then to Arlington and Waverly, then back to Arlington, eventually taking a position at Arlington's Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in 1945. During the 1950s, the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington. Beatty's elder sister is the actress, dancer and writer Shirley MacLaine. His uncle, by marriage, was Canadian politician A. A. MacLeod. Beatty became interested in movies before his teens, when he often accompanied his sister to theaters. One film that had an important early influence on him was "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), which he saw when it
Peter Beatty name had three "s" in it; four years later, Beatty's Bois Roussel won the race. In 1936 Beatty inherited Reigate Priory, the last private individual to own the property, and added stables to the grounds for his racehorses. He sold the property to the Mutual Property Life and General Insurance Company in 1942. Beatty was also involved in horse breeding; the noted racehorse My Babu was bred by Beatty. Beatty had racehorses trained at Beckhampton by Fred Darling. He purchased the racehorse Bois Roussel from Leon Volterra for £8,000, and it went on to win The Derby on 1 June