Clint Eastwood

For other uses, see Clint Eastwood (disambiguation).

Clint Eastwood
Eastwood in May 2008
Born	Clinton Eastwood, Jr.
Occupation(s)	Actor, film director, film producer, composer
Years active	1954–present
Spouse(s)	Maggie Johnson (1953–1984) Dina Ruiz (1996–present)
Partner(s)	Sondra Locke (1975–1989) Frances Fisher (1990–1995)

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People's Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.

Eastwood is primarily known for his alienated, morally ambiguous, anti-hero acting roles in violent action and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Following his role on the long-running television series Rawhide, he went on to star as the Man With No Name in the Dollars trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry film series. These roles have made him an enduring icon of masculinity. Eastwood is also known for his comedic efforts in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), his two highest-grossing films after adjustment for inflation.

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director, producer of the Best Picture and received nominations for Best Actor. He also received Oscar nominations as Best Director for Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2007), along with a Golden Globe for his direction of Bird (1988). These films in particular, as well as others such as Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Gran Torino (2008) have all received great critical acclaim and commercial success. He has directed most of his movies since the early 1970s and produced and directed all of his films dating back to 1993's A Perfect World.

He also served as the non-partisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986–1988, tending to support small business interests on the one hand and environmental protection on the other.

Early life

Main article: Early life and work of Clint Eastwood

Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (Runner) Eastwood, a factory worker. He was a large baby (11 pounds and 6 ounces) and was named "Samson" by the nurses in the hospital. Eastwood has English, Scottish, Dutch and Irish ancestry and was raised in a "middle class Protestant home". His family moved often, as his father worked at different jobs along the West Coast. The family settled in Piedmont, California, where Eastwood attended Piedmont Junior High School and Piedmont Senior High School. At school he showed little interest in acting and took auto mechanic courses and studied aircraft maintenance and became a pianist; according to a friend, he "would actually play the piano until his fingers were bleeding".He worked briefly as a lifeguard after obtaining a certificate from a Red Cross course, and played ragtime piano at a bar in Oakland.

Oakland Technical High School

After high school, Eastwood intended to enter Seattle University and major in music, but in 1950, during the Korean War, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was stationed at Fort Ord where his certificate as a lifeguard got him appointed as a life-saving and swimming instructor.

In October 1951, Eastwood was aboard a Douglas AD-1 military aircraft that crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco's Drake's Bay. The aircraft had departed from Seattle, bound for Mather Air Force Base at Sacramento. When the intercommunications system failed, the aircraft was forced to ditch in the sea two miles off Point Reyes. Eastwood escaped serious injury, and using an inflatable raft, he swam to shore. The crash was headline news on October 1, 1951 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

He later moved down to Los Angeles and began a romance with a girl named Maggie Johnson and during this time he worked managing an apartment house in Beverly Hills by day (into which he then moved) and worked at a Signal Oil gas station by night. He signed up to study at Los Angeles City College and quickly became engaged to Maggie; they married shortly before Christmas 1953 in South Pasadena and honeymooned in Carmel.

Film career

Early work:1950s

Main article: Early life and work of Clint Eastwood

Becoming an actor

According to the CBS press release for Rawhide, Universal (known then as Universal-International) film company happened to be shooting in Fort Ord and an enterprising assistant spotted Eastwood and invited him to meet the director. However, the key figure, according to his official biography was a man named Chuck Hill, who was stationed in Fort Ord and had contacts in Hollywood. While in Los Angeles, Hill had reacquainted with Eastwood and managed to succeed in sneaking Eastwood into a Universal studio and showed him to cameraman Irving Glassberg. Glassberg was impressed with his appearance and stature and believed him to be, "the sort of good looking young man that has traditionally done well in the movies".

Glassberg arranged for director Arthur Lubin to meet Eastwood at the gas station where he was working in the evenings in Los Angeles. Lubin, like Glassberg was highly impressed and swiftly arranged for Eastwood's first audition. However he was a little less enthusiastic of his first audition, remarking, "He was quite amateurish. He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything". Neverless, he told Eastwood not to give up, and suggested he attend drama classes, and later arranged for an initial contract for Eastwood in April 1954 at $100 a week. Some people in Hollywood, including his wife Maggie, were suspicious of Lubin's intentions towards Eastwood; he was homosexual and maintained a close friendship with Eastwood in the years that followed. After signing, Eastwood was initially criticised for his speech and awkward manner; he was soft-spoken and in performing in front of people was cold, stiff and awkward. Fellow talent school actor John Saxon, described Eastwood as, "being like a kind of hayseed.. Thin, rural, with a prominent Adam's Apple, very laconic and slow speechwise."

Universal Studios: Training and development

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Eastwood at the Universal talent school in 1954

In May 1954, Eastwood made his first real audition, trying out for a part in Six Bridges to Cross, a film about the Brinks robbery that would mark the debut of actor Sal Mineo. Director Joseph Pevney was not impressed by his acting and rejected him for any role. Later he tried out for Brigadoon, The Constant Nymph, Bengal Brigade and The Seven Year Itch in May 1954, Sign of the Pagan (June), Smoke Signal (August) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (September), all without success. Eastwood was eventually given a minor role by director Jack Arnold in the film Revenge of the Creature, a film set in the Amazon jungle, which was the sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon which had been released just months earlier. Eastwood played the role of Jennings, a white-coated lab technician who assists the doctor (John Agar) in researching the "creature" and has a liking to white rats used in testing, keeping one in his pocket. His scene was shot in one day on Friday, July 30, 1954 at Stage No. 16 in Universal, although much of the rest of the film was shot at Marineland, south of St Augustine, Florida.

In September 1954, Eastwood worked for three weeks on Arthur Lubin's Lady Godiva of Coventry in which he donned a medieval costume, and then in February 1955, won a role playing "Jonesy", a sailor in Francis in the Navy and his salary was raised to $300 a week for the four weeks of shooting. He again appeared in a Jack Arnold film, Tarantula, with a small role as a squadron pilot, again uncredited. In May 1955, Eastwood put four hours work into the film Never Say Goodbye, in which he again plays a white coated technician uttering a single line and again had a minor uncredited role as a ranch hand (his first western film) in August 1955 with Law Man, also known as Stars in the Dust. He gained experience behind the set, watching productions and dubbing and editing sessions of other films at Universal Studios, notably the Montgomery Clift film A Place in the Sun. Universal presented him with his first TV role with a small television debut on NBC's Allen in Movieland on July 2, 1955, starring actors such as Tony Curtis and Benny Goodman. Although his records at Universal revealed his development, Universal terminated his contract on October 25, 1955, leaving Eastwood gutted and blaming casting director Robert Palmer, on whom he would exact revenge years later when Palmer came looking for employment at his Malpaso Company. Eastwood rejected him.

No Man's Land: 1956–1958

On the recommendation of Betty Jane Howarth, Eastwood soon joined new publicity representatives, the Marsh Agency, who had represented actors such as Adam West and Richard Long. Althought Eastwood's contract with Lubin had ended, he was important in landing Eastwood his biggest role to date; a featured role in the Ginger Rogers - Carol Channing western comedy, The First Travelling Saleslady. Eastwood played a recruitment officer for Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. He would also play a pilot in another of Lubin's productions, Escapade in Japan and would make several TV appearances under Lubin even into the early 1960s. As Eastwood grew in success, he never spoke to Lubin again until 1992, shortly after winning his Oscar for Unforgiven, when Eastwood promised a lunch that never happened.

Without the contract of Lubin in the meantime, however, Eastwood was struggling. He was advised by Irving Leonard financially and under his influence changed talent agencies in rapid succession, the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956, and Mitchell Gertz in 1957. He landed a small role as temperamental army officer for a segment of ABC's Reader's Digest series, broadcast in January 1956, and later that year, a motorcycle gang member on a Highway Patrol episode. In 1957, Eastwood played a cadet who becomes involved in a skiing search and rescue in the 'White Fury' installment of the West Point series. He also appeared in an episode of the prime time series Wagon Train and a suicidal gold prospector in Death Valley Days. In 1958 he played a Navy lieutenant in a segment of Navy Log and in early 1959 made a notable guest appearance as a cowardly villain, intent on marrying a rich girl for money, in Maverick.

Eastwood was credited for his roles in several more films. He auditioned for the film The Spirit of St. Louis, a Billy Wilder biopic about aviator Charles Lindbergh. He was rejected and the role in the end went to Jimmy Stewart who just put on makeup to make him look younger. He did however have a small part as an aviator in the French picture Lafayette Escadrille, and played an ex-renegade in the Confederacy in Ambush at Cimarron Pass, his biggest screen role to date opposite Scott Brady. His part was shot in nine days for Regal Films Inc. Out of frustration, he said after watching it at the premiere, "It was sooo bad. I just kept sinking lower and lower in my seat and just wanted to quit". Around the time the film was released Eastwood described himself as feeling "really depressed" and regards it as the lowest point in his career and a point when he seriously considered quitting the acting profession.

Rawhide (1959–1964)

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Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide

Eastwood learned from Bill Shiffrin that CBS were casting an hour-long Western series and arranged for a screen test. With screenwriter Charles Marquis Warren overlooking, Eastwood had to recite one of Henry Fonda's monologues from the William Wellman western, The Ox-Bow Incident in his audition. A week later, Shiffrin rang Eastwood and informed him he had won the part of Rowdy Yates in Rawhide. He had successfully beaten competition such as Bing Russell and had got the break he had been looking for.

Filming began in Arizona in the summer of 1958. His rivalry onscreen with Eric Fleming's character, Gil Favor, was reportedly initially echoed offscreen between the two actors. However, Eastwood has denied that the two ever had a scuffle and especially after Fleming's death by drowning in Peru some years later, has revealed he had much respect for his co-star. Although Eastwood was finally pleased with the direction of his career, he was not especially happy with the nature of his Rowdy Yates character. At this time, Eastwood was 30, and Rowdy was too young and too cloddish for Clint to feel comfortable with the part. Although boyishness was a key element in his casting, Eastwood disliked the juvenile overtones of the character and privately described Yates as "the idiot of the plains" According to co-star Paul Brinegar, who played Wishbone, Eastwood was, "very unhappy about playing a teenager type".

It took just three weeks for Rawhide to reach the top 20 in the TV ratings and soon rescheduled the timeslot half an hour earlier from 7.30 -8.30 pm every Friday, guaranteeing more of a family audience. For several years it was a major success, and reached its peak as number 6 in the ratings between October 1960 and April 1961. However, success was not without its price. The Rawhide years were undoubtedly the most gruelling of his life, and at first, from July until April, they filmed six days a week for an average of twelve hours a day. Although it never won Emmy stature, Rawhide earned critical acclaim and won the American Heritage Award as the best Western series on TV and it was nominated several times for best episode by the Writer's and Director's Guilds. Eastwood received some criticism during this period and was considered too laidback and lazy by some directors who believed he relied on his looks and just didn't work hard enough.

By the third season of Rawhide, the Hollywood press began to speculate on Eastwood tiring of the series and that he was anxious to move on. Eastwood made several guest appearances in the meantime on TV, including a cameo in Mr Ed poking fun at himself as a neighbor of Mr. Ed in an episode directed by his old mentor Arthur Lubin and the western comedy series Maverick, in which he fought James Garner in the "Duel at Sundown" episode. Although Rawhide continued to attract notable actors such as Lon Chaney Jr, Mary Astor , Ralph Bellamy, Burgess Meredith, Dean Martin and Barbara Stanwyck, by late 1963 Rawhide was beginning to decline in popularity and lacked freshness in the script. In regards to the character of Rowdy Yates, he had evolved to upstage that of Gil Favor and became increasingly tough like him, not a trait in which his character had began. Rawhide would last until 1966, but a change of direction in Eastwood's career would occur in late 1963.

1964–1967: Emergence of a Western film icon

Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1960s

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

In late 1963, an offer was made to Eastwood's co-star Eric Fleming on Rawhide to star in an Italian made western, originally to be named The Magnificent Stranger (A Fistful of Dollars) to be directed in a remote region of Spain by a relative unknown at the time, Sergio Leone. However, the money was not much, and Fleming always set his sights high on Hollywood stardom, and rejected the offer immediately. A variety of actors, including Charles Bronson, Steve Reeves, Richard Harrison, Frank Wolfe, Henry Fonda, James Coburn and Ty Hardin were considered for the main part in the film, and the producers established a list of lesser-known American actors, and asked the aforementioned Richard Harrison for advice. Harrison had suggested Clint Eastwood, whom he knew could play a cowboy convincingly. Harrison later said: "Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint for the part".

Through Irving Leonard, the offer was made to Eastwood, who saw it as an opportunity to escape Rawhide and the states and saw it as a paid vacation. He signed the contract for $15,000 in wages for eleven weeks work and which also threw in a bonus of a Mercedes automobile upon completion, and arrived in Rome in May 1964. Eastwood was instrumental in creating the Man With No Name character's distinctive visual style that would appear throughout the Dollars trilogy. He had brought with him the black jeans he had purchased from a shop on Hollywood Boulevard which he had bleached out and roughened up, the hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm, a leather bracelet and two Indian leather cases with two serpents, and the trademark black cigars came from a Beverly Hills shop, though Eastwood himself is a non-smoker and hated the smell of cigar smoke. Leone decided to use them in the film and heavily emphasised the "look" of the mysterious stranger to appear in the film. Leone commented, "The truth is that I needed a mask more than an actor, and Eastwood at the time only had two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without it". Eastwood said about playing the Man With No Name character in the film,

"I wanted to play it with an economy of words and create this whole feeling through attitude and movement. It was just the kind of character I had envisioned for a long time, keep to the mystery and allude to what happened in the past. It came about after the frustration of doing Rawhide for so long. I felt the less he said the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience.

The first interiors for the film were shot at the Cinecittà studio on the outskirts of Rome, before quickly moving to a small village in Andalucia, Spain in an area which had also been used for filming Lawrence of Arabia (1962) just a few years earlier. This would become a benchmark in the development of the spaghetti westerns, and Leone would successfully create a new icon of a western hero, depicting a more lawless and desolate world than in traditional westerns. The trilogy would also redefine the stereotypical American image of a western hero and cowboy, creating a character gunslinger and bounty hunter which was more of an anti hero than a hero and with a distinct moral ambiguity, unlike traditional heroes of western cinema in the United States such as John Wayne.

Houses on the set, seen in A Few Dollars More.

Since the film was an Italian/German/Spanish co-production, there was a major language barrier on the set. Eastwood communicated with the Italian cast and crew mostly through stuntman Benito Stefanelli, who acted as an interpreter for the production. The cast and crew stayed on location in Spain for nearly eleven weeks, during which Eastwood's wife Maggie came over for a visit and found time to take a break in Toledo, Segovia and Madrid. Promoting A Fistful of Dollars was difficult given that no major distributor wanted to take chance on a faux-Western and an unknown director and the film ended up being released in September which is typically the worst month for sales. The film was shunned by the Italian critics who gave it extremely negative reviews. However, at a grassroots level its popularity spread and would end up grossing $4 million in Italy, about three billion lire and American critics felt quite differently to their Italian counterparts, with Variety praising it as, "a James Bondian vigor and tongue-in-cheek approach that was sure to capture both sophisticates and average cinema patrons". The release of the film was delayed in the United States because distributors feared being sued by Kurosawa, and as a result it was not shown in American cinemas until 1967. This made it difficult for the American public or other people in Hollywood to understand what was happening to Clint in Italy at the time and for an American actor making films in Italy it was met with considerable prejudice and seen in Hollywood as taking a step backward rather than a career development.

For a Few Dollars More (1965)

Leone hired Eastwood to star in his second film of what would become a trilogy, For a Few Dollars More (1965). Leone was convinced that Jolly Film were withholding his share of the profits and sued them and joined forces with producer Alberto Grimaldi who founded the Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA) film company. The company gave Leone a larger $350,000 budget to make the next film. Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni was brought in to write the script which he wrote in nine days; two bounty hunters (Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) pursuing a drug-addicted criminal (Volontè), planning to rob an impregnable bank. Eastwood was given $50,000 in advance and a first-class plane ticket but was not looking forward to having the cigar in his mouth again which at times made him feel sick during the first film. For a Few Dollars More was shot in the spring and summer of 1965 and again interiors of the film were shot at the Cinecittà studio in Rome before they moved to Spain again. Screenwriter Vincenzoni was very important in bringing the films to the states, given that he was fluent in English and accompanied Leone to a cinema in Rome to show the new film after completion to United Artist executives Arthur Krim and Arnold Picker. He sold the rights to the film and the third film (which was yet to be written let alone made) in advance in the states for $900,000, advancing $500,000 up front and the right to half of the profits.

Set of The Good, Bad and the Ugly in Almeria today

As trouble brewed with Rawhide back in the United States as Eric Fleming quit the series (which lasted just thirteen more episodes without him) and faced increasing competition from the new World War II series Combat! which eventually led to the demise of the series in January 1966, Eastwood met with producer Dino De Laurentiis in New York City and agreed to star in a non-Western five-part anthology production named Le Streghe or The Witches opposite his wife, actress Silvana Mangano. Eastwood travelled to Rome in late February 1966 and accepted the fee of $20,000 and a new Ferrari. Acclaimed director Vittorio De Sica was hired to direct Eastwood's segment, called A Night Like Any Other, which is only nineteen minutes long and involves Clint playing a lazy husband stuck in a stale marriage who refuses to go and see A Fistful of Dollars in the cinema with his wife and would rather stay home. Meanwhile his wife dreams of having a fit, active husband who dances like Fred Astaire and is fantastic at making love. Eastwood's installment only took a few days to shoot and was not met well with critics, who described it as "no other performance of his is quite so 'un-Clintlike' ", with the New York Times disparaging it as a "throwaway De Sica".

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

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Eastwood wearing the poncho and hat in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Two months later Eastwood began working on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the final film of the Dollars trilogy, in which he again played the mysterious Man With No Name character. Lee Van Cleef was brought in again to play a ruthless fortune seeker, while Eli Wallach, a character actor noted for his appearance in The Magnificent Seven (1960), was hired to play the cunning Mexican bandit "Tuco", although the role was originally written for Volontè, who passed on working with Leone again. The three become involved in a search for a buried cache of confederate gold buried in a cemetery by a man named Jackson, in hiding as Bill Carson. Eastwood was not initially pleased with the script and was concerned he might be upstaged by Wallach, and said to Leone, "In the first film I was alone. In the second, we were two. Here we are three. If it goes on this way, in the next one I will be starring with the American cavalry".

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A model of Eastwood as the Man with No Name.

Filming began at the Cinecittà studio in Rome again in mid-May 1966, including the opening scene between Clint and Wallach when The Man With No Name captures Tuco for the first time and sends him to jail. The production then moved on to Spain's plateau region near Burgos in the north, which would double for the extreme deep south of the United States, and again shot the western scenes in Almeria in the south. This time the production required more elaborate sets, including a town under cannon fire, an extensive prison camp and an American Civil War battlefield; and for the climax, several hundred Spanish soldiers were employed to build a cemetery with several thousand grave stones to resemble an ancient Roman circus.

Set of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with the distinctive rugged terrain in the background

Wallach and Eastwood flew to Madrid together and between shooting scenes, Eastwood would relax and practice his golf swing. One day, during the filming of the scene in which the bridge is blown up with dynamite, Eastwood, suspicious of explosives, urged his co-star Wallach to retreat up to the hilltop, saying, "I know about these things. Stay as far away from special effects and explosives as you can". Just minutes later, crew confusion over saying "Vaya!" which was meant to be the signal for the explosion but that a crew member had said without thinking to turn the cameras on, resulted in a premature explosion, resulting in the bridge having to be rebuilt. The bridge was rebuilt for free by the Spanish army, that gallantly assumed responsibility, but the expense of redoing the scene and other costs resulted in the cost of making the film exceeding the budget by $300,000.

"Westerns. A period gone by, the pioneer, the loner operating by himself, without benefit of society. It usually has something to do with some sort of vengeance; he takes care of the vengeance himself, doesn't call the police. Like Robin Hood. It's the last masculine frontier. Romantic myth. I guess, though it's hard to think about anything romantic today. In a Western you can think, Jesus, there was a time when man was alone, on horseback, out there where man hasn't spoiled the land yet"

Clint Eastwood on his philosophical allurance to portraying western loners

The Dollars trilogy was not shown in the United States until 1967. A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, For a Few Dollars More in May and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December 1967. Some twenty minutes however were cut from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, particularly many of the scenes involving Lee Van Cleef, although Eastwood's remained intact. The trilogy was publicised as James Bond -type entertainment and all films were successful in American cinemas and turned Eastwood into a major film star in 1967, particularly the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which eventually collected $8 million in rental earnings. However, upon release, all three were generally given bad reviews by critics (despite the select few American critics who had seen the films in Italy previously having a positive outlook) and marked the beginning of Eastwood's battle to win the respect of American film critics. Judith Crist described A Fistful of Dollars as "cheapjack" while Newsweek described For a Few Dollars More as "excruciatingly dopey". The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was similarly panned by most critics upon US release with Renata Adler of the New York Times describing it as "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre". However while Time highlighted the wooden acting, especially Eastwood's, critics such as Vincent Canby and Bosley Crowther of the New York Times were highly praising of Eastwood's coolness playing the tall, lone stranger; and Leone's unique style of cinematography was widely acclaimed, even by some critics who disliked the acting.

Post-Dollars Trilogy: A new American film star (1967–1970)

Hang 'Em High (1968)

Eastwood spent much of late 1966 and 1967 dubbing for the English-language version of the films and being interviewed, something which left him feeling angry and frustrated. Stardom brought more roles in the "tough guy" mold and Irving Leornard (who would later pass away at Christmas 1969) gave him a script to a new film, the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High, across between Rawhide and Leone's westerns, written by Mel Goldberg and produced by Leornard Freeman. Eastwood signed for the film with a salary of $400,000 and 25% of the net earnings to the film, playing the character of Cooper, a man accused by vigilantes of a cow baron's murder and lynched and left for dead and later seeks revenge. With the wealth generated by the Dollars trilogy, Leonard helped set up a new production company for Eastwood, Malpaso Productions, something he had long yearned for and was named after a river on Eastwood's property in Monterey County. Leonard became the company's president and arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists. Inger Stevens of The Farmer's Daughter fame was cast to play the role of Rachel Warren with a supporting cast which included Pat Hingle, Dennis Hopper, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and James MacArthur. Filming began in June 1967 in the Las Cruces area of New Mexico, and additional scenes were shot at White Sands and in the interiors were shot in MGM studios. Eastwood had considerable leeway in the production, especially in the script which was altered in parts such as the dialogue and setting of the barroom scene to his liking. The film became a major success after release in July 1968 and with an opening day revenue of $5,241 in Baltimore alone, it became the biggest United Artists opening in history, exceeding all of the James Bond films at that time. It debuted at number five on Variety's weekly survey of top films and had made its money back within two weeks of screening. It was widely praised by critics including Arthur Winsten of the New York Post who described Hang 'Em High as "A Western of quality, courage, danger and excitement".

Coogan's Bluff (1968)

Meanwhile, before Hang 'Em High had been released, Eastwood had set to work on Coogan's Bluff, a project which saw him reunite with Universal Studios after an offer of $1 million, more than doubling his previous salary. Jennings Lang was responsible for the deal, a former agent of a director called Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who was invited to direct Eastwood's second major American film. Eastwood was not familiar with Siegel's work but Lang arranged for them to meet at Clint's residence in Carmel. Eastwood had now seen three of Siegel's earlier films and was impressed with his directing and the two became natural friends, forming a close partnership in the years that followed. The idea for Coogan's Bluff originated in early 1967 as a TV series and the first draft was drawn up by Herman Miller and Jack Laird, screenwriters for Rawhide. It is about a character called Sheriff Walt Coogan, a lonely deputy sheriff working in New York City. After Siegel and Eastwood had agreed to work together, Howard Rodman and three other writers were hired to devise a new script as the new team scouted for locations including New York and the Mojave desert. However, Eastwood surprised the team one day by calling an abrupt meeting and professed to strongly disliked the script, which by now had gone through seven drafts, preferring Herman Miller's original concept. This experience would also shape Eastwood's distaste for redrafting scripts in his later career. Eastwood and Siegel decided to hire a new writer, Dean Riesner, who had written for Siegel in the Henry Fonda TV film Stranger on the Run some years previously. Don Stroud was cast as the psychopathic criminal Coogan is chasing, Lee J. Cobb as the disagreeable New York City Police Department lieutenant, Susan Clark as a probation officer who falls for Coogan and Tisha Sterling playing the drug addicted lover of Don Stroud's character. Filming began in November 1967 even before the full script had been finalized. The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence, but it had launched a collaboration between Eastwood and Siegel that lasted more than ten years, and set the prototype for the macho hero that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films.

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Eastwood was paid $850,000 in 1968 for the war epic Where Eagles Dare opposite Richard Burton. However, Eastwood initially expressed that the script drawn up by Alistair Mclean was "terrible" and was "all exposition and complications". The film was about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the mountains, reachable only by cable car, with Burton playing the squad's commander and Eastwood his right-hand man. He was also cast as Two-Face in the Batman television series, but the series was cancelled before he played the part.

Paint Your Wagon (1969)

In 1969, Eastwood branched out by starring in his only musical, Paint Your Wagon. He and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin played gold miners who share the same wife (played by Jean Seberg). Production for the film was plagued with bad weather and delays and the future of the director's career (Joshua Logan) was in doubt. It was extremely high budget for this period and eventually exceeded $20 million. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

In 1970, Eastwood starred in the western, Two Mules for Sister Sara with Shirley MacLaine. The film, directed by Siegel, is a story about an American mercenary who gets mixed up with a whore disguised as a nun and aid a group of Juarista rebels during the puppet reign of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. The script was written by Budd Boetticher but was challenged by the writer-producer Martin Rackin and experienced many disagreements over the script and filming. Rackin, who was disliked by both Eastwood and Siegel attempted to cut costs of the picture and pushed to shoot in Mexico and employ a Mexican cast of relative unknowns. Rackin hired Albert Malz, a onetime member of the Hollywood Ten to rewrite the script and pay homage to Leone's westerns. The film saw Eastwood embody the tall mysterious stranger once more, although the film was considerably less crude and more sardonic than those of Leone. The role of Sister Sara was initially offered to Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Where Eagles Dare (Taylor then being the wife of Richard Burton) but had to turn down the role because she wanted to shoot in Spain where Burton was filming his latest movie. Although Sister Sara was supposed to be Mexican, they eventually cast Shirley Maclaine although they were initially unconvinced with her pale complexion. Both Siegel and Eastwood felt intimidated by her onset, and Siegel described Clint's co-star as, "It's hard to feel any great warmth to her. She's too unfeminine and has too much balls. She's very, very hard." Two Mules for Sister Sara also marked the last time that Eastwood would receive second billing for a film and it would be 25 years until he risked being overshadowed by a leading lady again in The Bridges of Madison County (1995). The film, which took four months to shoot and cost around $4 million to make, received mixed reviews, and Roger Greenspun of the New York Times reported, I'm not sure it is a great movie, but it is very good and it stays and grows on the mind the way only movies of exceptional narrative intelligence do".

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

Later in 1970 he appeared in the World War II movie, Kelly's Heroes with Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas. The film, which stars Eastwood as one of a group of Americans who steal a fortune in bullion from the Nazis, combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor. It was last non-Malpaso film that Clint agreed to appear in. The filming commenced in July 1969 and was shot on location in Yugoslavia and London. Directed by Brian G. Hutton, the film involved hundreds of extras and dangerous special effects. The climax to the film echoes that of his Dollars films when he advances in lockstep on a German tiger tank on the street of a small European town, with a Morricone-esque soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin. The received mostly a positive reception and its anti-war sentiments were recognized. The film has a respectable 83% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Beguiled (1971)

In the winter of 1969-70, Eastwood and Siegel began planning his next film, The Beguiled. Jennings Lang was inspired by the 1966 novel by Thomas Cullinan and in passing the book to Eastwood he was engrossed throughout the night in reading the tale of a wounded Union soldier held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girls' school. This was the first of several films where Eastwood has agreed to storylines where he is the centre of female attention, including minors. Albert Maltz, who had worked on Two Mules for Sister Sara was brought in to draft the script, but disagreements in the end led to a revision of the script by Claude Traverse, who although uncredited, led to Maltz being credited under a pseudonym. The film, according to Siegel, deals thee themes of sex, violence and vengeance and was based around, "the basic desire of women to castrate men". Jeanne Moreau was considered for the role of the domineering headmistress Martha Farnsworth, but in the end the role went to acclaimed Broadway actress Geraldine Page, and actresses Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darlene Carr, Mae Mercer and Pamelyn Ferdin were also cast in supporting roles. The film received major recognition in France, and was proposed by Pierre Rissient to the Cannes Film Festival, and while agreed to by Eastwood and Siegel, the producers declined. It would, however, be widely screened in France later and is considered one of Eastwood's finest works by the French. Although the film reached number two on Variety's chart of top grossing films, it was poorly marketed and in the end grossed less than $1 million, earning over four times less than Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song did at the same time and falling to below 50 in the charts within two weeks of release. According to Eastwood and Jennings Lang, the film, aside from being poorly publicized, flopped due to Clint being "emasculated in the film". Eastwood said of his role in The Beguiled,

"Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino play losers very well. But my audience like to be in there vicariously with a winner. That isn't always popular with critics. My characters have sensitity and vulnerabilites, but they're still winners. I don't pretend to understand losers. When I read a script about a loser I think of people in life who are losers and they seem to want it that way. It's a compulsive philospophy with them. Winners tell themselves, I'm as bright as the next person. I can do it. Nothing can stop me."

On July 21, 1970, Eastwood's father died of a heart attack, unexpectedly at the age of 64. It came as a shock to Eastwood as his grandfather had lived to 92 and had a profound impact on Eastwood's life, described by Fritz Manes as "the only bad thing that ever happened to him in his life". From this moment he viewed by others as less lazy than previously, and had a greater sense of urgency on set and retains this speed and efficiency onset to this day. Although Eastwood had always been into health and fitness, he became increasingly so after his father's death, refusing to drink hard liquor (although he still regularly drank cold beer and opened up a pub called the Hog Breath's Inn in Carmel in 1971) and adopting a rigorous health regime and seeking out remedies to stay looking youthful.

1971-1979: A balance of western, action, comedy and directorship

Play Misty for Me (1971)

1971 proved to be a professional turning point in Eastwood's career. Before Irving Leonard had died, the last film they had discussed at Malpaso was to give Eastwood the artistic control that he desired and make his directorial debut in Play Misty for Me. The script was originally thought of by Jo Heims, a former model and dancer turned secretary and was polished off by Dean Riesner. Heim's story involves a jazz disc jockey named Dave (Eastwood) who has a casual affair with Evelyn (Jessica Walter), one of his listeners who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night asking him to play her favourite song, Erroll Garner's Misty. When Dave ends their relationship the female fan becomes possessive and then violent, turning into a crazed murderess. The idea of another lover's interest with a level-headed girlfriend Tobie added to the plot was a suggestion by Sonia Chernus, an editor who had originally been there when Eastwood initally was spotted for Rawhide. The storyline was originally set in Los Angeles but under Eastwood's insistence the film was shot in the more comfortable surrondings of the Carmel area where he could shoot scenes at the local radio station, bars and restaurants and at friends' houses. Filming commenced in Monterey in September 1970 and although this was Eastwood's debut, Siegel stood by and frequent collaborators of Siegel's, such as cinematographer Bruce Surtees, editor Carl Pingitoire and composer Dee Barton, made up part of the filming team. The rights to the song Misty were obtained after Eastwood saw Garner at the Concord Music Festival in 1970 and he later paid $2,000 for the use of the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack. Meticulous planning and efficient directorship by Eastwood saw the film fall nearly $50,000 short of its $1 million budget and the film was completed four or five days ahead of schedule. Rissient successfully arranged for Play Misty for Me to premiere in October 1971 and for it to premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival and is was widely released in the November. The film was highly acclaimed by critics, with critics such as Jay Cocks in Time, Andrew Sarris in the Village Voice and Archer Winsten in the New York Post all praising Eastwood's directorial skills and the film, including his performance in the scenes with Walter.

Dirty Harry (1971)

Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry

The script to Dirty Harry was originally written by Harry Julian and Rita M. Fink, a story about a hard-edged New York City police inspector Harry Callahan, determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means at his disposal. The script was presented to Eastwood by Jennings Lang and the rights to the film were bought by Warner Brothers. Irving Kershner was originally intended as director as was Frank Sinatra to play the character but he had reportedly grown unhappy with the script, although withdrew officially because of a hand injury. While Play Misty for Me for because shot, Eastwood, who was attracted "by the sadness of the character", signed up for Dirty Harry and this was reported in the press in December 1970 that Malpaso would be producing the film in a joint venture with Warner Brothers. Many locations in the script were altered and moved to San Francisco. One evening Eastwood and Siegel had been watching the San Francisco 49ers in the Kezar Stadium in the last game of the season and thought the eerie Greek amphitheatre like setting would be an excellent location for shooting one of the scenes where Callahan encounters the psychopathic killer Scorpio. A railway trestle crossing over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard would be used in the finale. Andrew_Robinson_(actor), who Eastwood had seen in a play called Subject to Fits was cast as the killer Scorpio, whose unkept appearance fit the bill for a mentally ill hippie. Past collaborators Surtees, Pingitore and Schifrin were once again hired, with Schifrin composing many of the jazz tracks to the film. Glenn Wright, Eastwood's costume designer since Rawhide was responsible for creating Callahan's distinctive old-fashioned brown and yellow checked jacket to emphasise his strong values in pursuing crime. Filming for Dirty Harry began in April 1971 and involved some risky stunts, with much footage shot at night and filming the city of San Francisco aerially which the film series is renowned for. Dirty Harry is arguably Eastwood's most memorable character and the lines that Callahan utters when addressing a wounded bank robber are often cited amongst the most memorable in cinematic history (see box).

"I know what you're thinking — 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But, being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Dirty Harry

Much footage shot by cinematographer Bruce Sartees of the San Francisco panorama was included in the film

The film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day. Eastwood's tough, no-nonsense portrayal of Dirty Harry touched a cultural nerve with many who were fed up with crime in the streets. The film was released at a time when throughout 1970 and 1971 there were prevalent reports of local and federal police committing atrocities and overstepping their authority by entrapment and obstruction of justice. America needed a hero, a winner at a time when the authorities were losing the battle against crime. After release in December 1971, Dirty Harry proved a phenonemal success which would be go on to become Siegel's highest grossing film and the start of a series of films which is arguably Eastwood's signature role, with fans demanding more. Although a number of critics such as Jay Cocks of Time praised his performance as Dirty Harry, describing him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character", the film was widely criticized and accused of fascism through Eastwood's portrayal of the ruthless cop. Feminists in particular were outraged by the film and at the Oscars for 1971 protested outside holding up banners which read messages such as "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig". Many critics expressed concern with what they saw as bigotry, with Newsweek describing the film as "a right-wing fantasy", Variety as "a specious, phony glorification of the police and police brutality with a superhero whose antics become almost satire" and a raging review by Pauline Kael of the New Yorker who accused Eastwood as a "single-minded attack against liberal values". Several people also accused him of racism in the decision to cast four African-Americans as the bank robbers. Eastwood dismissed the political outrage, claiming that Callahan was just obeying a higher moral authority, and said, "some people are so politically oriented, when they see cornflakes in a bowl, they get some complex interpretation out of it".

Joe Kid (1972)

Eastwood next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd, released in 1972. He was given the script by Jennings Lang, written by novelist Elmore Leonard. Originally called The Sinola Courthouse Raid it was about a character inspired by Reies Lopez Tijerina, an ardent supporter of Robert F. Kennedy, known for storming a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico in an incident in June 1967, taking hostages and demanding that the Hispanic people be granted their ancestral lands back to them. Leonard depicted Tijerina in his story, a man he named Luis Chama as an ego maniac, a role which went to John Saxon. Robert Duvall was cast as Frank Harlan, a ruthless land owner who hires Eastwood's character, a former frontier guide named Joe Kidd to track down the culprits and scare them away. Don Stroud, who Eastwood had starred alongside in Coogan's Bluff was cast as another sour villain who encounters Joe Kidd. Under the director's helm of John Sturges, who had directed acclaimed westerns such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), filming began in Old Tucson in November 1971, overlapping with another film production, John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean which was just wrapping up shooting. Outdoor sequences to the film were shot near June Lake, east of the Yosemite National Park.

Old Tucson Studios

The actors were initially uncertain with the strength of the three main characters in the film and how the hero Joe Kidd would come across. According to writer Leonard, the initial slow development between the three was probably because the cast were so intially awestruck by having Sturges direct that they surrended authority to him. Eastwood was also far from in perfect health during the film and suffered symptoms that relayed the possibility of a bronchial infection and suffered several panic attacks, falsely reported in the media as him having an allergy to horses. During production, the script for the finale was altered when producer Bob Daley jokingly said that a train should crash through the barroom in the climax and he was taken seriously by cast and crew and they thought it was a great idea. Joe Kidd received a mixed reception. For instance Roger Greenspunof the The New York Times thought the film overall was nothing remarkable, had foolish symbolism and what he suspected was sloppy editing, but praised Eastwood's performance (see box).

"I think it is a very good performance in context. Like so many Western heroes, Joe Kidd figures even in his own time as an anachronism — powerful through his instincts mainly, and through the ability of everybody else, whether in rage or gratitude, to recognize in him a quality that must be called virtue. The great value of Clint Eastwood in such a position is that he guards his virtue very cannily, and in the society of "Joe Kidd," where the men still manage to tip their hats to the ladies, but just barely, all the Eastwood effects and mannerisms suggest a carefully preserved authenticity."

Roger Greenspun, The New York Times, July 20, 1972

Eastwood had now starred in an astonishing 10 films in a four year period and a headline published in the Motion Picture Herald in 1972 read, 'Eastwood Topples John Wayne', who only had one release that year; The Cowboys.

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Mono Lake

1973 proved another benchmark to Eastwood when he directed his first western, High Plains Drifter. Under a joint production between Malpaso and Universal, the script was created by Ernest Tidyman, an acclaimed writer who had won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for The French Connection. Dean Riesner collaborated and came up with the final plot; a tall, mysterious stranger arrives in a brooding Western town where the people share a guilty secret. They hire the stranger to defend the town against three felons soon to be released but fail to recognise that they once killed this stranger in a brutal whipping and that his reappearance is supernatural. The ghostly stranger forces the people to paint the town red and names it "Hell" and seeks revenge. Holes in the plot were filled in with black humor and allegory, influenced by Sergio Leone. Henry Bumstead was brought in the design the eerie set, set on the shores of Mono Lake, Bruce Sartees as the cinematographer and Dee Barton composing the equally eerie score which ranged from typical Morricone type grandeur to horror-esque shrilling. High Plains Drifter would be the first of six movies Eastwood made with friend Geoffrey Lewis. The revisionist film received a mixed reception from critics but was a major box office success. A number of critics thought Eastwood's directing was as a derivative as it was expressive with Arthur Knight in Saturday Review remarking that Clint had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society". Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, remarking that it is his thematic shallowness and verbal archness which is where the film fell apart, yet he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography.

Breezy (1973)

Elmore Leonard had proposed the idea of a film about an artichoke farmer who refused to surrender to a criminal syndicate trying to squeeze his profits. Eastwood had read the twenty five pages outlined by Leonard and refused the offer, despite him setting the film around Castroville, near Carmel. Instead, Eastwood turned his attention towards a script written by Jo Heims about a love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl, Breezy. Heims had originally intended Clint to play the starring role of the realtor Frank Harmon, a bitter divorced man who falls in love with the young Breezy. However, whilst Eastwood confessed to "understanding the Frank Harmon character" he believed he was too young at that stage to play Harmon. That part would go to William Holden, twelve years Eastwood's senior and Clint decided to direct the picture. During casting for the film, Eastwood met Sondra Locke for the first time, an actress who would play a major role in many of his films for the next ten years and an important figure in his life. However, Locke, who was 26 at this time was considered too old for the Breezy part and after much auditioning, a young dark-haired actress named Kay Lenz, who had recently appeared in American Graffiti, was cast. According to friends of Clint, he became infatuated with Lenz during this period. Filming for Breezy began in the November of 1972 in Los Angeles. With Surtees occupied elsewhere, Frank Stanley was brought in the shoot the picture, the first of four films he would shoot for Malpaso. The film was shot very quickly and efficiently and in the end went $1 million under budget and finished three days before schedule. The film was not a major success, it barely reached the Top 50 before disappearing and was only made available on video in 1998. Nor was it received particularly well by critics. Some critics, including Eastwood's biographer Richard Schnickel believed that the sexual content of the film and love scenes were too soft to be memorable for such a potentially scandalous relationship between Harmon and Breezy, commenting that, "it is not a sexy movie. Once again, Eastwood was too polite in his eroticism."

Magnum Force (1973)

After the filming of Breezy had finished, Warner Brothers announced that Eastwood had agreed to reprise his role as Detective Harry Callahan in a sequel to Dirty Harry, running under the title, Vigilance.

1974-79

In 1974, Eastwood teamed with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The movie was written and directed by Michael Cimino, who had previously written Magnum Force (1973), the first of four Dirty Harry sequels.

Eastwood directed two allegorical westerns during the 1970s: High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Josey Wales would be the first of six movies he starred in with companion Sondra Locke. The film also featured his real-life son Kyle Eastwood, then seven years old. Eastwood also frequently collaborated with Bill McKinney, Albert Popwell, Pat Hingle, George Kennedy, William O'Connell, Sam Bottoms, Roy Jenson, and Dan Vadis throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Pahreah site in Utah, filming location of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

In 1975, Eastwood brought another talent to the screen: rock-climbing. In The Eiger Sanction, in which he directed and starred, Eastwood — a 5.9 climber — performed his own rock-climbing stunts. This film has become a cult classic among rock-climbers. The third Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer (1976), featured Tyne Daly as Eastwood's female partner.

In 1977, Eastwood directed and starred in The Gauntlet, in which he played a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute whom he's assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix in order for her to testify against the mob. Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand were originally cast as the film's stars. However, fighting between the two forced them to drop out of the project, with Eastwood and Locke replacing them.

In 1978, Eastwood starred in Every Which Way But Loose an uncharacteristic, offbeat comedy role. Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler who roamed the American West, searching for a lost love, while accompanying his best brother/manager Orville and his pet orangutan, Clyde. Arguably, Clyde stole the show. While it was panned by the critics, the movie became a blockbuster hit, becoming the second-highest grossing film of the year.

Malpaso bench, Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

In 1979, Eastwood starred in the fact-based movie Escape from Alcatraz, his last collaboration with Don Siegel. He portrayed prison escapee Frank Morris, who was sent to the tough prison Alcatraz in 1960, devised a meticulous plan to escape from "The Rock," and, in 1962, broke out with two other prisoners and entered San Francisco Bay.

1980s

In 1980, Eastwood starred in two films: first playing the main attraction in a traveling Wild West Show in Bronco Billy; he reprised his role in the sequel to Every Which Way But Loose entitled Any Which Way You Can. Despite bad reviews from critics, the sequel also became another box-office success and was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year.

Eastwood in 1981

In 1982, Eastwood directed, produced and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox. The fourth Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact (1983), is widely considered to be the darkest, "dirtiest" and most violent film of the series. Also, it was the highest-grossing film of the franchise, making Eastwood a viable star for the 1980s. This would be the last time he starred in a film with frequent leading lady Sondra Locke. President Ronald Reagan referred to his famous "Go ahead, make my day." line in one of his speeches.

Three of Eastwood's films in the 1980s featured his real-life children. His son Kyle starred as his nephew in Honkytonk Man (1982). His daughter Alison had a small role as an orphan in Bronco Billy, and a much bigger role as his daughter in the provocative thriller Tightrope (1984), in which Eastwood starred as a single-father cop lured by the promise of kinky sex.

Eastwood starred in the period comedy City Heat (1984) with Burt Reynolds and the military drama Heartbreak Ridge (1986). He revisited the western genre directing and starring in Pale Rider (1985), an homage to the western film classic Shane, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

File:Sudden-impact-10.jpg

"Go ahead, make my day."

Eastwood's fifth and final Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool (1988), was a commercial success, but was generally panned by critics. It co-starred Liam Neeson, Patricia Clarkson, and a young Jim Carrey, who later appeared with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) alongside Bernadette Peters and Eastwood's future girlfriend Frances Fisher, with whom he has since appeared in two more films. Also during this time, he began working on smaller, more personal projects, first directing Bird (1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker, a genre of music that Eastwood has always been personally interested in. Eastwood received two Golden Globes—the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifelong contribution and the Best Director award for Bird, which also earned him a Golden Palm nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.

1990s

In 1990, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie, a cop action film featuring Raul Julia and Sonia Braga as villains. That same year he starred as a character closely based on the legendary film-maker John Huston in White Hunter, Black Heart, an adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman à clef about the making of the classic The African Queen. The latter received some critical attention but only a limited release. Overall, neither film was well-received.

Clint Eastwood at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Eastwood rose to prominence yet again in the early 1990s. He revisited the western genre in the self-directed 1992 film, Unforgiven, taking on the role of an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. The film, also starring such esteemed actors as Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, laid the groundwork for such later westerns as Deadwood by re-envisioning established genre conventions in a more ambiguous and unromantic light. A great success both in terms of box office and critical acclaim, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples. It won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. As of 2009, Unforgiven is the last western film that Eastwood has made.

In 1993, Eastwood played Frank Horrigan, a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire, co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. As of 2009 it is his last acting role in a film he did not direct himself. This film was a blockbuster and among the top 10 box-office performers in that year. That same year Eastwood directed and starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. In 1995, Eastwood received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards. He continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the love story The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Based on a best-selling novel, it was also a hit at the box-office and grossed $182 million. The film, which Eastwood also produced and directed, was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as well as an Oscar.

Afterward, Eastwood turned to more directing work, including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), which starred John Cusack, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law as well as Eastwood's daughter Alison and former frequent costar Geoffrey Lewis. That same year, he starred in the successful political thriller Absolute Power with Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, and Dennis Haysbert. His next film was the badly received drama True Crime (1999), featuring his wife Dina and one of his daughters.

2000s

Eastwood in 2007

In 2000, Eastwood directed and starred in Space Cowboys, which also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner. In the film, he plays Frank Corvin, a retired NASA engineer called upon to save a dying Russian satellite. The film was also one of the year's commercial hits. In 2002, Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent on the track of a sadistic killer in Blood Work, which was derived from a book by Michael Connelly. In 2003, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild and directed the crime drama Mystic River about murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and Lawrence Fishburne. The film was a commercial success and won two Academy Awards, as well as nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.

In 2005, Eastwood found critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with the female boxer (Hilary Swank) he reluctantly trains after being persuaded by his lifelong friend (Morgan Freeman). The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as earning Eastwood a Best Actor nomination and a win for Best Director. Swank and Freeman also won Oscars for their performances, and the trio was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Eastwood also received a Grammy nomination for the score he composed for the film. Million Dollar Baby grossed more than $216 million at the box office and was his highest-grossing film at the time.

In 2006, Eastwood directed two films about the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The first one, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The second one, Letters from Iwo Jima, dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote to family members. Both films were highly praised by critics and garnered several Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture for Letters from Iwo Jima.

In 2008, Eastwood directed the Oscar-nominated drama Changeling, which starred Angelina Jolie. Later that year, he ended his "self-imposed acting hiatus" with Gran Torino. Eastwood directed, starred, held a producer role, and co-wrote the theme song for the film. It grossed close to $30 million during its wide-release opening weekend in January 2009, making Eastwood, at age 78, the oldest leading man to reach #1 at the box office. Gran Torino has grossed over $268 million worldwide in theaters as of August 6, 2009 and is the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far without adjustment for inflation. Eastwood has said that Gran Torino will almost certainly be the last time he acts in a movie.

In 2009, Eastwood directed the movie Invictus, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar. Carlin sold the film rights to Morgan Freeman. Eastwood and Warner Bros. have purchased the film rights to James R. Hansen's First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, the authorized biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong. No production date has been announced. As of September 2009, he is in talks to direct Peter Morgan's Hereafter for Warner Bros. Eastwood had announced that he has all but retired from acting, although maintained that "if a good western script turns up, you never know..." In 2008, he starred in Gran Torino, which was not a western. Eastwood currently donates funds toward the new CSUMB campus library. In early 2007, Eastwood announced that he will produce a Bruce Ricker documentary about jazz legend Dave Brubeck. The film is tentatively titled Dave Brubeck – In His Own Sweet Way. It will trace the development of Brubeck's latest composition, the Cannery Row Suite. This work was commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival and premiered at the 2006 festival. Eastwood's film crews captured early rehearsals, sound checks, and the final performance. Ricker and Eastwood are currently working on a documentary about Tony Bennett, as well, titled The Music Never Ends.

Other projects

Eastwood's handprints on Hollywood Boulevard

Eastwood has had a strong passion for music since a young age, particularly a love of jazz, and he also is also a country and western enthusiast. He dabbled in music early on and in late 1959 had produced the album Cowboy Favorites which was released on the Cameo label. The album included some classics such as Bob Wills's San Antonio Rose and Cole Porter's Don't Fence Me In and despite his attempts to plug the album by going on a tour, it never reached the Billboard Hot 100. Later in 1963, Cameo producer Kal Mann would bluntly tell him that "he would never make it big as a singer". Neverless, during the off season of filming Rawhide, Eastwood and Brinegar, sometimes joined by Sheb Wooley would go on touring rodeos, state fairs and festivals and in 1962 their act entitled Amusement Business Cavalcade of Fairs earned them as much as $15,000 a performance.

Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Bros. This deal was unchanged when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to private investors. Malpaso has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. It also released the album of a 1996 jazz concert he hosted, titled Eastwood after Hours — Live at Carnegie Hall.

Eastwood had tried for some time to direct an episode of Rawhide, even being promised at one point the possibility of doing so. However, because of differences between the president of the studio and show producers, Eastwood's opportunity fell through. In 1985, he made his only foray into TV direction to date with the Amazing Stories episode Vanessa In The Garden, starring Harvey Keitel and Sondra Locke; this was his first collaboration with writer/executive producer Steven Spielberg (Spielberg later produced A Perfect World, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima). Eastwood has chosen a wide variety of films to direct, some clearly commercial, others highly personal. Eastwood produces many of his films, and is well known in the industry for his efficient, low-cost approach to making films; he has said that "everything I do as a director is based upon what I prefer as an actor." Over the years, he has developed relationships with many other filmmakers, working over and over with the same crew, production designers, cinematographers, editors, and other technical people. Similarly, he has a long-term relationship with the Warner Bros. studio, which finances and releases most of his films. However, in a 2004 interview appearing in The New York Times, Eastwood noted that he still sometimes has difficulty convincing the studio to back his films. In the 2000s, Eastwood also began composing music for some of his films. He is one of the subjects profiled in the documentary Fog City Mavericks, which interviews Eastwood alongside other fellow San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers such as George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. As producer, director, and actor, Eastwood has worked exclusively with legendary film poster designer Bill Gold. Gold designed (and often photographed) posters for 35 Clint Eastwood films, from Dirty Harry (1971) to Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Politics

Eastwood registered as a Republican in order to vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and he supported Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns, but later criticized Nixon's morality during Watergate (see the February 1974 edition of Playboy). He usually describes himself as a libertarian in interviews, fiscally conservative yet socially liberal. At times, he has supported Democrats in California, such as the liberal and environmentally-concerned Representative Sam Farr in 2002. Indeed, Eastwood contributed $1,000 to Farr's successful re-election campaign that year and on May 23, 2003, the iconic actor-director hosted a $5,000-per-ticket fundraiser for California's Democratic governor, Gray Davis. Later that year, Eastwood offered to film a commercial in support of California's embattled governor, while in 2001, the star visited Davis' office to support an alternative energy bill written by another Democrat, California State Assemblyman Fred Keeley.

In general, Eastwood has favored less governmental interference in both the private economy and the private lives of individuals. He has disapproved of a reliance on welfare, instead feeling that government should help citizens make something of themselves via education and incentive. He has, however, approved of unemployment insurance, bail-outs for homeowners saddled with unaffordable mortgages, a continued American automobile industry, electric and hybrid cars, free prescription drugs, government-ordained educational standards, environmental conservation, land preservation, alternative energy, and moderate gun control measures such as California's Brady Bill. A longtime liberal on civil rights, Eastwood has stated that he has always been pro-choice on abortion (see the March 1997 edition of Playboy). He has also endorsed the notion of marriage equality (i.e. allowing gays to marry), just as he had once contributed to groups supporting the Equal Rights Amendment for women. Eastwood disapproved of America's wars in Korea (1950–1953), Vietnam (1964–1973), and Iraq (2003–present), believing that the U.S. should not be overly militaristic or playing the role of global policeman. In all, he considers himself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing, having sometimes described himself as a "political nothing" and a "moderate" (see the February 1974 edition of Playboy). Eastwood has also stated that he doesn't see himself as conservative, but that he isn't "ultra-leftist," either.

Eastwood with President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s

Eastwood made one successful foray into elected politics, becoming the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (population 4,000), a wealthy small town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula, for one term. During his tenure, he completed Heartbreak Ridge and Bird.

In 2001, he was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission by Democratic Governor Gray Davis. He was reappointed in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom he supported in the elections of 2003 and 2006 (although Eastwood disapproved of the recall of Davis in 2003). Soon afterwards Governor Schwarzenegger announced a proposal to close 80 percent of California State Parks.

Eastwood, the vice chairman of the commission, and commission chairman, Bobby Shriver, Schwarzenegger's brother-in-law, led a California State Park and Recreation Commission panel in its unanimous opposition in 2005 to a six-lane, 16-mile (26 km), toll road that would cut through San Onofre State Beach, north of San Diego, and one of Southern California's most cherished surfing beaches. Eastwood and Shriver also supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road and urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project, which it did in February 2008.

Take Pride in America Spokesman Eastwood in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

In March 2008, Eastwood and Shriver, whose terms had expired, were not reappointed. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asked for a legislative investigation into the decision to not re-appoint Eastwood and Shriver, citing their opposition to the toll road extension. According to the NRDC and The New Republic, Eastwood and Shriver were not reappointed again in 2008 because both Eastwood and Shriver opposed the freeway extension of California State Route 241, that would cut through the San Onofre State Beach. This extension is likewise supported by Governor Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger's press release appointing Alice Huffman and Lindy DeKoven to replace Eastwood and Shriver makes no mention of a reason for the commission change.

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Eastwood (along with actor and director Danny DeVito, actor and director Bill Duke, producer Tom Werner and producer and director Lili Zanuck) to the California Film Commission in April 2004.

During the 2008 United States Presidential Election, Eastwood endorsed John McCain for President, citing the fact that he had known McCain since 1973. He donated $2,300 towards McCain's campaign funds. Although sympathetic towards her bid for the presidency, Eastwood expressed disappointment with Hillary Clinton for engaging in a duck-hunting photo op, saying, "I was thinking: 'The poor duck, what the hell did she do that for?' I don't go for hunting. I just don't like killing creatures. Unless they're trying to kill me. Then that would be fine." Upon the election of Barack Obama, Eastwood stated "Obama is my president now and I am going to be wishing him the very best because it is what is best for all of us."

Personal life

Relationships and family

The Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel, once owned for many years by Eastwood

Eastwood married swimsuit model Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, six months after meeting on a blind date. Fifteen years after their wedding, they had son Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968). The couple also had daughter Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972), but separated shortly after her birth. Johnson eventually filed for a legal separation in 1978. Eastwood and Johnson finalized their divorce in May 1984. Kyle Eastwood's daughter, Graylen Eastwood, was born on March 28, 1994.

During his marriage to Johnson, Eastwood had an affair with Roxanne Tunis, who was an extra on Rawhide. They had a daughter, Kimber Eastwood, born on June 17, 1964. Kimber's son, Clinton, was born on February 21, 1984.

Eastwood had a fourteen-year relationship with actress Sondra Locke, who appeared with him in six films: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. Locke became pregnant by Eastwood twice, and had two abortions and a tubal ligation. Their relationship ended acrimoniously in 1989. Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood, and the litigation continued for a decade. Locke and Eastwood finally resolved the dispute with a non-public settlement in 1999.

During his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood had an affair with flight attendant Jacklyn Reeves, with whom he had a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kathryn. The fact that Scott and Kathryn Reeves were the actor's children was not publicly known until it was reported by the National Enquirer in the mid-1990s. Since then, the son (now known as Scott Eastwood) has grown close to his father and has also become an actor.

After breaking up with Locke, Eastwood moved in with Frances Fisher, whom he met in 1988 while filming Pink Cadillac. They appeared together in Unforgiven, and had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, born on August 7, 1993. Fisher moved out of their shared home in 1995, but later appeared with Eastwood in True Crime.

Eastwood with wife Dina in 2007

Eastwood married anchorwoman Dina Ruiz on March 31, 1996, in Las Vegas when Eastwood surprised her with a private ceremony at a home on the Shadow Creek Golf Course. She is 35 years his junior. Kyle Eastwood served best man. The couple's daughter, Morgan Eastwood, was born on December 12, 1996.

Speaking in 2008 of his fatherhood in his late 70s, Eastwood said: "I'm a much better father now than when I was younger because then I was working all around the world and I was desperate to find the brass ring, so I worked constantly. Now my daughter takes precedence over everything and, even though I've done a lot of work in the past year, I haven't ignored her and have been involved in her school activities. I go to all the softball games and look ridiculous out there because almost everybody's got a much younger father than she does. But it's fun. I think you appreciate everything a lot more when you get to my age. I never started out thinking I would have a big family. But now, it's very important to me, and family relationships take precedence over work."

Leisure

In 1975, Eastwood publicly proclaimed his participation in Transcendental Meditation when he appeared on The Merv Griffin Show with the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Eastwood owns the exclusive Tehàma Golf Club, located in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The invitation-only club reportedly has around 300 members and a joining price of $500,000. He is also an investor of the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. He loves to play golf and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments. Eastwood is also the owner of the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, located in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Eastwood is an audiophile, known for his love of jazz. He owns an extensive collection of LPs which he plays on a Rockport turntable. His interest in music was passed on to his son Kyle, now a jazz musician. Eastwood co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager which was recorded by Diana Krall.

He has voiced a lack of interest in hunting, saying, "I don't go for hunting. I just don't like killing creatures. Unless they're trying to kill me. Then that would be fine."

Eastwood is an experienced pilot and sometimes flies his own helicopter to the studio to avoid traffic.

Image and popularity

See Clint Eastwood in popular culture

Filmography

Main article: Clint Eastwood filmography

Awards and honors

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Clint Eastwood

Eastwood is one of two people to have been twice nominated for Best Actor and Best Director for the same film (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby) the other being Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait and Reds). Along with Beatty, Robert Redford, Richard Attenborough, Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson, he is one of the few directors best known as an actor to win an Academy Award for directing. On February 27, 2005, at age 74, he became one of only three living directors (along with Miloš Forman and Francis Ford Coppola) to have directed two Best Picture winners. He is also, at age 74, the oldest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Director.

Eastwood directed five actors in Academy Award–winning performances: Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Tim Robbins & Sean Penn in Mystic River, and Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby.

Clint Eastwood received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996 and received an honorary degree from AFI in 2009.

Eastwood has received numerous other awards, including an America Now TV Award as well as one of the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors. He received an honorary degree from University of the Pacific in 2006, and an honorary degree from University of Southern California in 2007. In 1995 he received the honorary Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in film producing. In 2006, he received a nomination for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Million Dollar Baby. In 2007, Eastwood was the first recipient of the Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award, an annual award presented by the MPAA to individuals in the motion picture industry whose work has reached out positively and respectfully to the world. He received the award for his work on the 2006 films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Eastwood into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

In early 2007, Eastwood was presented with the highest civilian distinction in France, Légion d'honneur, at a ceremony in Paris. French President Jacques Chirac told Eastwood that he embodied "the best of Hollywood".

On September 22, 2007, Eastwood was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on which he serves as an active board member. Upon receiving the award he gave a speech, claiming, "It's one of the great honors I’ll cherish in this lifetime." He was also honored with the "Cinema for Peace Award 2007 for Most Valuable Movie of the Year" for "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima".

Eastwood received the 2008 Best Actor award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for his performance in Gran Torino.

On April 29, 2009, the Japanese government announced that Eastwood was to receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, which represents the third highest of eight classes associated with this award.

On November 13, 2009, Clint Eastwood was made French Legion of Honor Commander, which represents the third highest of five classes associated with this award. He was previously made French Legion of Honor Knight in 2007.

Academy Awards

Won

• 1992 Best Director – Unforgiven
• 1992 Best Picture – Unforgiven
• 1994 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
• 2004 Best Director – Million Dollar Baby
• 2004 Best Picture – Million Dollar Baby

Nominated

• 1992 Best Actor – Unforgiven
• 2003 Best Director – Mystic River
• 2003 Best Picture – Mystic River
• 2004 Best Actor – Million Dollar Baby
• 2006 Best Director – Letters from Iwo Jima
• 2006 Best Picture – Letters from Iwo Jima

Discography

Eastwood is also a musician, pianist and composer. He composed the film scores of Mystic River, Grace Is Gone (2007), and Changeling, and the original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire. One of his songs can be heard over the credits of Gran Torino.

Albums

Year	Album
1963	Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions			Album
		US Country	US	CAN Country
1961	"Known Girl"	—	—	—	singles only
1962	"Rowdy"	—	—	—
	"For You, For Me, For Evermore"	—	—	—
1980	"Bar Room Buddies" (with Merle Haggard)	1	—	1	Bronco Billy Soundtrack
	"Beers to You" (with Ray Charles)	55	—	—	singles only
1981	"Cowboy in a Three Piece Suit"	—	—	—
1984	"Make My Day" (with T. G. Sheppard)	12	62	11	Slow Burn (T. G. Sheppard album)
2009	"Gran Torino" (as Walt Kowalski with Jamie Cullum)	—	—	—	single only

Bibliography

• Clint Eastwood Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

• McGilligan, Patrick (1999). Clint: The Life and Legend. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-638354-8.. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• Schickel, Richard (1996). Clint Eastwood: A Biography. Knopf. ISBN 9780679429746, ISBN 0-679-42974-3. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)

Further reading

• Engel, Leonard (2007). Clint Eastwood, Actor and Director: New Perspectives. University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874809008, ISBN 0-87480-900-2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• Johnstone, Iain (2007). The Man with No Name: The Biography of Clint Eastwood. Plexus Publishing, Limited. ISBN 9780859653879, ISBN 0-85965-387-0. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• McGilligan, Patrick (1999). Clint: The Life and Legend. Perseus Books Group. ISBN 9780786708437, ISBN 0-7867-0843-3. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• Schickel, Richard (1996). Clint Eastwood: A Biography. Knopf. ISBN 9780679429746, ISBN 0-679-42974-3. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
• Thompson, Douglas (2005). Clint Eastwood: Billion Dollar Man. John Blake. ISBN 1857825721, ISBN 978-1-85782-572-5. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)

External links

• Clint Eastwood Icon Photo Gallery at AMCTV.com
• Clint Eastwood Archive, collection of posters and photographs
• Charlie Rose show: An hour with Clint Eastwood
• 2007 In-depth interview with Clint Eastwood from The Observer
• Entertainment Weekly Photo Gallery: Clint Eastwood
• Last Man Standing: On Clint Eastwood The Nation