Rawhide was the TV series that launched Clinton Eastwood's career. While filming in Fort Ord, an ambitious assistant on the Universal-International team recognized Eastwood and extended an invitation for the actor to see the director; however, Patrick McGilligan, Eastwood's unofficial biographer, casts doubt on this story. The guy behind the plot, according to Eastwood's official biography, was Chuck Hill, a Fort Ord stationed individual with Hollywood connections. Hill reconnected with Eastwood in Los Angeles and got him into a Universal studio, where he introduced him to Irving Glassberg, the cameraman. Arthur Lubin, who Glassberg had him audition for, was impressed by Eastwood's height and build (he was 6 feet 4 inches [193 cm]) but said, "He was quite amateurish. He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything." Lubin recommended that Eastwood take acting lessons and set him up with his first contract in April 1954, paying $100 per week. Critics first pointed on Eastwood's lifetime trademark—delivering lines between his teeth—and his rigid demeanor after he signed.
Clinton Eastwood was born in the US and first came to prominence in the 1960s on the hit Western TV series Rawhide. He then went on to star as the titular "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy and as antihero police officer Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films released between 1970 and 1980. For these and many more reasons, Eastwood has become a cultural symbol of masculinity that will last. Two years were Eastwood's tenure as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, following his 1986 election to the position.
Both the 1978 adventure comedy Every Which Way but Loose and the 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can were huge financial triumphs for director Clint Eastwood. Hollywood has produced a number of Eastwood hits, including the Westerns Hang 'Em High(1968), The Outlaw Josey Wales(1976), and Pale Rider (1985), the action-war picture Where Eagles Dare (1968), the prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the war film Heartbreak Ridge (1986), the action film In the Line of Fire (1993), and the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Works such as Gran Torino (2008), The Mule (2018), and Cry Macho (2021) are more recent. Malpaso Productions, Eastwood's firm, has produced all but four of his American films since 1967.
With the 1992 Western Unforgiven and the 2004 sports drama Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood—nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars—won Best Director and Best Picture. Not only has Eastwood directed a number of his own star vehicles, but he has also helmed films in which he did not feature, such as the war picture Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), the mystery drama Mystic River (2003), and the legal thriller Juror #2 (2024), for which he got Oscar nominations. Alternately, he helmed the biographical features Richard Jewell (2019), American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016), Invictus (2009), and Changeling (2008).
Four Oscars, four Golden Globes, three Césars, and an AFI Life Achievement Award are among Eastwood's many honors. To celebrate his career and contributions, the Italian Venice Film Festival presented him with the Golden Lion in 2000. A recipient of the Legion of Honour in 2007 and the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1994, he is considered one of the most distinguished civilians in France.
The son of Clinton Eastwood (1906-1970) and Ruth (née Margret Runner; 1909-2006), Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930, at San Francisco's Saint Francis Memorial Hospital. After Clinton Sr. passed away, Ruth married John Belden Wood (1913–2004), and during her son's renown, she was recognized by his surname. Because Eastwood weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces (5.2 kg) when he was born, the nurses who cared for him at the hospital affectionately called him "Samson." He was born in 1934 and has a younger sister named Jeanne Bernhardt. There is a mix of Dutch, Irish, Scottish, and English in his family tree. The 12th generation of Eastwoods to be born in North America may trace their ancestry back to William Bradford, a passenger on the Mayflower. In the 1930s, his father changed jobs three times, forcing the family to move three times. Between 1940 and 1949, they did not relocate, as Eastwood has said in talks with the media. The Eastwoods were rich Piedmont, California, residents who settled in a quiet neighborhood with a pool, country club membership, and individual cars for each parent. Throughout his career, Eastwood's father held the position of manufacturing executive at Georgia-Pacific. Ruth became an IBM secretary as Clint and Jeanne entered their golden years.
Based on his academic records, Eastwood had to attend summer school and was held back at Piedmont Middle School because of his low scores. Piedmont High School expelled him from the school for many offenses, including putting an obscene suggestion to a school administrator on the athletic field scoreboard and burning an effigy on the school lawn. He attended the school from January 1945 until at least January 1946. He completed his secondary education on February 2, 1949, after transferring to Oakland Technical High School.
Throughout his life, Eastwood worked as a lifeguard, paper boy, grocery store clerk, forest firefighter, and golf caddy, among other odd occupations. The Korean War recruited Eastwood into the United States Army in1951, just as he was about to enroll at Seattle University, according to Eastwood. Don Loomis recalls learning that Eastwood was seeing a Fort Ord officer's daughter, who may have been asked to keep an eye on him after his name was posted. His Douglas AD aircraft crashed into the water near Point Reyes after it ran out of fuel on the way back from a scheduled tryst in Seattle, where he was a passenger. As a pair, he and the pilot swam 3.2 kilometers (about 2 miles) to abandon the ship. February 1953 was the date of Eastwood's discharge.
When Eastwood originally tried out for the role of Six Bridges to Cross in May 1954, Joseph Pevney turned him down. After several failed auditions, director Jack Arnold cast him in a small part in the 1955 sequel, Revenge of the Creature, to the hit film Creature from the Black Lagoon. After spending three weeks filming Arthur Lubin's Lady Godiva of Coventry in September 1954, Eastwood earned a role in Francis in the Navy in February 1955 as a sailor named "Jonesy." He also made an uncredited appearance as a squadron pilot in Tarantula, another picture by Jack Arnold. Never Say Goodbye, which Eastwood worked on for four hours in May 1955, was his first western. In August of the same year, Law Man, also called Star in the Dust, which starred John Agar and Mamie Van Doren, featured a small, uncredited role for a ranch hand. On July 2, 1955, he made his television debut on NBC's Allen in Movieland, which included him, actor Tony Curtis, swing singer Benny Goodman, and comedian Steve Allen, thanks to Universal. On October 23, 1955, Universal canceled his contract, despite his ongoing acting development.
Despite Lubin landing him his largest job to date in The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and then hiring him for Escapade in Japan (1957), Eastwood was suffering without a formal contract when he joined the Marsh Agency. He began working with Mitchell Gertz in 1957 after transferring to the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956, at the recommendation of his financial advisor Irving Leonard. He appeared in a few tiny parts in 1956, including one as a ranting soldier on an ABC Reader's Digest piece and another as a member of a motorcycle gang on an episode of Highway Patrol. While filming Death Valley Days in 1957, Eastwood portrayed a gold prospector who was contemplating suicide and a cadet in the West Point series.
His famous cameo appearances in 1959 on Maverick, opposite James Garner as a feckless villain bent on marrying a wealthy girl for money, and his 1958 stint on Navy Log as a Navy officer are both worth mentioning. Despite having a minor role as an aviator in Lafayette Escadrille (1958), Eastwood regarded Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958)—the picture he made at the bottom of his career—as his most prominent performance.
The role that really launched Eastwood's career was that of Rowdy Yates in the 1958 CBS western series Rawhide, which aired for one hour. Due to Eastwood's age (nearing 30) and Rowdy's youth (and cloddishness), Eastwood was not pleased with his role. In the summer of 1958, filming got underway in Arizona. Even though it never won an Emmy, Rawhide was a huge hit for a number of years, reaching number six in the ratings from October 1960 to April 1961, and it only took three weeks for the show to crack the top 20. Some directors continued to criticize Eastwood for not working hard enough during the Rawhide years (1959–1965), despite the fact that he regularly filmed six days a week for an average of twelve hours. Rawhide was cancelled midway through the 1965–66 season due to dwindling ratings and uninspired writing, which started in late 1963. While filming the show's trailers, Eastwood tried his hand at directing for the first time, although he was unsuccessful in his effort to direct an episode. Eastwood made $750 each episode in the first season. Severance compensation for Rawhide's demise was $119,000 per episode.
Stardom and spaghetti Westerns, 1963–1969
Despite an opportunity to feature in Sergio Leone's relatively obscure 1964 Italian western A Fistful of Dollars, co-starred Clint Eastwood's Rawhide, Eric Fleming turned down the role. Leone was filming the picture in a remote section of Spain. Because of his reputation for compelling cowboy roles, Richard Harrison recommended Eastwood to Leone. Eastwood saw the picture as a chance to shed his Rawhide image, so he took it. In exchange for eleven weeks of labor and fifteen grand, plus a Mercedes-Benz as a bonus, he signed a contract. "In Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an antihero." Despite not smoking, Eastwood played a key role in developing the visual style of the Man with No Name character. Leone insisted that Eastwood smoke cigars, which he considered an essential part of the "mask" he was trying to create for the character.
Leone challenged American notions of a western hero with a morally ambiguous antihero in A Fistful of Dollars, which challenged traditional westerns by showing a more lawless and bleak environment. The film also marked a watershed in the evolution of spaghetti westerns. The success of the picture catapulted Eastwood to stardom in Italy, and he was re-engaged for the sequel, For a Few Dollars More (1965), which was the second instalment in the trilogy. Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni was instrumental in selling United Artists the rights to For a Few Dollars More and the trilogy's last picture, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) for around $900,000.
After meeting producer Dino De Laurentiis in January 1966 in New York City, Eastwood decided to act alongside Silvana Mangano in a non-Western five-part anthology production called The Witches (Le Streghe, 1967). One reviewer panned Eastwood's performance, saying, "no other performance of his is quite so 'un-Clintlike'" despite the fact that the 19-minute film only took a few days to shoot.
Eastwood reprised his role as the enigmatic Man with No Name in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which he started filming two months later. Eli Wallach played the role of Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez, while Lee Van Cleef was back as a cold-blooded money hunter. Finding a hoard of Confederate gold treasured in a graveyard was central to the plot. Eastwood requested that Wallach take cover on a nearby hill as they filmed a scenario involving the explosion of a bridge. “I am aware of these things,” he declared. "Remain at least ten feet away from any explosives or special effects." A few minutes later, the crew's misunderstanding of the phrase "Vaya!" caused an explosion to go off too soon, nearly killing Wallach.
I aimed to convey the entire mood with body language and little use of words throughout the performance. It was the perfect persona for my long-term vision—mysterious and hinting to prior events. The many hours of grinding in Rawhide eventually inspired it. I had the impression that the less he said, the more powerful he became and the more he expanded in the audience's imagination.
American audiences did not get their first taste of the Dollars trilogy until 1967, when January 18 saw the premiere of A Fistful of Dollars, May 10 brought For a Few Dollars More, and December 29 brought The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Each of the three films was financially successful, but it was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—which Eastwood directed—that catapulted him to stardom, making $8 million at the box office and placing him fifth in Quigley's 1968 Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll. These three films launched Eastwood into a war for the esteem of American cinema reviewers, since they all garnered negative reviews. According to Judith Crist, A Fistful of Dollars is "cheapjack," and For a Few Dollars More is "excruciatingly dopey," according to Newsweek. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was allegedly "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre" according to Renata Adler of The New York Times. While some critics, including New York Times writers Bosley Crowther and Vincent Canby, lauded Eastwood's coolness, Time magazine highlighted the film's clumsy performance, particularly his. Even critics who panned the performance gave Leone high marks for his cinematography.
With his stardom came new roles for Eastwood. Along with Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, and Ed Begley, he landed the role of a man who, following his lynching at the hands of vigilantes, decides to take up the badge of a marshal and exact retribution as a lawman in the 1968 American revisionist western Hang 'Em High. Eastwood received a cheque for $400,000 and a quarter of the film's total earnings. The Dollars trilogy was a boon to Eastwood's financial situation, and his trusted advisor Irving Leonard was instrumental in launching his production business, Malpaso Productions—so called because of the creek that runs through his Monterey County, California, estate. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists; when it opened in August, it had the largest opening weekend in United Artists' history. In July 1968, syndicated columnist Dorothy Manners wrote: "The proverbial man in the street is still asking, 'Who's Clint Eastwood?'" This shows that the 38-year-old actor was still relatively unknown even a month before the film's release. According to Archer Winsten of the New York Post, "a western of quality, courage, danger and excitement" was one of the many critics who lauded Hang 'Em High.
Early in 1968, prior to Hang 'Em High's release, Eastwood had already started filming Coogan's Bluff, a film about a deputy sheriff from Arizona who follows a wanted psychotic criminal (Don Stroud) as he crosses New York City. In exchange for his return to Universal Studios, he received a million dollars, more than twice his former compensation. In a relationship that lasted over 10 years and yielded five films, Eastwood and Don Siegel—then a contract director for Universal—became close friends thanks to Jennings Lang's introduction. Although the screenplay was not yet complete, filming commenced in November 1967. The graphic depiction of violence in the film caused a stir. The Dirty Harry movie and other Eastwood features from the '70s and '80s included music by Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who made his composing debut on Coogan's Bluff.
Where Eagles Dare (1968), a battle epic about a WWII squad parachuting into an Alps Gestapo stronghold, was Eastwood's most lucrative film project, earning $750,000. Richard Burton was the squad leader, and Eastwood was his trusted aide. Additionally, Eastwood was supposed to play Two-Face in the Batman TV series, but production was halted before filming could begin.
Then, in 1969, Eastwood took a risk by starring in Paint Your Wagon, his sole musical. The film stars Eastwood and Lee Marvin as gold miners who purchase the less desirable wife of a Mormon pioneer (Jean Seberg) at an auction. The film's budget surpassed $20 million, a substantial sum for its day, due to production delays and adverse weather conditions. The picture received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy, but it bombed at the box office and with critics.
1970–1989: first year directing and Dirty Harry
Along with Shirley MacLaine, Eastwood featured in Don Siegel's 1970 western Two Mules for Sister Sara. In Mexico under the rule of Emperor Maximilian I, the film depicts a mercenary from the United States who, after getting involved with a prostitute posing as a nun, ends himself assisting a band of Juarista rebels. Once again, Eastwood portrayed an enigmatic stranger - this time without a beard, donning a vest reminiscent of a serape, and puffing on a cigar. Despite mixed reviews, the film made it onto The New York Times's list of the top 1,000 films of all time. During the same period, Eastwood co-starred alongside Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas in the 1970 WWII picture Kelly's Heroes, in which they rob the Nazis of a fortune in gold. Before his own Malpaso Productions produced Kelly's Heroes, Eastwood had never before appeared in a picture that wasn't his own. Filmed in both Yugoslavia and London, the picture was well-received for its anti-war message and excellent reviews. Siegel helmed Eastwood's 1971 follow-up picture, The Beguiled, which starred Geraldine Page as a Southern girls' school matron who holds a wounded Union soldier hostage. When it came out, the picture was a huge hit in France, and reviewers there still think it's one of Eastwood's best films. Nonetheless, Eastwood and Lang claim that the film's failure was due to bad advertising and Eastwood's "emasculated" performance, since the film earned less than $1 million.
In 1971, Eastwood's career took a significant change. Irving Leonard and Clint Eastwood had planned for Malpaso to produce Eastwood's first feature film, Play Misty for Me, before Leonard passed away. The picture would have given Eastwood the creative freedom he craved. Based on the script, jazz DJ Dave (Eastwood) starts an affair with listener Evelyn (Jessica Walter), who had been contacting the station several times in the middle of the night to request that he play "Misty" by Erroll Garner. After their relationship ends, Evelyn spirals out of control and becomes a vicious stalker. Production began in Monterey in September 1970 and included the Monterey Jazz Festival that same year. Critics were unanimous in their praise for the picture and Eastwood's direction and acting, with Time magazine's Jay Cocks, the Village Voice's Andrew Sarris, and the New York Post's Archer Winsten among those who gave it high marks. For her role in the film, Walter received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress (Drama).
You might be wondering, "Did he fire six shots or only five?" I'll admit that I've been a little fuzzy on the details due to all the excitement. But you have to ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?" Because this is a.44 Magnum, the most powerful weapon in the world, and it would blow your head off.
A brutal New York City (later renamed to San Francisco) police investigator named Harry Callahan is hell-bent on stopping a crazed killer at any cost in Dirty Harry (1971), created by Harry and Rita Fink. Many consider Dirty Harry to be Eastwood's most iconic role, and the "loose-cannon cop" genre was born with this picture. Actor Clint Eastwood, according to author Eric Lichtenfeld, played the "first true archetype" of the action cinema in Dirty Harry. According to firearms historians like Garry James and Richard Venola, his remarks—quoted above—were the driving factor for the unprecedented popularity of.44 Magnum revolvers in the US, namely the Smith & Wesson Model 29 that Harry Callahan sported. After its December 1971 premiere, Dirty Harry made $22 million in North America. It was the first of a planned trilogy starring Siegel's Harry Callahan and his highest-grossing film. Some critics, like Jay Cocks, lauded Eastwood for his portrayal of Dirty Harry, calling it "his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character." However, many others deemed the picture fascist. When it came time for Quigley's Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll in 1972 and 1973, Eastwood took first place after finishing second and second, respectively.
"That was someone else's gig. That's Sean's deal. It didn't feel right for me to be doing it." After turning down the role, Eastwood went on to star in the solo Western Joe Kidd (1972), which was based on a character inspired by Reies Lopez Tijerina, who stormed a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, in June 1967. This was in response to Sean Connery's announcement that he would not play James Bond again. While filming, Eastwood experienced panic episodes and indications of a bronchial illness. The New York Times' Roger Greenspun panned Joe Kidd, calling it "unremarkable" and citing clumsy editing and naive symbolism, while praising Clint Eastwood for his performance.
High Plains Drifter (1973), in which Eastwood co-starred, was the director's debut in the western genre. Later films like Pale Rider would borrow elements of the film's moral and supernatural themes. The story follows Eastwood, who plays an enigmatic stranger, as he travels to a foreboding Western hamlet and is hired by the locals to ward off three convicted convicts who are about to be freed shortly. The film's plot twists keep viewers guessing as to whether the mysterious figure is the deputy's specter or his brother, the latter of whom the criminals hanged and killed. Thanks to Leone's influence, the story holes were filled with allegory and dark comedy. Despite critical qualms, the revisionist picture dominated its box office. Some reviewers found Eastwood's direction to be "as derivative as it was expressive." Saturday Review writer Arthur Knight said that Eastwood had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society." Other critics agreed. Angrily writing to director Clint Eastwood shortly after the film's debut, John Wayne—who had turned down the part—commented, "The townspeople did not represent the true spirit of the American pioneer, the spirit that made America great."
After that, Eastwood worked on Breezy (1973), a picture about a middle-aged guy and a teenage girl whose love blossoms. Sondra Locke, whom Eastwood met for the first time during casting, would go on to star in six of his films over the following decade and become a significant figure in his life. After considering her age difference with Locke—29 years to Kay Lenz's 29—the casting director ultimately cast her as Breezy. Thanks to Eastwood and Frank Stanley's lightning-fast pacing and efficient shooting, the picture concluded three days early and came in $1 million under budget. Breezy bombed at the box office and with critics.
Warner Bros. revealed after Breezy's completion that Eastwood had agreed to play Callahan again in Magnum Force (1973), a follow-up to Dirty Harry. The film follows a gang of renegade young San Francisco police officers (including David Soul, Robert Urich, and Tim Matheson) as they methodically eliminate the city's most heinous offenders. Critical reception was lackluster, despite the film's enormous box office success (it broke Eastwood's previous record) following its release. Nora Sayre and Frank Rich, both critics for the New York Times, criticized the picture for having "the same old stuff" moral issues and for having frequently conflicting ones.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) was a buddy action caper starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, and George Kennedy. It was about a seasoned bank robber named Thunderbolt and a teenage con guy named Lightfoot. Despite critical acclaim for its unique blend of humor, high tension, and sorrow, the picture earned just $32.4 million when it opened in spring 1974. While critics did praise Eastwood's performance, the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor went to Jeff Bridges. Reportedly, Eastwood swore he would never work for United Artists again after becoming enraged at his lack of Oscar honor.
Trevanian's highly regarded spy novel The Eiger Sanction (1975) served as the inspiration for Eastwood's subsequent feature picture. Played by Eastwood instead of Paul Newman, the role of Jonathan Hemlock is that of a former assassin turned college art professor who resolves to do one more "sanction" in exchange for a priceless Pissarro painting. As part of this, he faces the daunting and perhaps fatal task of climbing the Swiss side of the Eiger. In the summer of 1974, before production began in Grindelwald, Switzerland on August 12, Mike Hoover instructed Eastwood in climbing techniques over a few weeks of training at Yosemite. Even though everyone had warned him about the dangers of the Eiger, Eastwood still wanted to climb and undertake stunts on his own. Many mishaps, including one death, befell the film team. After its May 1975 debut, The Eiger Sanction received mediocre reviews and a meager $14.2 million at the box office. The Wall Street Journal's Joy Gould Boyum called the picture "brutal fantasy" and called it a dismissal. After blaming Universal Studios for the film's lackluster marketing, Eastwood shirked his responsibilities and instead struck a deal with Warner Brothers—through Frank Wells—that has persisted to this day.
Based on the 1972 book of the same name by Asa Carter, the 1976 western The Outlaw Josey Wales stars Clint Eastwood as Josey Wales, a guerilla who fought for the Confederacy but refused to give up his weapons when the war ended. A band of law enforcers pursued him throughout the historic southwest. As his romantic interest, Locke was one of the supporting actors. Chief Dan George, an old Cherokee who befriends Wales, was another. Producer Bob Daley, acting under Eastwood's command, fired director Philip Kaufman three weeks into filming in October 1975. The Directors Guild of America fined Daley an estimated $60,000 and later passed a law reserving the right to fine producers for firing and replacing directors. Before the six-day Western Movies: Myths and Images conference began, the film had a pre-screening at Idaho's Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities. Prominent cinema critics like Arthur Knight and Jay Cocks were among the invited guests, as were filmmakers like King Vidor, William Wyler, and Howard Hawks, as well as several academics. After its 1976 summer release, The Outlaw Josey Wales received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Clint Eastwood played a legendary part that touched on the nation's ancestry and post-Civil War fate. While praising the film's atmosphere, Roger Ebert saw parallels between Eastwood's depiction of Josey Wales and his Man with No Name character in the Dollars westerns, noting the fragility and nature of the former. Time magazine's "Top 10 Films of the Year" would showcase the picture at a later date.
As a result of his aversion to spending weeks on set in the Philippines, Eastwood turned down the opportunity to play Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Along with deciding to shoot a third Dirty Harry picture, The Enforcer (1976), he turned down the role of battalion captain in Ted Post's Vietnam War drama, Go Tell the Spartans. Tyne Daly played the role of a rookie female cop who teamed up with Callahan in the film to confront an organization in the San Francisco Bay region that resembled the Symbionese Liberation Army. It was a huge financial success, becoming Eastwood's highest-grossing picture to date, earning $100 million worldwide. The film, which ended with a gunfight on Alcatraz island, was 95 minutes long, which was significantly shorter than the other Dirty Harry flicks.
Eastwood co-starred with Mara Corday, Bill McKinney, William Prince, Pat Hingle, and Locke in the 1977 film The Gauntlet, which he also directed. He plays a downtrodden police officer whose job it is to transport a prostitute from Sin City to Phoenix so she may testify against the gang in this film. The picture was well-received by audiences, but critics were divided, with many finding the violence to be excessive. Whereas Ebert praised the picture as "classic Clint Eastwood: fast, furious, and funny" and awarded it three stars. He had a role in the unconventional comedy Every Which Way but Loose (1978) that was out of character for him. A trucker and brawler named Philo Beddoe journeys across the American West with his closest buddy Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis) and an orangutan named Clyde in pursuit of his lost love Locke. Upon its release, the picture became Eastwood's most financially successful film to that point. Despite critical acclaim, it was the second-highest-grossing picture of 1978 and one of his most financially successful works to date.
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) was Eastwood's final picture with Siegel as director. This film is based on the life of Frank Lee Morris, who, in 1962, escaped from the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary alongside John and Clarence Anglin. Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic lauded the picture as "crystalline cinema" and Frank Rich of Time characterized it as "cool, cinematic grace"; both assessments indicate the film's significant success.
In the 1980 film Bronco Billy, which Eastwood also directed, he starred with Sam Bottoms, Scatman Crothers, and Locke. The five-and-a-half-week filming, which had a budget of $5 million, began on October 1, 1979, in the Boise metropolitan region. According to Eastwood, filming Bronco Billy was one of his most carefree experiences. However, according to historian Richard Schickel, the character is Eastwood's most insular. Although reviewers praised the picture, it bombed at the box office. Reviewing the film, New York Times writer Janet Maslin called it "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while" and lauded Eastwood's direction for deftly contrasting the modern West with the ancient West. Eastwood reprised her role as the lead in Any Which Way You Can, the sequel to 1980's Every Which Way but Loose. Although Maslin praised the picture, calling it "funnier and even better than its predecessor," others were less than enthusiastic. Any Which Way You Can, which had its holiday theatrical release, was one of the year's highest-grossing pictures and a huge financial success.
With the eponymous Clancy Carlile novel set during the Great Depression, Eastwood both directed and starred in the 1982 film Honkytonk Man. In the film, Eastwood plays the role of Red Stovall, a tuberculosis-stricken poor western singer who, after years of rejection, gets a gig at the Grand Ole Opry. His real-life son Kyle plays his nephew, and the two of them travel to Nashville, Tennessee, so he may record a song. While most critics panned the picture for its understated comedic moments and tragic undertones, Only Time was the lone positive reviewer in the US. French critics praised the picture, drawing comparisons to John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath; the picture has subsequently earned a stellar 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Concurrently, in 1982, Eastwood served as director, producer, and star in Firefox, a film about the Cold War. Shot before to but released subsequent to Honkytonk Man, the picture is based on a 1977 book of the same name by Craig Thomas. The Cold War prevented the film from shooting in Russia, so production moved to Vienna and other Austrian cities to create an illusion of Eastern Europe. At $20 million, it was the most expensive picture that Eastwood had made up to that point. A reviewer from People magazine compared Eastwood to "Luke Skywalker trapped in Dirty Harry's Soul" with regard to his performance.
Considered the darkest and bloodiest installment in the Dirty Harry series, Eastwood directed and starred in 1983's Sudden Impact. At this point in time, film earnings from which Eastwood was either a star or a director went to the studio, while he kept 60%. His last onscreen partnership with Locke was in Sudden Impact. She portrays a middle-aged artist who, together with her sister, was gang-raped many years ago; in this scene, she exacts vengeance by methodically killing the perpetrators of the rape in order to restore her sister's health. Many consider Clint Eastwood's "Go ahead, make my day"—spoken early on in the film in a coffee shop—to be a legendary quote from the silver screen. During the 1984 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan cited it in a speech he gave to Congress. With $70 million, it was the second-most profitable Dirty Harry picture, behind only The Enforcer. The film's examination of the psychological and physiological effects of rape earned it mostly good reviews, with several critics highlighting the film's feminist elements.
The controversial thriller Tightrope (1984), which starred Eastwood and Geneviève Bujold, was based on news clippings about a fugitive rapist from the Bay Area. The film, which takes place in New Orleans to separate it from the Dirty Harry series, starred Clint Eastwood as a divorced police officer who becomes entangled in the sadomasochistic obsession and twisted mind of his target. Tightrope was the fourth highest-grossing R-rated picture of 1984, and it was a commercial and critical success. The next year, Eastwood co-starred with Burt Reynolds in the crime comedy City Heat (also 1984). The plot is around a former police lieutenant and an ex-cop who have become private investigators and become embroiled with criminals during the 1930s, during Prohibition. In spite of its $50 million domestic total, Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop was the box office smash.
Westerns. In an earlier age, the pioneer was often a solitary figure who worked alone for the greater good of society. Typically, it's related to a desire for revenge; he settles the score personally rather than using the authorities. As Robin Hood. This is the final frontier for men. I suppose it's a romantic tale, but it's hard to come up with anything romantic when you think about today. In a Western, you can imagine a time when humans were free to roam the open range on horseback, unspoiled by civilization.
The 1985 Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa in the Garden" was Eastwood's sole venture into television directing; it featured Harvey Keitel and Locke as a married couple. Before working together in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Steven Spielberg had never worked with him before. Pale Rider (1985), in which he both directed and acted, is a nod to the classic western Shane (1953) and follows a priest who, in 1850, emerges from the Sierra Nevada fog to join the miners in the California Gold Rush. This marked his return to the Western genre. Titled "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," with Death riding a pale horse, the film shares many similarities with Eastwood's 1973 western High Plains Drifter, including an examination of the supernatural and themes of justice and morality. According to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist." He went on to say that it was the greatest western that had come out in a long time and one of the top films of 1985.
In the 1986 military drama Heartbreak Ridge, Eastwood and Marsha Mason portrayed characters from the US invasion of Grenada in 1983. He played the role of a Vietnam War veteran and US Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who is coming to terms with the fact that his military career is coming to a close. Disagreements arose throughout production and filming between Eastwood and his longtime producer and friend Fritz Manes, as well as between Eastwood and the US Department of Defense, who had previously shown disapproval of the picture. The picture was more of a financial success than a critical one when it came out, and its reputation has only improved since then. In the United States, the picture made $70 million.
In the fifth and last installment of the Dirty Harry series, The Dead Pool (1988), Eastwood was the star. In it, Liam Neeson, Patricia Clarkson, and a youthful Jim Carrey appeared as Johnny Squares, a drug-addled rock singer who is the first victim on a "Dead Pool" of celebrities compiled by horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson) who is believed to have the highest probability of dying. An devoted fan steals the list and uses it to imitate his favorite filmmaker, eliminating celebrities (including Dirty Harry) as he goes. For a Dirty Harry picture, The Dead Pool's approximately $38 million in box office profits is rather low. Although Roger Ebert praised it as well as the first, most people consider it the least strong installment in the series.
There was a slump in Eastwood's career from 1988 to 1992, when he started concentrating on smaller, more personal projects. His lifelong passion for jazz led him to film the 1988 biopic Bird, which starred Forest Whitaker as Charlie "Bird" Parker, a jazz musician. Jackie McLean, an alto saxophone, and Spike Lee, a longtime critic of Clint Eastwood and the son of jazz bassist Bill Lee, were among many who voiced their disapproval of the portrayal of Charlie Parker, saying that it failed to convey the artist's genuine personality and humor. Two Golden Globes went to Eastwood for the picture, and he also won the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifetime achievement and Best Director. But Bird only made $11 million at the box office, which Eastwood said was due to Black people's waning interest in jazz. Pink Cadillac (1989), a comedy that did not do well at the box office, reunited Carrey and Eastwood. An innocent woman (Bernadette Peters) tries to flee everyone in her husband's beloved pink Cadillac as the film follows a bounty hunter and a bunch of white racists hunting her. It was a low period in Eastwood's career, as the picture bombed at the box office and with critics. It made scarcely more than Bird.
From 1990 until 2009, we achieved critical acclaim and won several accolades.
White Hunter Black Heart (1990), starring Clint Eastwood and adapted from Peter Viertel's roman à clef, was about John Huston and the production of the legendary picture The African Queen. Filmed in Zimbabwe during the summer of 1989, the picture garnered positive reviews but only managed to gross $8.4 million in its limited theatrical run. In the buddy police action picture The Rookie, which came out in December 1990, Eastwood served as both director and co-star alongside Charlie Sheen. The film's action scenes were well-received, but critics were less impressed by the story and characters. Cinemas did not screen any of Eastwood's films in 1991 due to an ongoing litigation over allegations that he rammed a woman's car. In exchange for the complainant's promise not to appeal, Eastwood promised to cover her legal bills when she won the case.
If it's at all possible, he appears even more towering, trim, and eerily possessed than he did twenty-five years ago in Sergio Leone's groundbreaking film Fistful of Dollars. He hasn't mellowed with age. Perhaps because of this, he now feels at one with the mythical, late 19th-century Western landscapes, especially in his latest Unforgiven, as if he were a violent force of nature. ... Since the underappreciated, politically insane Heartbreak Ridge, this is his most lavish and fulfilling performance. His likeness is unparalleled.
Directed and starring as an elderly ex-gunfighter far past his prime, Eastwood returned to the western genre in Unforgiven (1992). The William Munny Killings and The Cut-Whore Killings were other names for the 1976 script, but director Clint Eastwood put it off until he was old enough to play the lead role and enjoy making his final western. Critics and audiences alike praised Unforgiven, calling it "the finest classical western to come along since perhaps John Ford’s 1956 The Searchers." Jack Methews of the Los Angeles Times summed it up well. The picture received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood, and four wins, including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples. The American Film Institute's "AFI’s 10 Top 10" list from June 2008 named Unforgiven as the fourth-best American western, behind Shane, High Noon, and The Searchers.
With John Malkovich and Rene Russo co-starring, Eastwood took the role of Frank Horrigan in Wolfgang Petersen's 1993 Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire. Because he was unable to prevent the death of John F. Kennedy, Secret Service agent Horrigan suffers from crippling remorse. With a total of $102 million in U.S. receipts, the picture was a top earner that year at the box office, and Eastwood was once again named number one in Quigley's Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, 25 years after his initial inclusion. Just a few months after filming completed, Eastwood helmed and co-starred in A Perfect World (also 1993) with Kevin Costner. Eastwood stars as a Texas Ranger in this 1960s film about a youngster (T.J. Lowther) and an escaped criminal (Costner). The New York Times' Janet Maslin said the picture was the pinnacle of Eastwood's filmmaking career, and many have since said it's one of his underappreciated works.
After receiving the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal from France during the May 1994 Cannes Film Festival, Eastwood went on to win the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995. After that, he had a brief cameo appearance in the 1995 children's picture Casper (1995). He widened his acting horizons by co-starring with Meryl Streep in 1995's The Bridges of Madison County. The film, which is based on the novel by Robert James Waller, follows National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid (Eastwood) as he meets and has an affair with Francesca (Streep), a farm wife of Italian descent, when he is in Iowa shooting ancient covered bridges. Commercially and critically, The Bridges of Madison County succeeded where the book failed. "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age," noted Roger Ebert of the picture, which led to its nomination for Best Picture at the Golden Globes and its victory at the César Award for Best Foreign picture in France. Both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards presented Streep with nominations.
Eastwood reunited with Unforgiven co-star Gene Hackman in the 1997 political thriller Absolute Power, which he also directed. As a seasoned burglar who sees the Secret Service cover up a murder, Eastwood played the part. Critical reactions to the film were varied. Subsequently that year, Eastwood helmed John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a film that featured Jude Law, Kevin Spacey, and John Cusack. Critical reception to the film was uneven.
Everyone who has seen any of Eastwood's films or seen him in one of his performances needs to consider the reality and dreams of American society during the past 25 years.
True Crime (1999) was both directed and acted in by Eastwood. Isaiah Washington portrays the role of killer Frank Beechum, and he plays the role of journalist Steve Everett, who is recuperating from alcoholism and has to cover the execution. The New York Times' Janet Maslin said, "his direction is galvanized by a sense of second chances and tragic misunderstandings, and by contrasting a larger sense of justice with the peculiar minutiae of crime. Perhaps he goes a shade too far in the latter direction, though." True Crime was critically acclaimed, but it bombed at the box office, earning less than half of its $55 million budget. It was Eastwood's worst-performing film of the 1990s, second only to the limited-release White Hunter Black Heart.
Eastwood co-starred with James Garner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland in the 2000 film Space Cowboys, which he also directed. Among a crew of seasoned ex-test pilots dispatched to orbit to fix a decrepit Soviet spacecraft, Eastwood portrayed one of them. Lennie Niehaus and Eastwood wrote the original score. Despite Roger Ebert's criticism that the picture was "too secure within its traditional story structure to make much seem at risk," Space Cowboys was generally well-received and has a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In the US, the picture made over $90 million, which is more than Eastwood's previous two films brought in together. Based on Michael Connelly's 1998 novel of the same name, the thriller Blood Work (2002) starred Clint Eastwood as a former FBI agent on the hunt for a cruel killer (Jeff Daniels). Rotten Tomatoes said the picture "well-made but marred by lethargic pacing," and it earned mediocre reviews; the picture only generated $26.2 million from an estimated $50 million in budget.
Eastwood helmed and composed the soundtrack for the 2003 crime drama Mystic River, which featured Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins and dealt with topics including sexual assault, vigilantism, and murder. With nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, Eastwood's picture was well-received by critics and went on to win two Oscars (for Penn's performance and Robbins' supporting role). The film's $30 million budget resulted in $90 million in domestic earnings. The National Society of Film Critics honored Eastwood with the Best Director of the Year award in 2003.
Every aspect of Clint's being befits an artist. He was a famous film director who, despite his years of dominance, treated us like equals on set and made us feel welcome and appreciated every day.
In the following year, with Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood received even more critical praise. Hilary Swank took home the Oscar for Best Actress, Morgan Freeman for Best Supporting Actor, and Best Picture were the four Oscars that the boxing drama received. Among the eighteen filmmakers that have helmed two or more Best Picture wins, Eastwood became the oldest at the age of seventy-four. Kathryn, his daughter and the 2005 Miss Golden Globe, presented him with the Golden Globe for Best Director, and he was also nominated for Best Actor and his score was nominated for a Grammy. A. A "masterpiece" and the year's finest picture, according to O. Scott of The New York Times.
The 2006 releases of Eastwood's two films pertaining to the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II were quite significant. Scott Eastwood made his film debut in the first, Flags of Our Fathers, which was about the men who hoisted the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. The next book, Letters from Iwo Jima, detailed the strategies employed by the Japanese troops stationed on the island and the correspondence they maintained with loved ones back home. The first American film to show a conflict from the perspective of a U.S. opponent entirely was Letters from Iwo Jima. There were several nominations for both films at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Letters from Iwo Jima, which was well-received by critics. Nominations for Best Director went to Eastwood for both films at the 64th Golden Globe Awards. For its work in foreign language film, Letters from Iwo Jima was named the winner.
The late 1920s-set biopic Changeling (2008) was Eastwood's next directorial effort. The film stars Angelina Jolie as a mother who finds her long-lost son, only to find out he is a fraud. The film made nearly $110 million after its festival runs, with most of the money coming from international markets. One critic, Damon Wise of Empire, called Changeling "flawless" after seeing the picture. Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine praised the picture, calling it "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed" and praising the "almost breathtaking deliberation" that integrated the film's characters and societal message into the plot. Directing the picture earned Eastwood nominations from the London picture Critics' Circle, the 62nd British Academy Film Awards for Best Direction, and the 66th Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Score.
With his appearance in Gran Torino (also 2008), Eastwood broke a four-year "self-imposed acting hiatus"; he co-starred with his son Kyle, Jamie Cullum, and was a producer, director, and part of the soundtrack. "Here aged and cynical but willing and able to fight on whenever the need arose," the biographer Marc Eliot said of Eastwood's performance in the part. The January 2009 opening weekend of Gran Torino brought in about $30 million, the best grossing weekend of his acting or directing career. At the end of the day, Gran Torino made more than $268 million at the box office, making it Eastwood's highest-grossing picture to date (not including inflation).
The 1995 Rugby World Cup squad from South Africa was the subject of Eastwood's 30th feature film, Invictus (2009), which starred Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, Matt Damon as captain François Pienaar, and Grant L. Roberts as Ruben Kruger. Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it 3.5 stars, saying, "very good film... with moments evoking great emotion." Todd McCarthy of Variety said, "Inspirational on the face of it, Clint Eastwood's film has a predictable trajectory, but every scene brims with surprising details that accumulate into a rich fabric of history, cultural impressions and emotion." The 67th Golden Globe Awards nominated Eastwood for Best Director for the film.
2010–present: directing and subsequent positions
Matt Damon reprised his role as a psychic in Clint Eastwood's 2010 film Hereafter. On September 12, 2010, the film made its global premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. Later in October, it had a limited distribution. "Despite a thought-provoking premise and Clint Eastwood's typical flair as director, Hereafter fails to generate much compelling drama, straddling the line between poignant sentimentality and hokey tedium." At the same time, Eastwood was executive producer for a TCM documentary about jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way (also 2010), which was made to commemorate Brubeck's 90th birthday. Critics were divided on the film Hereafter.
Directed by Eastwood was J. The 2011 biopic Edgar, on former Federal Bureau of Investigations director J. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Edgar Hoover. Reviews were divided for the picture overall, although many lauded Leonardo DiCaprio for his portrayal of Hoover. Richard Gere called the picture "fascinating" and "masterful," and he gave Leonardo DiCaprio high marks for his performance. While praising Leonardo DiCaprio, New York Magazine's David Edelstein wrote, "It's too bad J. Edgar is so shapeless and turgid and ham-handed, so rich in bad lines and worse readings." Eastwood starred as a seasoned baseball scout who takes his daughter on one last scouting trip in the 2012 drama Trouble with the Curve. Robert Lorenz, who was Eastwood's frequent filmmaking assistant, helmed the picture.
Why I keep going at this point is a mystery to everyone. As long as there are fresh things to tell, I will keep working. ... I will continue to perform these for as long as people ask me to.
"Halftime in America" (2012) was the title of the Chrysler halftime commercial that Eastwood narrated at Super Bowl XLVI. Some American politicians were critical of the commercial. The Republican Party said that this showed that Obama was deserving of a second term in office. Eastwood said in reaction, "I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America." In other words, he rejected the charge.
After that, in 2014, Eastwood helmed Jersey Boys, a biopic based on the Tony Award–winning musical. The Four Seasons were the protagonists of the biopic. After Steven Spielberg left the project, Clint Eastwood took over directing duties for American Sniper (also 2014), based on the eponymous biography by Chris Kyle. December 25, 2014 was the releasing date of the film. One of Eastwood's most financially successful films, American Sniper, earned over $350 million at the box office and over $547 million internationally. In his subsequent feature film, Sully, Tom Hanks played the role of Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who performed an emergency landing on the Hudson River, ensuring the survival of everyone passengers aboard US Airways Flight 1549. After its September 2016 U.S. release, it became Eastwood's latest commercial smash, earning over $238 million globally. He oversaw the production of the biographical thriller The 15:17 to Paris (2018), in which Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos—all of whom had never acting experience—played themselves in the role of preventing the 2015 Thalys train assault. Critics were harsh in their assessments of the picture, particularly on the performances given by the film's three main characters. After that, in December 2018, Eastwood appeared in and directed The Mule. This was Eastwood's first acting job since 2012's Trouble with the Curve, and he portrayed the part of Earl Stone, a senior cartel member modeled on Leo Sharp.
Based on the story of courageous security officer Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of being involved in the 1996 Olympic bombing, Eastwood was named as the director of The Ballad of Richard Jewell in May 2019. Directed and produced by Eastwood through Warner Bros., the picture—later retitled simply Richard Jewell—was his ninth consecutive feature film with the studio. Originally slated to be directed by Paul Greengrass in 2014, the picture would eventually be produced by Clint Eastwood and starring Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio instead. Among the supporting cast members are Olivia Wilde, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, Sam Rockwell, and Paul Walter Hauser, who plays the lead character. After Richard Jewell's release on December 13, 2019, filming had begun on June 24, 2019.
The news broke in October 2020 that Eastwood will be helming, producing, and starring in Warner Bros.'s Cry Macho, based on the 1975 book of the same name. Visual media. From November 2020 until December 2020, filming was underway in New Mexico. Its commercial flop and mediocre reviews before its September 17, 2021, release.
Using a script by Jonathan Abrams, rumors surfaced in April 2023 that Clint Eastwood will produce and helm Juror #2. Guest stars include Kiefer Sutherland, Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and J.K. Simmons is a person. The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike briefly halted production that had begun in June of that year; it was not until November of that year that production resumed. Warner Bros. distributed the picture. Visuals and premiered in November 2024, with mostly positive reviews. Juror #2 may be Clint Eastwood's last directing position, according to rumors.
With his first movie Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood launched a career spanning more than 30 films. His canon includes Westerns, action flicks, musicals, tragedies, and more. Being both a critically acclaimed and financially successful filmmaker, he is in the elite group of top Hollywood performers. David Denby of The New Yorker stated that, in contrast to Eastwood,
Howard Hawks never had a film role, while John Ford was only in a handful of silent features. James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Steve McQueen, and Sean Connery were among the actors who never directed a feature film. Both John Wayne and Burt Lancaster directed just two films, and both were terrible. Everyone from Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson to Warren Beatty and Robert Redford and Robert De Niro and Sean Penn has directed a few films, and the results have been all over the map.
Eastwood had a long-standing grudge against filmmakers who insisted on reshooting sequences until they were just right. When he started directing in 1970, he made an effort to steer clear of the parts of directing that had bored him when he was an actor. This led to Eastwood becoming famous for his skill as a film director, namely for cutting down on shooting time and keeping costs in check. He would rather have the performers do most sequences on the first try rather than have them rehearse. Some have drawn parallels between Eastwood and Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Jean-Luc Godard in terms of their use of fast editing techniques. When he feels like production is moving too slowly on a picture he's performing in, like The Outlaw Josey Wales, he occasionally steps in and takes over as director. When planning the production schedule, Eastwood almost never makes use of storyboards. Because he believes that the audience's imagination is essential to a film's ability to connect with viewers, he also tries to minimize character background data in the screenplay. According to Eastwood, he reveals just enough about a film's narrative to keep viewers interested—not "so much that it insults their intelligence," though.
Life magazine states that "Eastwood's style is to shoot first and act afterward. He etches his characters virtually without words. He has developed the art of underplaying to the point that anyone around him who so much as flinches looks hammily histrionic." Interviewers Richard Thompson and Tim Hunter commented that Eastwood's films are "superbly paced: unhurried; cool; and [give] a strong sense of real time, regardless of the speed of the narrative," while Ric Gentry considers Eastwood's pacing to be "unrushed and relaxed." To create a "noir-ish" atmosphere in his films, Eastwood often uses backlighting and low-key lighting.
Scholars have analyzed Eastwood's depictions of the angel of death, justice, mercy, suicide, and other ethical concepts from a theological and ethical vantage point due to his prolific examination of these themes in his work.
A political party
Although he is now a registered Libertarian, Eastwood has a long history of interest in California politics, was a Republican in the past, and has occasionally backed Democrats.
Nonpartisan mayor of California's Carmel-by-the-Sea was his election victory in April 1986. From his $200 monthly salary, he gave $200 to the Carmel Youth Center. During his time in office, he oversaw the construction of a city library annex, the addition of public bathrooms to the public beach, and the legalization of ice cream consumption on city streets. He was in office for two years before deciding against seeking reelection. While serving as an appointee of Governor Gray Davis to the California State Park and Recreation Commission in 2001, he spearheaded the fight against plans to extend California State Route 241, a toll road, through San Onofre State Beach. The proposed expansion would have included six lanes and extended for sixteen miles (26 km).
When the 2012 presidential race was underway, Eastwood was a Mitt Romney supporter. At the 2012 Republican National Convention, he gave a prime-time speech that garnered notice for his remorseful delivery of a speech to an empty chair meaning President Barack Obama. Eastwood declared his support for Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on February 22, 2020. The actor expressed his desire for Trump to behave "in a more genteel way, without tweeting and calling people names. I would personally like for him to not bring himself to that level."
What kind of music do you enjoy?
Bebop jazz, blues, country & western, and classical music are among genres that Eastwood loves. He began his musical journey as a budding boogie-woogie pianist and had grand plans to go on to earn a degree in music theory after finishing high school. The Cameo label released Eastwood's Cowboy Favorites in late 1959. The album featured timeless songs like "San Antonio Rose" by Bob Wills and "Don't Fence Me In" by Cole Porter. The album never made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, even though he tried to promote it by going on tour. According to Kal Mann, a producer from Cameo, "he would never make it big as a singer" in 1963. Still, when Rawhide wasn't filming, Eastwood, Paul Brinegar, and occasionally Sheb Wooley would hit the road to attend festivals, rodeos, and state fairs. They could make up to $15,000 a performance in 1962 with their show, Amusement Business Cavalcade of Fairs. His son Kyle is a skilled jazz bassist and composer, thus even though he never achieved big success as a performer, he has passed his influence on to him. As a self-proclaimed "audiophile," Eastwood enjoys listening to his vast record collection on his trusty Rockport turntable. Some of his favorite musicians include Robert Johnson of the Delta blues, pianists Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker on saxophone, and pianists Oscar Peterson, Richard Tucker, Dave Brubeck, and Fats Waller on piano.
Hollywood is now Eastwood's domain. record label, Malpaso Records, which was a component of his contract with Warner Bros. Upon Time Warner's sale of Warner Music Group to private investors, this agreement remained unaltered. Eastwood after Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall is an album of a jazz event he staged in 1996. Malpaso Records has published every soundtrack of Eastwood's films since The Bridges of Madison County. The original piano pieces for In the Line of Fire were created by him. He also scored Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Grace Is Gone, Changeling, Hereafter, J. Edgar, and several others. He was a co-writer on Diana Krall's 1999 single "Why Should I Care" alongside Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, and he also sang and penned the song that played over the Gran Torino credits.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated the score of Grace Is Gone for two Golden Globes at the 65th annual ceremony. The film "Grace is Gone" scored by Eastwood and penned by Carole Bayer Sager was nominated for Best Original Song, while Eastwood himself was nominated for Best Original Score. The 12th Annual Satellite Awards presented it with the trophy for Best Song. The 14th Critics' Choice Awards, the 66th Golden Globes, and the 35th Saturn Awards all gave Changeling nominations for Best Score, Best Original Score, and Best Music, respectively. At the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he is an active board member, Eastwood received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music on September 22, 2007, as part of the festival. In his acceptance speech, he stated, "It's one of the great honors I'll cherish in this lifetime."
On set at Warner Bros. The Eastwood Scoring Stage replaced Studios, Burbank in the 1990s.
="life outside of work"
Having a family and relationships
Despite his two divorces, Eastwood has had a plethora of relationships, both casual and serious, spanning decades and spanning continents. He is believed to have fathered eight children with six different women, albeit only half of them were acknowledged at the same time. Eastwood has been mum on the subject of his family size, and reports in the media have varied widely on the subject. His biographer, Patrick McGilligan, has said on camera that Eastwood's total number of children is unclear and that "one was when he was still in high school." He is resistant to discussing his family with the media, adding, "they're vulnerable people. I can protect myself, but they can't." (Eastwood, citation).
Eastwood wed Margaret Neville Johnson, a former factory secretary and fitness teacher, in December 1953 after meeting her on a blind date in May of the previous year. Clyde and Helen Warren of Seattle adopted their daughter Laurie (born 1954), who was born as a consequence of his affair that occurred during the courting. Although Eastwood's involvement in a theater group is not publicly known, McGilligan claimed that Laurie's birth mother was a member of that company. Kimber (born 1964) was born of Eastwood's romance with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis, which occurred between 1959 and 1973 while he was married to Johnson. Eastwood and Tunis had a "healthy relationship" all the way up to Tunis's passing in 2023.
Two children, Kyle (born in 1968) and Alison (born in 1972), were born to Johnson and Eastwood's open marriage, which she finally endured. Sondra Locke, an actress and director who had been in a "marriage of convenience" with gay jobless Gordon Leigh Anderson since 1967, started living with Eastwood in 1975. According to Locke, Eastwood told her he had "never been in love before" and performed "She Made Me Monogamous" while they were alone. While Eastwood and Johnson finalized their divorce in 1984, Locke stayed married to Anderson until her passing in 2018. Bill Brown, publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone, claims that Eastwood has never spoken about Locke's death, despite the fact that she was the love of his life.
Scott, born in 1986, and Kathryn, born in 1988, were legally fatherless children of Eastwood and Jacelyn Reeves, a flight attendant, in an undisclosed affair. After Locke and Eastwood's 1989 divorce, he settled two lawsuits he had filed: one for palimony and another for fraud. Francesca (born 1993) was born into Eastwood's relationship with actress Frances Fisher, which occurred in the early to mid-1990s. Morgan, Eastwood's daughter during his second marriage to news journalist Dina Ruiz, was born in 1996. The marriage between Ruiz and Eastwood continued until 2014.
Eastwood began hanging out with restaurant waitress Christina Sandera in 2014, although neither of them came out and said they were dating. Managers, publicists, and spokesmen for Eastwood have always denied knowing anything about his personal life. Sandera passed away in July 2024 at the age of 61 due to a heart attack. No one knows who Eastwood's new lover is, but they were dating by the year's end.
Ever since he was a youngster, Eastwood has been completely dedicated to his health and fitness. Magazines and publications frequently highlighted Eastwood when he was filming Rawhide, documenting his health-conscious lifestyle. For instance, a shot of Eastwood performing push-ups appeared in the August 1959 issue of TV Guide. In his fitness and nutrition advice, he stressed the need of a balanced diet rich in fresh produce, vitamin supplements, and moderation in sugary drinks, alcohol, and carbs.
Fritz Manes characterized Eastwood's father's 1970 heart attack death at 64 years of age as "the only bad thing that ever happened to him in his life." After all, Eastwood's grandpa had survived to 92 years of age. It changed his life in so many ways; he started working out more frequently and with more intensity, and he became more faster and more efficient on set. Even though he didn't drink alcohol, in 1971 he established the Hog's Breath Inn, a bar in Carmel-by-the-Sea with an old English vibe. Eastwood now owns the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea, having sold the pub in 1999.
Eastwood owns the Tehàma Golf Club and is a devoted golfer. He gives his time at big events to charity and is a stakeholder in the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is west of Carmel. To get to the studios faster, Eastwood frequently uses his helicopter, for which he has a private pilot's certificate from the FAA (for both fixed-wing and rotary craft).
Faith-based practices and contemplation
Eastwood stated, "No, I don't believe in God" in an interview with film critic Gene Siskel in 1973. In 2023, his daughter Kathryn stated, "Most of my earthly family do not believe in or worship God. They either have a lack of faith or reject the god in the Bible in favor of other idols or ideas." Eastwood has said that he finds spirituality in nature (as suggested by his Western, Pale Rider, 1985), stating that "I was born during the Depression and I was brought up with no specific church. We moved every four or five months during the first 14 years of my life, so I was sent to a different church depending on wherever we lived. Most of them were Protestant, but I went to other churches because my parents wanted me to try to figure out things for myself. They always said, 'I just want to expose you to some religious order and see if that's something you like'. So although my religious training was not really specific, I do feel spiritual things. If I stand on the side of the Grand Canyon and look down, it moves me in some way." He has also said: "It would be wonderful to talk with my parents again, who are, of course, deceased. It makes the idea of death much less scary. But then again, if you think that nothing happens after you die, maybe it makes you live life better. Maybe you're supposed to do the best you can by the gift you're given of life and that alone."
During an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show in 1975 with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the inventor of Transcendental Meditation, Eastwood openly declared his participation in the practice. Every morning for years, he has meditated.
Investing in property
Eastwood became interested in the Carmel area's real estate while serving in the US Army at neighboring Fort Ord. Along Highway 1, near Malpaso Creek, south of the Carmel Highlands, he purchased five pieces of property totaling 283 acres (115 ha) from Charles Sawyer on December 24, 1967, using the money he earned as an actor.
The Howard Hattan estate sold Eastwood and actor James Garner 340 acres (138 ha) of forested land in Carmel Valley for $640,000 in May 1968. The Rancho Cañada Country Club and golf course were across the Carmel Valley Road from the property. In November 1983, Eastwood and Garner gave the undeveloped site to the Monterey County Housing Authority, with the condition that a portion of it be reserved for senior housing.
Malpaso Productions was the name he gave to his producing firm. In the end, Eastwood acquired 650 acres (263 hectares) (6 lots) of Highland property. After purchasing the Malpaso property from him for $3.08 million in 1995, Monterey County permanently acquired the area for conservation purposes. Eastwood purchased the Odello Ranch, which is at the mouth of the Carmel River and spans 134 acres (54 ha), using the money that he received from the sale that same year. In order to safeguard his Mission Ranch resort and the adjacent Mission Fields residential subdivision, which were both inundated in 1994, he paid to have the levees lowered along the southern bank of the Carmel River. The Eastwood Trust, comprised of Eastwood and his ex-wife Maggie Johnson, gave the Big Sur Land Trust 49 acres (20 ha) of Odello Ranch land to the east of Highway 1 and the water rights that came with it in 1997. Finally, on June 28, 2016, Eastwood gave the last of the land in Odello East.
Just east of the Odello Ranch, on 550 acres (223 ha) of land called the Cañada Woods development, Eastwood made a purchase.
Eastwood paid over $20 million in 2010 to construct a 15,949-square-foot (1,481.7 m2) estate in Carmel-by-the-Sea for himself. He was 80 years old at the time. His real estate holdings in California encompass a variety of properties, including a Spanish-style mansion in Bel-Air measuring 6,136 square feet (570.1 m2), Rising River Ranch near Cassel, an apartment in Burbank, a Desert modern home in La Quinta (sometimes mistaken for Palm Springs) measuring 5,575 square feet (517.9 m2), and a sizable yet subtle house adjacent to his long-term main residence in Bel-Air. Two additional states have public records showing that Eastwood has bought real estate. Two of his properties are beachside manors in Hawaii and Sun Valley, Idaho; the former is 5,700 square feet (530 square meters) while the latter is 1.13 acres. The latter made an appearance on an episode of Mrs. Eastwood & Company, a 2012 reality program.
Among Eastwood's former residences include those in Pebble Beach, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and Tiburon.
Movie List ==
Over the course of his career, Eastwood has worked as an actor, director, producer, and composer on more than fifty films. He has been in many TV shows, most notably Rawhide, where he co-starred. He began directing in 1971 and produced his first film as a producer in 1982 with Firefox. However, from 1968's Hang 'Em High forward, he had been working as an uncredited producer on every Malpaso Company picture. In addition to writing and creating music, Eastwood has performed in his films. He is most known for his roles in westerns, action flicks, and dramatic features. Box Office Mojo, a website that tracks domestic box office receipts, reports that Eastwood's films have earned over $1.81 billion, with an average of $38.6 million per picture.
Achievements and recognitions ==
Throughout his career in cinema, television, and music, Eastwood has garnered several accolades and nominations. His cinematic work has garnered the most accolades, including many from the Academy, the Directors Guild of America, the Golden Globes, and the People's Choice Awards. Only Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait and Reds) and Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby) have ever received Best Director and Best Actor nominations for the same picture. He is one of just a handful of filmmakers who are more recognized as actors to have won an Oscar for directing; the others being Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Richard Attenborough, Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson. He joined Miloš Forman and Francis Ford Coppola as the only three living directors to have helmed two Best Picture winners on February 27, 2005. He became the oldest Oscar winner for Best Director at the age of seventy-four. Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn in Mystic River, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby—these are the five performers whose performances that Eastwood has directed to win Oscars.
The occasion to record Eastwood's handprints and footprints in cement took place at Grauman's Chinese Theater on August 22, 1984. Not only did Eastwood get an honorary degree from AFI in 2009, but he also won the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996. Distinguished guests Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, California's first lady, presented Eastwood with an induction into the California Hall of Fame at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts on December 6, 2006.
Paris hosted a ceremony in early 2007 to award Eastwood with the Légion d'honneur, France's highest civilian honor. "You exemplified the best of Hollywood," French President Jacques Chirac remarked to Eastwood. The first Lumière Festival in Lyon, France, in October 2009, presented him with the Lumière Award, named after the cinematograph's creators, the Lumière Brothers. His life's work and significant impact on the 7th Art are both recognized by this accolade. Obama presented Eastwood with an honor in the arts and humanities in February of 2010. "Artworks in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American" were Obama's words as he praised Eastwood's flicks.
Among Eastwood's honorary degrees are those from the University of the Pacific (2006), the University of Southern California (USC) (Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, May 27, 2007), and the Berklee College of Music (Honorary Doctor of Music, September 22, 2007)—all presented during the Monterey Jazz Festival.
At a lavish event in Paris on February 26, 2009, Eastwood was presented with the Honorary Golden Palm Award by the Cannes Film Festival.
In recognition of his efforts to improve ties between Japan and the US, Emperor Akihito of Japan bestowed upon him the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon on July 22 of that year.
At the 2013 International Samobor Film Music Festival, Eastwood got the Golden Pine lifetime achievement award alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto and Gerald Fried.