Profession: Actor
Following his breakthrough role as Rowdy Yates in the CBS television series Rawhide (1959–65), Eastwood starred as the laconic Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) in the 1960s, and as San Francisco Police Department Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) of the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, and several others as tough-talking, no-nonsense police officers, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.[1][2] Eastwood is also notable for his comedic efforts in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), his two highest-grossing films after adjusting for inflation.
Throughout his career, which has spanned seven decades, Eastwood has received five Academy Awards including the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, two Cannes Film Festival awards, and five People's Choice Awards, among other accolades. He won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture and received nominations for Best Actor for his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). These films in particular, as well as others including Hang 'Em High (1968), Play Misty for Me (1971) (his directorial debut), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and/or critical acclaim. He has directed most of his star vehicles, but has also directed films he did not act in, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations and Changeling (2008), which received Golden Globe Award nominations. Eastwood has received considerable critical praise in France in particular, including for several of his films which were panned in the United States. In 1994 he received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal and in 2007 was awarded with the Légion d'honneur medal by the French.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Film career
2.1 1950s
2.1.1 Early career struggles
2.1.2 Rawhide
2.2 1960s
2.3 1970s
2.4 1980s
2.5 1990s
2.6 2000s
2.7 2010s
2.8 Directing style
3 Politics
4 Personal life
4.1 Relationships
4.2 Leisure
4.3 Music
5 Awards and honors
6 Filmography
7 Notes
8 Bibliography
9 Further reading
10 External links
[edit]Early life
Main article: Early life and work of Clint Eastwood
Eastwood was born in San Francisco to Clinton Eastwood, Sr. (1906–70), a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (née Runner; 1909–2006), a factory worker.[3] He was nicknamed "Samson" by the hospital nurses as he weighed 11 pounds 6 ounces (5.2 kg) at birth.[4][5][6] Eastwood is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry,[3][7] and was raised in a middle class Protestant home with his younger sister, Jean.[8][9] His family relocated often, as his father worked at different jobs along the West Coast, including at a pulp mill.[10][11] The family settled in Piedmont, California, where Eastwood attended Piedmont Junior High School and Piedmont Senior High School, and took part in sports such as basketball, football, gymnastics, and competitive swimming.[12] He later transferred to Oakland Technical High School, where the drama teachers encouraged him to enroll in school plays, but he was not interested. As his family moved to different areas, he held a series of jobs, including a lifeguard, paper carrier, grocery clerk, forest firefighter, and golf caddy.[13]
After graduating from high school in 1949, Eastwood intended to enter Seattle University and major in music theory. However, in 1950 he was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War.[14] He was stationed at Fort Ord in California, where his certificate as a lifeguard got him appointed as a life-saving and swimming instructor.[15] While on leave in 1951, Eastwood was a passenger in a Douglas AD bomber that ran out of fuel and crashed in the ocean near Point Reyes.[16][17] After escaping from the sinking aircraft, he and the pilot safely swam 3 miles (5 km) to shore.[18]
Eastwood later moved to Los Angeles and began a romance with Maggie Johnson, a college student.[19] He managed an apartment house in Beverly Hills by day and worked at a gas station by night.[20] He enrolled at Los Angeles City College and married Maggie shortly before Christmas 1953 in South Pasadena.[20]
[edit]Film career
[edit]1950s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1950s
[edit]Early career struggles
According to the CBS press release for Rawhide, the Universal (known then as Universal-International) film company was shooting in Fort Ord when an enterprising assistant spotted Eastwood and invited him to meet the director.[21] According to Eastwood's official biography, the key figure was a man named Chuck Hill, who was stationed in Fort Ord and had contacts in Hollywood.[21] While in Los Angeles, Hill became reacquainted with Eastwood and managed to sneak Eastwood into a Universal studio, where he showed him to cameraman Irving Glassberg.[21] Glassberg arranged for an audition under Arthur Lubin, who, although very impressed with Clint's appearance and stature at 6'4" (193 cm),[22] disapproved initially of his acting skills, remarking, "He was quite amateurish. He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything".[23] Lubin suggested that he attend drama classes and arranged for Eastwood's initial contract in April 1954, at $100 (US$817 in 2011 dollars[24]) per week.[23] After signing, Eastwood was initially criticized for his stiff manner and hissing his lines through his teeth, a life-long trademark, along with his squint.[25][26][27][28]
In May 1954, Eastwood made his first audition for Six Bridges to Cross but was rejected by Joseph Pevney.[29] After many unsuccessful auditions, he was eventually given a minor role by director Jack Arnold in Revenge of the Creature, a sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon.[30] In September 1954, Eastwood worked for three weeks on Lubin's Lady Godiva of Coventry, won a role in February 1955 as a sailor in Francis in the Navy, and appeared uncredited in another Jack Arnold film, Tarantula, in which he played a squadron pilot.[31][32] In May 1955, Eastwood had a brief appearance in the film Never Say Goodbye, during which he shares a scene with Rock Hudson.[33] Universal presented him with his first television role on July 2, 1955, on NBC's Allen in Movieland, which starred Tony Curtis and Benny Goodman.[34] Although he continued to develop as an actor, Universal terminated his contract on October 23, 1955.[35][36]
Eastwood joined the Marsh Agency, and although Lubin landed him his biggest role to date in The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and later hired him for Escapade in Japan, without a formal contract Eastwood was struggling.[37] Eastwood met financial advisor Irving Leonard, who would arguably become the most responsible for launching his career in the late 1950s and 1960s and whom Eastwood described as being "like a second father to me".[38] Upon Leonard's advice, he changed talent agencies to the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956 and Mitchell Gertz in 1957. He landed several small roles in 1956 as a temperamental army officer for a segment of ABC's Reader's Digest series, and as a motorcycle gang member on a Highway Patrol episode.[37] Eastwood had a minor uncredited role as a ranch hand (his first western film) in June 1956 with Law Man.[33] In 1957, Eastwood played a cadet in the West Point television series and portrayed a suicidal gold prospector in Death Valley Days.[39] The following year he played a Navy lieutenant in a segment of Navy Log and in early 1959 made a notable guest appearance on Maverick opposite James Garner as a cowardly villain intent on marrying a rich girl for money.[39] Eastwood had a small part as an aviator in the French picture Lafayette Escadrille and played a major role as an ex-renegade of the Confederacy in Ambush at Cimarron Pass, a film which Eastwood viewed as disastrous and professed to be the lowest point of his career.[40][41][42]
[edit]Rawhide
"Lazy, and would cost you a morning. I never started a day with Clint Eastwood in the first scene, because you knew he was gonna be late, at least a half hour or an hour."
—Rawhide director Thomas Carr on Eastwood.[43]
In 1958, Eastwood was cast as Rowdy Yates for the CBS hour-long western series Rawhide, the breakthrough in his career he had long been searching for.[44][45] However, Eastwood was not especially happy with his character; Eastwood was almost 30, and Rowdy was too young and too cloddish for Clint to feel comfortable with the part.[46] Filming began in Arizona in the summer of 1958.[47] It took just three weeks for Rawhide to reach the top 20 in TV ratings and, although it never won an Emmy, it was a major success for several years, and reached its peak at number six in the ratings between October 1960 and April 1961.[48] The Rawhide years (1959–65) were some of the most grueling of Eastwood's career. He often filmed six days a week for an average of twelve hours a day, yet some directors still criticized him for not working hard enough.[43][48] By late 1963, Rawhide was beginning to decline in popularity and lacked freshness in the script; it was canceled in the middle of the 1965–66 television season.[49] Eastwood made his first attempt at directing when he filmed several trailers for the show, although he was unable to convince producers to let him direct an episode.[50] In the show's first season, Eastwood had earned $750 (US$5,697 in 2011 dollars[24]) an episode, and when the show was canceled, he received a $119,000 (US$828,341 in 2011 dollars[24]) compensation package.[51]
[edit]1960s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1960s
Set of The Good, Bad and the Ugly in Almeria in 2009
In late 1963, Eastwood's co-star Eric Fleming on Rawhide rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made western called A Fistful of Dollars, to be directed in a remote region of Spain by Sergio Leone, who was relatively unknown at the time.[52] Other 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. Harrison suggested Eastwood, whom he knew could play a cowboy convincingly. Eastwood saw it as an opportunity to escape Rawhide and signed a contract for $15,000 (US$106,211 in 2011 dollars[24]) in wages for eleven weeks' work and a bonus of a Mercedes automobile upon completion. He arrived in Rome in May 1964.[53][54] Eastwood later spoke about the transition from a television western to A Fistful of Dollars: "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 anti-hero."[55] Eastwood was instrumental in creating the Man with No Name character's distinctive visual style. Although Eastwood is a non-smoker, Leone insisted that cigar smoking was an essential ingredient of the "mask" he was attempting to create with the loner character.[56]
Some interior shots for the film were done at the Cinecittà studio on the outskirts of Rome and then production moved to a small village in Andalusia, Spain.[57] A Fistful of Dollars became a benchmark in the development of spaghetti westerns, with Leone depicting a more lawless and desolate world than in traditional westerns and challenging the stereotypical American notions of a western hero by replacing him with a morally ambiguous antihero. Eastwood became a major star in Italy.[58] Leone hired Eastwood to star in For a Few Dollars More (1965), the second film of the trilogy, and thanks to screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, the rights to the film and the final film of the trilogy (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) were sold to United Artists for roughly $900,000 (US$6.26 million in 2011 dollars[24]).[59]
"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."
—Eastwood, on playing the Man with No Name character[60]
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 (The Witches) opposite De Laurentiis' wife, actress Silvana Mangano.[61] Eastwood's nineteen-minute installment only took a few days to shoot. The performance was not met well by critics; one said "no other performance of his is quite so 'un-Clintlike' ".[62] Two months later, Eastwood began on the third Dollars film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which he again played the mysterious Man with No Name. Lee Van Cleef returned to play a ruthless fortune seeker, while Eli Wallach was hired as the cunning Mexican bandit Tuco. The storyline involves a search for a cache of Confederate gold buried in a cemetery. One day, during the filming of the scene in which a 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".[63] Just minutes later, crew confusion over the word "Vaya!" consummated in a premature explosion which could have killed him, resulting in the bridge having to be rebuilt.[63]
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.[64] All the films were successful in cinemas, particularly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which eventually collected $8 million (US$52.6 million in 2011 dollars[24]) in rental earnings and turned Eastwood into a major film star.[64] However, all three films received generally bad reviews from critics and marked the beginning of Eastwood's battle to win the respect of American film critics.[65] Judith Crist described A Fistful of Dollars as "cheapjack".[66] Newsweek described For a Few Dollars More as "excruciatingly dopey"[65] and Renata Adler of The New York Times remarked that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre",[67] despite the fact that it is now widely considered to be one of the finest films in history.[68][69] While Time highlighted the wooden acting, especially Eastwood's, critics such as Vincent Canby and Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Eastwood's coolness playing the tall, lone stranger.[70] Leone's unique style of cinematography was widely acclaimed, even by some critics who disliked the acting.[65]
Stardom brought more roles in the "tough guy" mold. Eastwood signed for the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High (1968), which featured him alongside Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, Dennis Hopper, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern, and James MacArthur.[71] A cross between Rawhide and Leone's westerns, the film brought him a salary of $400,000 (US$2.53 million in 2011 dollars[24]) and 25% of the net earnings.[71] He plays a man who seeks revenge after being lynched by vigilantes and left for dead.[72] Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy, Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists.[73] When it opened in July 1968, the film became the biggest United Artists opening in history and exceeded all of the James Bond films at that time.[74][75] It was widely praised by critics, including Archer Winsten of the New York Post, who described Hang 'Em High as "a western of quality, courage, danger and excitement".[9]
Meanwhile, before Hang 'Em High had been released, Eastwood had set to work on the film Coogan's Bluff opposite Don Stroud, about an Arizona deputy sheriff tracking a wanted psychopathic criminal (Stroud) in the streets of New York City. The project reunited him with Universal Studios after he received an offer of $1 million (US$6.58 million in 2011 dollars[24]), more than double his previous salary.[75] Jennings Lang arranged for Eastwood to meet Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who would soon become one of Eastwood's close friends, forming a close partnership which would last more than ten years.[76] Coogan's Bluff also became the first of many collaborations with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later compose the jazzy scores to Eastwood's films throughout the 1970s and 1980s, especially the Dirty Harry film series. Filming began in November 1967, before the full script had been finalized.[77] The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence,[78][79] and set the prototype for the macho cop that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films.
Eastwood was paid $850,000 (US$5.37 million in 2011 dollars[24]) in 1968 for the war epic Where Eagles Dare.[80] The film, about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the mountains, had Richard Burton playing the squad's commander and Eastwood as his right-hand man. Eastwood was also cast as Two-Face in the Batman television show, but the series was canceled before filming could commence.[81]
Eastwood branched out by starring in his career's only musical, Paint Your Wagon (1969). 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 budget—eventually exceeding $20 million (US$120 million in 2011 dollars[24])—was extremely high for this period.[82] The film was not a critical or commercial success, although it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.[83]
[edit]1970s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1970s
In 1970, Eastwood starred in the western Two Mules for Sister Sara with Shirley MacLaine. The film, directed by Siegel, is about an American mercenary who gets mixed up with a whore disguised as a nun and aids a group of Juarista rebels during the reign of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico.[84][85] Eastwood once again played a mysterious stranger—unshaven, wearing a serape-like vest, and smoking a cigar.[86] Although it received moderate reviews,[87][88][89] The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made included Two Mules for Sister Sara in its top 1,000 films of all time.[90] Later in 1970, Eastwood starred as one of a group of Americans who steal a fortune in gold from the Nazis in the World War II film Kelly's Heroes with Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas. Kelly's Heroes was the last film that Eastwood appeared in which was not produced by his Malpaso Productions.[91] Filming commenced in July 1969 on location in Yugoslavia and in London.[92] The film received mostly a positive reception and its anti-war sentiments were recognized.[91] In the winter of 1969–70, Eastwood and Siegel began planning his next film, The Beguiled, the tale of a wounded Union soldier held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girls' school.[93] Upon release, the film received major recognition in France and is considered one of Eastwood's finest works by the French.[94] However, it grossed less than $1 million (US$5.66 million in 2011 dollars[24]) and, according to Eastwood and Lang, flopped as it was poorly publicized and Eastwood was "emasculated in the film".[95]
"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 sensitivity and vulnerabilities, 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 philosophy with them. Winners tell themselves, I'm as bright as the next person. I can do it. Nothing can stop me."
—Eastwood, on his role in The Beguiled[95]
Eastwood's career reached a turning point in 1971.[96] Before Irving Leonard died, he and Eastwood had discussed the idea of Malpaso producing Play Misty for Me, a film that was to give Eastwood the artistic control that he desired, and was to be his directorial debut.[97] The script was about a jazz disc jockey named Dave (Eastwood) who has a casual affair with Evelyn (Jessica Walter), a listener who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night asking him to play her favorite song, Erroll Garner's "Misty". When Dave ends their relationship the fan becomes violent and murderous.[98] Filming commenced in Monterey in September 1970 and included footage of that year's Monterey Jazz Festival.[99] The film was highly acclaimed, 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, the film, and Eastwood's performance.[100] Walter was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award (Drama) for her performance in the film.
"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?"
—Eastwood, in Dirty Harry
The script for Dirty Harry (1971) was written by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink. It is a story about a hard-edged New York City (later changed to San Francisco) police inspector named Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means.[101] Dirty Harry is arguably Eastwood's most memorable character and has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day.[102][103] Author Eric Lichtenfeld argues that Eastwood's role as Dirty Harry established the "first true archetype" of the action film genre.[104] His lines (quoted at left) have been cited as among the most memorable in cinematic history and are regarded by firearms historians such as Garry James and Richard Venola as the force which catapulted the ownership of .44 Magnum pistols, specifically the Smith & Wesson Model 29 carried by Harry Callahan, to unprecedented heights in the United States.[105][106] After its release in December 1971, Dirty Harry proved a phenomenal success, earning some $22 million (US$119 million in 2011 dollars[24]) in the United States and Canada alone.[107] It was Siegel's highest-grossing film and the start of a series of films featuring the character of Harry Callahan. 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",[108] the film was widely criticized and accused of fascism.[109][110][111]
Eastwood was offered the role of James Bond following the departure of Sean Connery, but turned it down because he believed the character should be played by an English actor.[112] Eastwood next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd (1972), based on a character inspired by Reies Lopez Tijerina, who stormed a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, in June 1967. Under John Sturges, filming began in Old Tucson in November 1971, but Eastwood suffered symptoms of a bronchial infection and several panic attacks during filming.[113] Joe Kidd received a mixed reception. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times thought the film was unremarkable, with foolish symbolism and sloppy editing, but he praised Eastwood's performance.[114]
In 1973, Eastwood directed his first western, High Plains Drifter, with a moral and supernatural theme which would be emulated later in Pale Rider. The plot follows a mysterious stranger (Eastwood) who arrives in a brooding Western town where the people hire the stranger to defend the town against three felons that are soon to be released. There remains confusion among viewers about whether the stranger is the brother of the deputy whom the felons lynched and murdered or his ghost. Holes in the plot were filled with black humor and allegory, influenced by Leone.[115] 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 derivative as it was expressive", with Arthur Knight of Saturday Review remarking that Clint had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society".[116] John Wayne, who had declined a role in the film, sent a letter of disapproval to Eastwood some weeks after the film was released, saying that "the townspeople did not represent the true spirit of the American pioneer, the spirit that made America great".[117]
Eastwood with a fan circa 1970
Eastwood turned his attention towards Breezy (1973), a film about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. 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 was an important figure in his life.[118] Kay Lenz was awarded the part of Breezy, because Locke, at 26, was deemed too old. The film, shot very quickly and efficiently by Eastwood and Frank Stanley, came in $1 million (US$4.94 million in 2011 dollars[24]) under budget and finished three days ahead of schedule.[119] The film was not a major critical or commercial success; it barely reached the Top 50 before disappearing and was only made available on video in 1998.[120]
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, Magnum Force (1973), about a group of rogue young officers in the San Francisco Police Force who systematically exterminate the city's worst criminals.[121] Although the film was a major success after release, grossing $58.1 million (US$287 million in 2011 dollars[24]) in the United States alone—a new record for Eastwood—it was not a critical success.[122][123] The New York Times critics Nora Sayre criticized the often contradictory moral themes of the film and Frank Rich believed it "was the same old stuff".[123]
In 1974, Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges and George Kennedy in the buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The film is a road movie about a veteran bank robber, Thunderbolt (Eastwood), and a young con man drifter, Lightfoot (Bridges). On release in spring 1974, the film was praised for its offbeat comedy mixed with high suspense and tragedy but was only a modest success at the box office, earning $32.4 million (US$144 million in 2011 dollars[24]).[124] Eastwood's acting was noted by critics, but he was overshadowed by Bridges who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Eastwood was reportedly fuming at his own lack of Academy Award recognition and swore that he would never work for United Artists again.[124][125]
The Eiger Sanction (1975) was based on a critically acclaimed spy novel by Trevanian. Paul Newman was originally intended for the role of Jonathan Hemlock which was later adopted by Eastwood, an assassin turned college art professor who decides to return to his former profession for one last sanction in return for a rare Picasso painting; he must climb the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland and perform the deed under perilous conditions. Once again he starred alongside George Kennedy. Mike Hoover taught Eastwood how to climb during several weeks of preparation at Yosemite in the summer of 1974 before filming commenced in Grindelwald on August 12, 1974.[126][127] Despite prior warnings about the perils of the Eiger, the filming crew suffered a number of accidents including one fatality.[128][129] Eastwood insisted on doing all his own climbing and stunts, in spite of the danger. Upon its release in May 1975, The Eiger Sanction was a commercial failure, receiving only $23.8 million (US$97.1 million in 2011 dollars[24]) at the box office and was panned by most critics,[130] with Joy Gould Boyum of the Wall Street Journal dismissing the film as "brutal fantasy".[130][131] Eastwood blamed Universal Studios for the film's poor promotion and turned his back on them. He formed a long-lasting agreement with Warner Brothers through Frank Wells that would last for the next 35 years.[132]
The western, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), was inspired by a 1972 novel by Asa Carter.[133] The lead character, Josey Wales (Eastwood), is a rebel southerner who refuses to surrender his arms after the American Civil War and is chased across the old southwest by a group of enforcers. Eastwood cast his young son Kyle Eastwood, Chief Dan George, and Sondra Locke for the first time, against director Philip Kaufman's wishes.[134] Kaufman was notoriously fired under Eastwood's command by producer Bob Daley, resulting in a fine (reported to be around $60,000 (US$231,484 in 2011 dollars[24]) from the Directors Guild of America, who subsequently passed new legislation reserving the right to impose a major fine on a producer for discharging a director and replacing him with himself.[135] The film was pre-screened at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho in a six-day conference entitled, Western Movies: Myths and Images. Some 200 esteemed film critics, academics, and directors including critics Jay Cocks and Arthur Knight and directors such as King Vidor, William Wyler, and Howard Hawks were invited to the screening.[136] Upon release in August 1976, The Outlaw Josey Wales was widely acclaimed, with many critics and viewers seeing Eastwood's role as an iconic one that related to America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War.[136] Roger Ebert compared the nature and vulnerability of Eastwood's portrayal of Josey Wales with his Man with No Name character in his Dollars westerns and praised the atmosphere of the film.[137] The film would later appear in Time's "Top 10 Films of the Year".[138]
Eastwood was offered the role of Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, but declined as he did not want to spend weeks in the Philippines shooting it.[139][140] He refused the part of a platoon leader in Ted Post's Vietnam War film, Go Tell the Spartans.[139] Eastwood decided to make a third Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer, which had Harry partnered with a new female officer (Tyne Daly) to face a San Francisco Bay area group resembling the Symbionese Liberation Army, culminating in a shootout on Alcatraz island.[141] The film, at 95 minutes, was considerably shorter than the previous Dirty Harry movie but was a major commercial success, grossing $100 million (US$386 million in 2011 dollars[24]) worldwide, becoming Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date.[142]
In 1977, Eastwood directed and starred in The Gauntlet. He portrays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix to testify against the mob. Although a moderate hit with the viewing public, critics were mixed about the film, with many believing it was overly violent. Eastwood's longtime nemesis Pauline Kael called it "a tale varnished with foul language and garnished with violence". Roger Ebert, on the other hand, gave it three stars and called it "...classic Clint Eastwood: fast, furious, and funny."[143] In 1978, Eastwood starred in Every Which Way but Loose, an uncharacteristic, offbeat comedy role. Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler who roams the American West searching for a lost love, accompanied by his brother and an orangutan. Upon its release, the film was a surprising success and became Eastwood's most commercially successful film at the time. Panned by the critics, it ranks high among those of his career to date, and was the second-highest grossing film of 1978.[144]
Eastwood starred in the atmospheric thriller Escape from Alcatraz in 1979, the last of his films to be directed by Don Siegel. It is based on the true story of Frank Lee Morris, who, along with John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from the notorious Alcatraz prison in 1962. The film was a major success and marked the beginning of a period of praise from critics for Eastwood, with Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic describing it as "crystalline cinema"[145] and Frank Rich of Time describing it as "cool, cinematic grace".[146]
[edit]1980s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1980s
In 1980, Eastwood directed and played the lead role in the comedy Bronco Billy alongside Locke, Scatman Crothers, and Sam Bottoms.[147] His children, Kyle and Alison, had small roles as orphans.[148] Eastwood has cited Bronco Billy as being one of the most affable shoots of his career, and biographer Richard Schickel has argued that the character of Bronco Billy is Eastwood's most self-referential work.[149][150] The film was a commercial failure,[151] but was appreciated by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times believed the film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", and praised Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new.[152] Later in 1980, Eastwood starred in the sequel to Every Which Way but Loose entitled Any Which Way You Can. The film received a number of bad reviews from critics, although Maslin described it as, "funnier and even better than its predecessor".[151] The film became another box office success and was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year.
Eastwood in 1981
In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred in Honkytonk Man alongside his son Kyle, based on Clancy Carlile's novel set during the Great Depression. The film received only one good review in the United States, from Time, with most reviewers criticizing its blend of muted humor and tragedy.[153] However, the film was critically acclaimed in France, where it was compared to John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath.[154] Also in 1982, Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox. The film was shot before Honkeytonk Man but was released after it, and at a cost of $20 million (US$45.5 million in 2011 dollars[24]) to produce, it was Eastwood's highest budget film to date.[155] Eastwood's performance was likened to "Luke Skywalker trapped in Dirty Harry's Soul" by People.[155]
The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact, shot in the spring and summer of 1983, is widely considered to be the darkest and most violent of the series.[156] At this point, Eastwood was receiving 60% of all profits to films he starred and directed in, with the rest going to the studio.[157] Sudden Impact was the last film he starred in with Locke, who plays a woman raped along with her sister by a ruthless gang at a fairground, and seeks revenge for her sister's now vegetative state by systematically murdering her rapists. The script's line "Go ahead, make my day", uttered by Eastwood during an early scene, is often cited as one of cinema's immortal ones, and was famously quoted by President Ronald Reagan in a speech to Congress and used during the 1984 presidential elections.[158][159][160] The film was the highest-earning of all the Dirty Harry films, earning $70 million (US$154 million in 2011 dollars[24]). It received rave reviews, with many critics praising the feminist aspects of the film through its explorations of the physical and psychological consequences of rape.[161]
In 1984, Eastwood starred opposite his daughter Alison, Geneviève Bujold, and Jamie Rose in the provocative thriller Tightrope, inspired by newspaper articles about an elusive Bay Area rapist. Set in New Orleans (to avoid confusion with the Dirty Harry films),[162] Eastwood starred as a single-parent cop, drawn into his target's tortured psychology and fascination for sadomasochism.[163] Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (1984) with Burt Reynolds about a private eye and his partner who get mixed up with gangsters in the prohibition era of the 1930s. It grossed around $50 million (US$106 million in 2011 dollars[24]) domestically, but was overshadowed by Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop and failed to meet expectations.[164]
"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."
—Eastwood, on the philosophical allure of portraying western loners[165]
In 1985, Eastwood made his only foray into TV direction to date with the Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa In The Garden", which starred Harvey Keitel and Sondra Locke. This was his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg, who later produced Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.[166] Eastwood revisited the western genre, directing and starring in Pale Rider opposite Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress. The film is based on the classic 1953 western Shane; a preacher descends from the mists of the Sierras and sides with miners during the California Gold Rush of 1850.[167] The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death, and shows similarities to his 1973 western High Plains Drifter in its themes of morality and justice and its exploration of the supernatural.[168] Pale Rider became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date and was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best western in years, with Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune remarking, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist".[169]
In 1986, Eastwood co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge, about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. He portrays an aging United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant and Korean War veteran. The production and filming of Heartbreak Ridge was marred by internal disagreements between Eastwood and long-time friend and producer Fritz Manes, and between Eastwood and the United States Department of Defense, who expressed contempt for the film.[170][171] A commercial rather than a critical success (only viewed more favorably in recent times),[172] the film was released in 1,470 theaters, and grossed $70 million (US$140 million domestically.[173]
Eastwood's fifth and final Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool, was released in 1988. It co-starred Liam Neeson, Patricia Clarkson, and a young Jim Carrey. The Dead Pool grossed nearly $38 million (US$70.6 million, relatively low takings for a Dirty Harry film. Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects, and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, Eastwood directed Bird (1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and Spike Lee, son of jazz bassist Bill Lee and a long term critic of Eastwood, criticized the characterization of Charlie Parker, remarking that it did not capture his true essence and sense of humor.[174] Eastwood received two Golden Globes for the film: the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifelong contribution, and the Best Director award. However, Bird was a commercial disaster, earning just $11 million, which Eastwood attributed to a declining interest in jazz among black people.[175]
Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) alongside Bernadette Peters. The film is about a bounty hunter and a group of white supremacists chasing an innocent woman, who tries to outrun everyone in her husband's prized pink Cadillac. The film was a disaster, both critically and commercially,[176] earning barely more than Bird and marking the lowest point in Eastwood's career in years.[177]
[edit]1990s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1990s
In 1990, Eastwood directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart, an adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman à clef about John Huston and the making of the classic film The African Queen. The film was shot on location in Zimbabwe in the summer of 1989.[178] The film received some critical attention but only had a limited release and earned just $8.4 million (US$14.1 million in 2011 dollars[24]).[179] Later in 1990, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie, a buddy cop action film. Critics found the macho jiving between Eastwood and Sheen unconvincing and passed the film off as "blatant racial Hispanic stereotyping".[180] An ongoing lawsuit filed by Stacy McLaughlin resulted in Eastwood not having a film showing in cinemas in 1991—the third year in his career.[181] The suit was in response to Eastwood ramming her car while backing out of his parking space at Malpaso.[182] Eastwood won the suit, and agreed to pay McLaughlin's court fees if she did not appeal.[181]
"...if possible, he looks even taller, leaner and more mysteriously possessed than he did in Sergio Leone's seminal Fistful of Dollars a quarter of a century ago. The years haven't softened him. They have given him the presence of some fierce force of nature, which may be why the landscapes of the mythic, late 19th-century West become him, never more so than in his new Unforgiven. ... This is his richest, most satisfying performance since the underrated, politically lunatic Heartbreak Ridge. There's no one like him."
—Vincent Canby of The New York Times, on Eastwood's performance in Unforgiven[183]
In 1992, Eastwood revisited the western genre in the self-directed film Unforgiven, where he played an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime opposite Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, and then girlfriend Frances Fisher. Scripts existed as early as 1976 for the film, but Eastwood delayed the project, partly because he wanted to wait until he was old enough to play his character and to savor it as the last of his western films.[181] By re-envisioning established genre conventions in a more ambiguous and unromantic light, the picture laid the groundwork for later westerns such as Deadwood. Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success and was nominated for nine Academy Awards,[184] including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples. It won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. Jack Methews of the Los Angeles Times described it as "the finest classical western to come along since perhaps John Ford's 1956 The Searchers.[185] In June 2008, Unforgiven was acknowledged as the fourth best American film in the western genre (behind Shane, High Noon, and The Searchers) in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 10 Top 10" list.[186][187]
Clint Eastwood at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
In 1993, Eastwood played Frank Horrigan, a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the CIA thriller In the Line of Fire, co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Eastwood's character, Horrigan, is haunted by his failure to react in time to save John F. Kennedy's life.[188] As of 2011, it is the last time he acted in a film he did not direct himself. The film was among the top 10 box office performers in that year, earning a reported $200 million (US$304 million in 2011 dollars[24]) in the United States alone.[189] Later in 1993, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in the 1960s-set A Perfect World.[190] Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked that the film was the highest point of Eastwood's directing career,[191] and it has since been cited as one of Eastwood's most underrated directorial achievements.[192][193]
In May 1994, Eastwood attended the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was presented with France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal.[194] Then, on March 27, 1995, Eastwood was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards.[195]. Eastwood appeared in a cameo as himself in the 1995 children's film Casper. Eastwood 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 by Robert James Waller,[196] it relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for National Geographic, who has a love affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife in Iowa named Francesca (Streep). The film was a hit at the box office and highly acclaimed by critics, much to their surprise; the novel was not viewed favorably and the subject matter was deemed a potentially disastrous one to produce on film.[197] Roger Ebert remarked that "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age."[198] The Bridges of Madison County was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. Streep was also nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe.
In 1997, Eastwood directed and again starred alongside Gene Hackman in the political thriller Absolute Power, in which he plays a veteran thief who witnesses the Secret Service cover up a murder. The film received a mixed reception from critics and was generally viewed as one of his weaker efforts.[199] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide remarked, "The plot turns are no more ludicrous than those of the average political thriller, but the slow pace makes their preposterousness all the more obvious. Eastwood's acting limitations are also sorely evident, since Luther is the kind of thoughtful thief who has to talk, rather than maintaining the enigmatic fortitude that is Eastwood's forte. Disappointing."[200] Later in 1997, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, based on the novel by John Berendt and starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. The film received a mixed response from critics.[201]
"The roles that Eastwood has played, and the films that he has directed, cannot be disentangled from the nature of the American culture of the last quarter century, its fantasies and its realities."
—Author Edward Gallafent, commenting on Eastwood's impact on film from the 1970s to 1990s[202]
In 1999, Eastwood directed and starred in True Crime, which also featured his young daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood. Eastwood plays Steve Everett, a journalist recovering from alcoholism, given the task of covering the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington). The film received a mixed reception. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "True Crime is directed by Mr. Eastwood with righteous indignation and increasingly strong momentum. As in A Perfect World, 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."[203] If some reviews for True Crime were positive, commercially it was a box office bomb, earning less than half its $55 million (US$72.5 million in 2011 dollars[24]) budget, and easily became his worst performing film of the 1990s (White Hunter Black Heart having only a limited release).[204]
[edit]2000s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 2000s
In 2000, Eastwood directed and starred in Space Cowboys, and was joined by Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner. In 2002, Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent on the track of a sadistic killer (Jeff Daniels) in the thriller Blood Work. The film was a failure, grossing just $26.2 million (US$32 million in 2011 dollars[24]) on an estimated budget of $50 million (US$61 million in 2011 dollars[24]) and received mixed reviews, with a consensus at Rotten Tomatoes calling it "well-made but marred by lethargic pacing".[205]
"Clint is a true artist in every respect. Despite his years of being at the top of his game and the legendary movies he has made, he always made us feel comfortable and valued on the set, treating us as equals."
—Tim Robbins, on working with Eastwood.[5]
In 2003, Eastwood directed and scored the crime drama Mystic River, a film about murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse. Starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins, Mystic River was lauded by critics and viewers alike. The film won two Academy Awards, Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins, with Eastwood garnering nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.[206] Eastwood was named Best Director of the Year by the London Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. The film grossed $90 million (US$107 million in 2011 dollars[24]) domestically on a budget of $30 million (US$35.8 million in 2011 dollars[24]).[207]
Eastwood found further critical and commercial success the following year when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with a female boxer (Hilary Swank) he is persuaded to train by his lifelong friend (Morgan Freeman). The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Freeman).[208] Effectively at age 74, he became the oldest of eighteen directors to have directed two or more Best Picture winners.[209][210] Eastwood also received a nomination for Best Actor and received a Grammy nomination for the score he composed.[211] A. O. Scott of The New York Times lauded the film as a "masterpiece" and the best film of the year.[212]
In 2006, Eastwood directed two films about the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The first, 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. Letters from Iwo Jima was the first American film to show a war issue completely from the view of an American enemy.[213] Both films were highly praised by critics and garnered several nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay for Letters from Iwo Jima. At the 64th Golden Globe Awards, Eastwood received nominations for Best Director in both films and Letters from Iwo Jima won the award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Eastwood in 2008
In 2008, Eastwood directed Changeling, which is based on a true story set in the late 1920s. It starred Angelina Jolie as a woman who is reunited with her missing son—only to realize he is an impostor.[214] After releasing in several film festivals, the film grossed over $110 million (US$112 million in 2011 dollars[24]), the majority of which came from foreign markets.[215] The film was highly acclaimed, with Damon Wise of Empire describing Changeling as "flawless".[216] Todd McCarthy of Variety described it as "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed" and stated that Changeling was a more complex and wide-ranging work than Eastwood's Mystic River, saying the characters and social commentary were brought into the story with an "almost breathtaking deliberation".[217] Film critic Prairie Miller said that in its portrayal of female courage the film was "about as feminist as Hollywood can get", whilst David Denby argues that rather than "an expression of feminist awareness", the film—like Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby—is "a case of awed respect for a woman who was strong and enduring".[218] Eastwood received nominations for Best Original Score at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, Best Direction at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards and director of the year from the London Film Critics' Circle.
After four years away from acting, Eastwood ended his "self-imposed acting hiatus"[219] with Gran Torino, which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Biographer Marc Eliot called Eastwood's role "an amalgam of the Man with No Name, Dirty Harry, and William Munny, here aged and cynical but willing and able to fight on whenever the need arose."[220] Eastwood has said that the role will most likely be the last time he acts in a film.[221] It grossed close to $30 million (US$30.6 million in 2011 dollars[24]) during its wide release opening weekend in January 2009, the highest of his career as an actor or director.[222] Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million (US$274 million in 2011 dollars[24]) worldwide in theaters, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far without adjustment for inflation.
In 2009, Eastwood directed his 29th film, Invictus, based on the story of South Africa at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain François Pienaar. John Carlin, author of the book on which the film is based, sold the film rights to Freeman.[223] Invictus was met with generally positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars and described it as a "very good film... with moments evoking great emotion",[224] and Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote, "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."[225] Eastwood was nominated for Best Director at the 67th Golden Globe Awards.
[edit]2010s
"Everybody wonders why I continue working at this stage. I keep working because there's always new stories. ... And as long as people want me to tell them, I'll be there doing them."
—Eastwood, reflecting on his later career[226]
In 2010, Eastwood directed the drama Hereafter, again working with Damon, who portrayed a psychic. The film had its world premiere on September 12, 2010 at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and was given a limited release on October 15, 2010.[227][228] Hereafter received mixed reviews from critics, with critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes being, "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."[229] Also in 2010, Eastwood served as executive producer for a Turner Classic Movies (TCM) documentary about jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, to commemorate Brubeck's 90th birthday.[230]
Eastwood's current project is a 2012 biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, entitled J. Edgar, focusing on his scandalous career and controversial private life. It will star Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover,[231] Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, and Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann. In January 2011, it was announced that Eastwood is in talks to direct Beyoncé Knowles in a third remake of the 1937 film A Star Is Born, with a 2012 release likely.[232]
[edit]Directing style
Eastwood on the set of Gran Torino, July 17, 2008
Eastwood has directed over 30 films in his career. Beginning with the thriller Play Misty for Me, he later delved into westerns, action films, and dramas. In preparation for filming, Eastwood rarely uses storyboards for developing the layout of a shooting schedule.[233][234][235] He attempts to reduce script background details on characters to allow the audience to be more involved in the film.[236] He considers the audience's imagination a requirement in a film connecting with viewers.[236][237] Eastwood indicates that he lays out the plot of the film to provide the audience with necessary details, not "so much that it insults their intelligence."[238] To reduce filming time and to keep budgets under cost, Eastwood usually does not have actors rehearse and prefers most scenes to be completed on the first take.[239][240] According to Life magazine, "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."[241]
Interviewers Richard Thompson and Tim Hunter note that Eastwood's film pacing is "superbly paced: unhurried; cool; and [give] a strong sense of real time, regardless of the speed of the narrative"[242] and interviewer Ric Gentry considers Eastwood's pacing to be "unrushed and relaxed".[243] Many of Eastwood's films rely on low lighting, to give his films a "noir-ish" feel.[240][244] Reviewers have pointed out that the majority of his films are from the male point-of-view, although female characters typically have strong roles as both heroes and villains.[242][245][246][247]
[edit]Politics
Main article: Political life of Clint Eastwood
Left: Eastwood with President Ronald Reagan and Lou Gossett, Jr. in the late 1980s
Right: Eastwood as a a spokesman for Take Pride in America in 2005
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 he later criticized Nixon's handling of the Vietnam War and his morality during Watergate.[248][249] He disapproved of America's wars in Korea (1950–1953), Vietnam (1964–1973), and Iraq (2003–2010), believing that the United States should not be overly militaristic or play the role of global policeman. He considers himself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing, and has described himself as a "political nothing" and a "moderate" in 1974[249] and a libertarian in 1997.[250] Eastwood has stated that while he does not see himself as conservative, he is not "ultra-leftist" either.[251] At times, he has supported Democrats in California, such as the liberal and environmentally concerned Representative Sam Farr in 2002. And on May 23, 2003, he hosted a $5,000-per-ticket fundraiser for California's Democratic governor, Gray Davis.[252] A longtime liberal on civil rights, Eastwood has stated that he has always been pro-choice on abortion.[253] He has endorsed the notion of allowing gays to marry,[251] and he contributed to groups supporting the Equal Rights Amendment for women.[254]
Eastwood outdoors at a Take Pride in America event.
As a politician, Eastwood made a successful foray into local and state government. He was elected mayor in April 1986 for one term in his home town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, a small, wealthy town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula.[255] During his term, he had a tendency to support small business interests and advocate environmental protection.[256] In 2001, he was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission by Governor Gray Davis,[257] and was reappointed in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[257] As the vice chairman of this commission, with chairman Bobby Shriver, in 2005 he led an opposition movement to a six-lane 16-mile (26 km) extension of California State Route 241, a toll road that would cut through San Onofre State Beach. Eastwood and Shriver 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.[258] When Eastwood and Shriver were not reappointed to the commission in March 2008 when their terms expired,[258] the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) asked for a legislative investigation into the decision.[259] Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Eastwood to the California Film Commission in April 2004.[260] Eastwood has also been a spokesman for Take Pride in America, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior which advocates responsibility for natural, cultural, and historic resources.[68]
During the 2008 United States Presidential Election, Eastwood endorsed John McCain for President; he has known McCain since 1973, but wished Barack Obama well upon his victory.[261][262] In August 2010, Eastwood wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, George Osborne, to protest the decision to close the UK Film Council. Eastwood warned that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK.[263]
[edit]Personal life
Main article: Personal life of Clint Eastwood
[edit]Relationships
Eastwood with wife Dina in 2007
Eastwood has fathered at least seven children with five women and has been described as a "serial womanizer."[4][5] According to biographers, Eastwood always had a strong sexual appetite, particularly in the 1970s, and had affairs with many women, including actresses Catherine Deneuve, Jean Seberg, Peggy Lipton, Kay Lenz, Jamie Rose, Inger Stevens, Jo Ann Harris, Jill Banner, script analyst Megan Rose, and swimming champion Anita Lhoest.[264]
Eastwood married swimsuit model Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, six months after they met on a blind date.[265] They had two children: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972). Eastwood filed for divorce in 1979 after a long separation, but the $25 million (US$52.9 million in 2011 dollars[24]) divorce settlement was not finalized until May 1984.[266][267]
During his marriage to Johnson, Eastwood had an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis, who was also an extra on Rawhide.[268] They had a daughter, Kimber, born on June 17, 1964, although it was not made public until 1989.[269] She had a son in February 1984, who she named Clinton.[270]
Eastwood began a fourteen-year relationship with actress Sondra Locke in 1975. They co-starred in six films: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. During the relationship, Locke had two abortions and a subsequent tubal ligation at his request.[271][272] The couple separated acrimoniously in 1989. She filed a palimony suit against Eastwood after being evicted from the home which they shared. She sued him a second time for fraud regarding an alleged phony directing deal he gave her as a settlement for the first lawsuit.[273] Locke and Eastwood resolved the dispute with a non-public settlement in 1999.[274] Her memoir, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly includes a harrowing account of their years together.
During his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood had an affair with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves. According to biographers, they met at the premiere of Pale Rider, where they conceived a son, Scott (born March 21, 1986).[275] They also had a daughter, Kathryn (born February 2, 1988), although the identity of both was not publicly known until years later.[276] Actress Frances Fisher moved in with Eastwood a year after they met on the set of Pink Cadillac (1989).[277] They co-starred in Unforgiven and had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (born August 7, 1993).[278] The couple ended their relationship in early 1995,[279] but remain friends and later appeared together in True Crime.
Eastwood met anchorwoman Dina Ruiz in an interview in 1993,[278] and they married on March 31, 1996, when Eastwood surprised her with a private ceremony at a home on the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.[280] She is 35 years his junior. The couple's daughter, Morgan Eastwood, was born on December 12, 1996.
[edit]Leisure
The Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel, once owned by Eastwood
Eastwood, a life-long non-smoker (despite appearing to smoke in many of his films), has been conscious of his health and fitness since he was a teenager, and practices healthy eating and daily Transcendental Meditation.[281][282][283] On July 21, 1970, Eastwood's father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 64. This profoundly altered Eastwood's life, encouraging him to adopt a vigorous health and exercise regime for longevity.[98] He abstained from hard liquor, although he still favored cold beer and opened an old English-inspired pub called the Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1971.[284] Eastwood eventually sold the pub and now owns the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, also located in Carmel-by-the-Sea.[285][286]
A keen golfer, Eastwood owns the Tehàma Golf Club, is an investor of the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links, and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments.[285][287][288] Eastwood was a licensed pilot and often flew his helicopter to the studios to avoid traffic.[289][290]
[edit]Music
Main article: Discography of Clint Eastwood
Eastwood, an audiophile, has had a strong passion for music all his life, particularly jazz and country and western music, and he is a pianist and composer.[291] Jazz has played an important role in Eastwood's life from a young age and although he was never successful as a professional musician, he passed on the influence to his son Kyle Eastwood, a successful jazz bassist and composer. Eastwood developed as a ragtime pianist early on and had originally intended to pursue a career in music by studying for a music theory degree after graduating from high school. In late 1959 he produced the album Cowboy Favorites, which was released on the Cameo label.[291]
Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers which has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. Eastwood co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, which was recorded by Diana Krall.[292] Eastwood composed the film scores of Mystic River, Grace Is Gone (2007), and Changeling, and the original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire. He also wrote and performed the song heard over the credits of Gran Torino.[285] The music in Grace Is Gone received two Golden Globe nominations by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 65th Golden Globe Awards. Eastwood was nominated for Best Original Score, while the song "Grace is Gone" with music by Eastwood and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager was nominated for Best Original Song.[293] It won the Satellite Award for Best Song at the 12th Satellite Awards. Changeling was nominated for Best Score at the 14th Critics' Choice Awards, Best Original Score at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, and Best Music at the 35th Saturn Awards. 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."[294]
[edit]Awards and honors
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Clint Eastwood
Academy Awards
Year Award Film W/N
1992 Best Director Unforgiven Won
Best Picture Unforgiven Won
Best Actor Unforgiven Nominated
1994 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award Won
2003 Best Director Mystic River Nominated
Best Picture Mystic River Nominated
2004 Best Director Million Dollar Baby Won
Best Picture Million Dollar Baby Won
Best Actor Million Dollar Baby Nominated
2006 Best Director Letters from Iwo Jima Nominated
Best Picture Letters from Iwo Jima Nominated
Eastwood has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for his work in films, television, and music. Eastwood's largest reception has been for film work, where he has received Academy Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and People's Choice Awards, among others. Eastwood is one of only 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, he became one of only three living directors (along with Miloš Forman and Francis Ford Coppola) to have directed two Best Picture winners.[295] He is also, at age 74, the oldest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Director. Eastwood has directed five actors in Academy Award–winning performances: Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn in Mystic River, and Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby.
Clint Eastwood display in the entrance to the California Hall of Fame
On August 22, 1984, Eastwood was honored at a ceremony at Grauman's Chinese theater to record his hand and footprints in cement.[296] Eastwood received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996 and received an honorary degree from AFI in 2009. 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.[297] 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".[298] In October 2009, he was honored by the Lumière Award (in honor of the Lumière Brothers, inventors of the Cinematography) during the first edition of the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France. This award honors his entire career and his major contribution to the 7th Art. In February 2010, Eastwood was recognized by President Barack Obama with an arts and humanities award. Obama described Eastwood's films as "essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American."[299]
Eastwood has also been awarded at least three honorary degrees from universities and colleges, including an honorary degree from University of the Pacific in 2006, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern California on May 27, 2007, and an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 22, 2007.[300][301]
[edit]Filmography
Main article: Clint Eastwood filmography
Eastwood has contributed to over 50 films over his career as actor, director, producer, and composer. He has acted in several television series, most notably starring in Rawhide. Eastwood started directing in 1971, and in 1982, his debut as a producer began with two films, Firefox and Honkytonk Man. Eastwood also has contributed music to his films, either through performing, writing, or composing. He has mainly starred in western, action, and drama films. According to Box Office Mojo, a box office-revenue tracking website, films that Eastwood has acted in have grossed a total of more than US$1.68 billion domestically, with an average of $37 million per film.[302]
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