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Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He is known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in action and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His performances as the laconic Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films have seen him become an enduring icon of masculinity.
Eastwood has won five Academy Awards—twice each as Best Director and as producer of the Best Picture and the Irving G.
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Quotations
Hey wait, you forgot your fortune cookie - it reads.. you're shit out of luck
I've got a firm policy on gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be the one controlling it. (from Pink Cadillac)
It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. Take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have.
it's what people know about themselves inside, that makes them afraid.
My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.
Such ingratitude after all the times I've saved your life. (from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly)
Encyclopedia
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He is known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in action and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His performances as the laconic Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films have seen him become an enduring icon of masculinity.
Eastwood has won five Academy Awards—twice each as Best Director and as producer of the Best Picture and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1995. He has also been nominated twice for Best Actor, for his performances in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. His recent films in particular, such as Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Gran Torino (2008) as well as earlier films such as Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Unforgiven (1992) and Space Cowboys (2000). have all received a significant degree of critical acclaim.
Eastwood also has an interest in politics; he was elected Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, serving from 1986 to 1988.
Early life
Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, to Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth Eastwood (nιe Runner), a factory worker. Clint was born a very large baby at 11 pounds (5 kgs). Eastwood has English, Scottish, Dutch, and Irish ancestry. He was raised in a "middle class Protestant home" and moved often as his father worked at a variety of jobs along the West Coast. The family settled in Piedmont, California, during Eastwood's teens, and he graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1949. He worked at a pulp mill in Springfield, Oregon when he was 18 or 19. Eastwood then worked as a gas station attendant, as a fireman, and played ragtime piano at a bar in Oakland. In 1950, during the Korean War, Eastwood was drafted into the US Army, and was aboard a military flight that crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco (Drake's Bay). He escaped serious injury, but had to remain behind to testify at a hearing investigating the cause of the crash. This kept him from being shipped to Korea with the rest of his unit. During his military service, Eastwood became friends with fellow soldiers and future actors Martin Milner and David Janssen.
Film career
Clint Eastwood began acting the mid-1950s, with brief appearances in B-films such as Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, and Francis in the Navy. His break came in 1958 when he won the role of Rowdy Yates in the TV series Rawhide. As Rowdy Yates (whom Eastwood privately described as "the idiot of the plains"), he became a household name across the United States throughout its seven-year run beginning in January 1959. While appearing in the series Eastwood also starred in several films, including Ambush at Cimarron Pass, which he has dismissed as "probably the lousiest Western ever made." In 1959, he fought James Garner in the "Duel at Sundown" episode of the western comedy television series Maverick. He then did not make another film until he was contacted by Sergio Leone.
1960s
An executive saw Eastwood on Rawhide and thought he looked like a cowboy, and at 6 ft 4 inches (193 cm) was a strong physical presence. Eastwood was invited to audition for Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964), though he was not the first actor approached to play the main character. Originally, the director intended Henry Fonda to play the "Man With No Name". However, the production company could not afford a major Hollywood star. Leone then offered the part to Charles Bronson, who declined the role arguing the script was too bad. Both Fonda and Bronson would later star in Leone's 1968 western film Once Upon a Time in the West. Other actors who turned down the role included TV star Ty Hardin and James Coburn. Leone turned his attentions towards Richard Harrison, who had starred in the first Italian western, Gunfight at Red Sands (Duello nel Texas). Harrison had not been impressed with his experience on his previous film and also refused. The producers established a list of lesser-known American actors, and asked Harrison for advice. Harrison suggested Clint Eastwood, whom he knew could play a cowboy convincingly. Harrison later said:
"Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint for the part".
The film was to be shot in Spain and was evidently a tribute to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). A Fist Full of Dollars would become a benchmark in the development of the spaghetti westerns. Eastwood was instrumental in creating the Man With No Name character's distinctive visual style that would appear in throughout the Dollars trilogy. He bought the black jeans from a shop on Hollywood Boulevard, the hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm, and the trademark black cigars came from a Beverly Hills shop, though Eastwood himself is a non-smoker. Since A Fistful of Dollars was an Italian/German/Spanish co-production, there was a major language barrier on the set. Leone did not speak English and Eastwood communicated with the Italian cast and crew mostly through stuntman Benito Stefanelli, who acted as an unofficial interpreter for the production. Leone reportedly took to Eastwood's distinctive style, and commented, "I like Clint Eastwood because he has only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without it".
Leone hired Eastwood to star in his trilogy, following with For a Few Dollars More / Per qualche dollaro in piω (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966). Leone depicted a more lawless and desolate world than traditional westerns. All three films were hits, particularly the third, and Eastwood became a major star, redefining the image of the American cowboy, though his character was actually a gunslinger and bounty hunter.
Stardom brought more roles in the "tough guy" mold. In 1968's Where Eagles Dare, Eastwood had second billing to Richard Burton, but was paid $800,000. The same year, he starred in Don Siegel's Coogan's Bluff, in which he played a lonely deputy sheriff who came to the big city of New York. The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence, but it launched a more than ten-year collaboration between Eastwood and Siegel, and set the prototype for the macho hero that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films. He was scheduled to be cast as Two-Face on 1966-68 Batman television series, but the production ended.
In 1969, Eastwood branched out. Paint Your Wagon was a musical starring Eastwood and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin.
1970s
In 1970, Eastwood appeared in the war movie, Kelly's Heroes, and in the Siegel-directed western, Two Mules for Sister Sara, co-starring Shirley MacLaine. Both movies combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor. In The Beguiled, another movie directed by Siegel, Eastwood played a wounded Union soldier held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girls' school.
1971 proved to be a professional turning point in Eastwood's career. His own production company, Malpaso, gave Eastwood the artistic control that he desired, allowing him to direct his first film, Play Misty for Me. But it was his portrayal of the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that propelled Siegel's most successful movie at the box-office. Dirty Harry is arguably Eastwood's most memorable character. The film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day. Eastwood's tough, no-nonsense cop touched a cultural nerve with many who were fed up with crime in the streets. Dirty Harry led to four sequels: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988).
Eastwood directed two allegorical westerns during the 1970s: High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Josey Wales would be the first of six movies he starred in with partner Sondra Locke. The film also featured his real-life son Kyle Eastwood, then seven years old.
In 1974, Eastwood teamed with a young Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The movie was written and directed by Michael Cimino, who had previously written the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force.
In 1975, Eastwood brought another talent to the screen: rock climbing. In The Eiger Sanction, which he directed and in which he starred, Eastwood a 5.9 climber performed his own rock climbing stunts. This film has become a cult classic among rock-climbers. This film was done before the advent of CGI, so no digital manipulation was used in the film.
In 1977, Eastwood directed and starred in the hit The Gauntlet, in which he played a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute whom he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix to testify against the mob. Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand were originally cast as the film's stars. However, fighting between the two forced them to drop out of the project, with Eastwood and Sondra Locke replacing them.
In 1978, Eastwood starred in Every Which Way But Loose in an uncharacteristic and offbeat comedy role. Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler who roamed the American West, searching for a lost love, while accompanying his best friend/manager Orville and his pet orangutan, Clyde. Arguably, Clyde stole the show. Panned by critics, the movie was a blockbuster hit, becoming the second-highest grossing film of 1978. The film co-starred Eastwood's frequent collaborators Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Dan Vadis, and Bill McKinney.
In 1979, Eastwood played yet another memorable role as the prison escapee Frank Morris in the fact-based movie Escape from Alcatraz, which was also his last collaboration with Don Siegel. Morris was an escape artist who was sent to Alcatraz in 1960 which was, at the time, one of the toughest prisons in America. Morris devised a meticulous plan to escape from "The Rock" and, in 1962, he and two other prisoners broke out of the prison and entered San Francisco Bay. The FBI maintains that the escapees drowned.
1980s
Eastwood starred in two films in 1980. He played the main attraction in a traveling circus show in Bronco Billy and reprised his role as Philo Beddoe in Any Which Way You Can. Like Every Which Way But Loose, the sequel was a smash box-office hit.
In 1982, Eastwood directed, produced and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox. The fourth Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact (1983) became the highest-grossing film of the Dirty Harry series and made Eastwood a viable star for the 1980s. This would be the last time he starred in a film with partner Sondra Locke. President Ronald Reagan referred to his famous "Go ahead, make my day." line in one of his speeches.
Three of Eastwood's films in the 1980s featured his real-life children. His son Kyle starred as his nephew in Honkytonk Man (1982); daughter Alison had a small role as an orphan in Bronco Billy and a much bigger role as his daughter in the provocative thriller Tightrope (1984), in which Eastwood starred as a cop lured by the promise of kinky sex.
Eastwood starred and directed the period film City Heat (1984)with Burt Reynolds and the military drama Heartbreak Ridge (1986). He revisited the western genre directing and starring in Pale Rider (1985), an homage to the western film classic Shane, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. His fifth and final Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool (1986), was a commercial success, but was generally panned by critics. Eastwood alternated between more mainstream comedic films (if not particularly successful), such as Pink Cadillac, and more personal projects, such as directing Bird (1988), a biopic of jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker, a genre of music that Eastwood has always been personally interested in. The film earned him a Golden Palm nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.
1990s
In 1990, Eastwood directed and starred in The Rookie (1990) with Charlie Sheen, and starred as John Houston independent biopic film White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), an uneven adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman ΰ clef about the making of the classic The African Queen. The film received some critical acclaim, although Katharine Hepburn contested the veracity of much of the material.
Eastwood rose to prominence yet again in the early 1990s. He revisited the western genre one final time in the self-directed 1992 film, Unforgiven, taking on the role of an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. The film, also starring such esteemed actors as Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, laid the groundwork for such later westerns as Deadwood by re-envisioning established genre conventions in a more ambiguous and unromantic light. A great success both in terms of box office and critical acclaim, it was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples. It won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood.
The following year, Eastwood played a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire (1993), co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. This film was a blockbuster and among the top 10 box-office performers in that year. Eastwood directed and starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World the same year. He continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the love story The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Based on a best-selling novel, it was also a hit at the box-office. The film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture as well as earning Streep a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Afterward, Eastwood turned to more directing work—much of it well-received—including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He directed and starred in the moderately successful political thriller Absolute Power (1997), co-starring Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, and Dennis Haysbert. His next film, True Crime (1999), featured his wife Dina as well as his ex-girlfriend Frances Fisher and daughter Francesca.
2000s
In 2000, Eastwood directed and starred in Space Cowboys, which also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner. In the film, he plays Frank Corvin, a retired NASA engineer called upon to save a dying Russian satellite. After a string of less commercially successful films, Space Cowboys was his biggest commercial success in seven years, grossing nearly $130 million at the box office. In 2002, Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent on the track of a sadistic killer in Blood Work, which was derived from a book by Michael Connelly.
In 2003, he directed the Boston crime drama Mystic River about murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse. The film was a commercial success and won two Academy Awards, as well as nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.
In 2005, Eastwood found critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as earning Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman Oscars for their performances and a Best Director Oscar for Eastwood. He also received a Best Actor nomination for his performance as a cantankerous trainer who bonds with a female boxer. Grossing more than $216 million at the box office, Million Dollar Baby became one of the biggest hits of Eastwood's career.
In 2006, Eastwood directed two films about the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The first one, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The second one, Letters from Iwo Jima, dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote to family members. Both films were highly praised by critics and garnered several Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture for Letters from Iwo Jima. Director Spike Lee accused Eastwood of not including a single black person in the films. Eastwood responded that Lee was inaccurate, that the film was specifically telling the story of a group of real people who were not black, and that Lee "should shut his face." The film portrays a specific segment of the Battle of Iwo Jima, but a black unit is in fact shown in the background of relevant scenes. Eastwood also noted that his 1988 film Bird_(film), a film about jazz, included a 90% black cast for the same reason .
In 2008, Eastwood directed the Oscar-nominated drama Changeling, which starred Angelina Jolie. That same year, Eastwood ended his "self-imposed acting hiatus" with Gran Torino. Eastwood directed, starred, held a producer role, and co-wrote the theme song for the film. The film was released in January 2009, giving Eastwood the biggest box office weekend of his career, and making him the oldest leading man to have a film earn nearly $30 million in one weekend. The film has grossed $137 million as of February 14, grossing more money in the United States than any of his other films.
Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Bros. This deal was unchanged when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to private investors. Malpaso has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. It also released the album of a 1996 jazz concert he hosted, titled Eastwood after Hours Live at Carnegie Hall.
Directing
Eastwood has redefined himself as a director and has generally received greater critical acclaim for his directing than he ever did for his acting. His directorial debut occurred with Play Misty For Me in 1971. He had tried for some time to direct an episode of Rawhide, even being promised at one point the possibility of doing so. However, because of differences between the president of the studio and show producers, Eastwood's opportunity fell through. In 1985, he made his only foray into TV direction to date with the Amazing Stories episode Vanessa In The Garden, starring Harvey Keitel and Sondra Locke; this was his first collaboration with writer/executive producer Steven Spielberg (Spielberg later produced A Perfect World, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima). Eastwood has become known for directing high-quality but bleak dramas such as Unforgiven, A Perfect World, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima. However, he has chosen a wide variety of films to direct, some clearly commercial, others highly personal.
Eastwood produces many of his films, and is well known in the industry for his efficient, low-cost approach to making films; he has said that "everything I do as a director is based upon what I prefer as an actor." Over the years, he has developed relationships with many other filmmakers, working over and over with the same crew, production designers, cinematographers, editors, and other technical people. Similarly, he has a long-term relationship with the Warner Bros. studio, which finances and releases most of his films. However, in a 2004 interview appearing in The New York Times, Eastwood noted that he still sometimes has difficulty convincing the studio to back his films. In the 2000s, Eastwood also began composing music for some of his films. He is one of the subjects profiled in the documentary Fog City Mavericks, which interviews Eastwood alongside other fellow San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers such as George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.
As producer and director as well as actor, Eastwood has worked exclusively with legendary film poster designer Bill Gold. Bill Gold designed (and often photographed) posters for 35 Clint Eastwood films, from Joe Kidd (1971) to Mystic River (film) (2004).
Eastwood completed in December 2007 directing Universal Pictures' Changeling, a period thriller from noted writer J. Michael Straczynski and producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Angelina Jolie is starring in the film, with a fall 2008 release date. Clint Eastwood is the director and star of the Warner Brothers film, Gran Torino, released in December 2008.
Eastwood will be directing the Nelson Mandela bio-pic The Human Factor, a film based on a 2008 book by John Carlin (Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation - ISBN 9781594201745), starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar. Carlin sold the film rights to Morgan Freeman.
Eastwood and Warner Bros. have purchased the film rights to James R. Hansen's First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, the authorized biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong. No production date has been announced. As of November 2008, he is in talks to direct Peter Morgan's Hereafter for DreamWorks. Eastwood had announced that he has all but retired from acting, although maintained that "if a good western script turns up, you never know..." In 2008, he starred in Gran Torino, which was not a western.
Eastwood currently donates funds toward the new CSUMB campus library. In early 2007, Eastwood announced that he will produce a Bruce Ricker documentary about jazz legend Dave Brubeck. The film is tentatively titled Dave Brubeck In His Own Sweet Way. It will trace the development of Brubeck's latest composition, the Cannery Row Suite. This work was commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival and premiered at the 2006 festival. Eastwood's film crews captured early rehearsals, sound checks, and the final performance. Ricker and Eastwood are currently working on a documentary about Tony Bennett, as well, titled The Music Never Ends.
Awards
Eastwood has had a total of ten Academy Award nominations: eight for Best Director and Best Picture, winning in both categories for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, and not winning for Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima; and two Best Actor nominations for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. In both his Best Acotr nominations the winners were portraying blind people. He is one of two people to have been twice nominated for Best Actor and Best Director for the same film (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby) the other being Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait and Reds).
Eastwood is one of only three living directors (along with Milo Forman and Francis Ford Coppola) to have directed two Best Picture winners. At age 74, he was the oldest director to achieve this distinction.
Eastwood directed two actors, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, in Academy Award-winning roles as Best Supporting Actor in consecutive years. Robbins won in 2003 for Mystic River while Freeman won in 2004 for his role in Million Dollar Baby. He also directed Sean Penn in his Academy Award winning role as Best Actor in Mystic River, as well as Hilary Swank in her second win for Best Actress in Million Dollar Baby and Gene Hackman in Unforgiven.
Eastwood has received numerous other awards, including an America Now TV Award as well as one of the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors. He received an honorary degree from University of the Pacific in 2006, and an honorary degree from University of Southern California in 2007. In 1995 he received the honorary Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in film producing. In 2006, he received a nomination for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Million Dollar Baby. In 2007, Eastwood was the first recipient of the Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award, an annual award presented by the MPAA to individuals in the motion picture industry whose work has reached out positively and respectfully to the world. He received the award for his work on the 2006 films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.
On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Eastwood into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.
In early 2007, Eastwood was presented with the highest civilian distinction in France, Lιgion d'honneur, at a ceremony in Paris. French President Jacques Chirac told Eastwood that he embodied "the best of Hollywood".
On September 22, 2007, Eastwood was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on which he serves as an active board member. Upon receiving the award he gave a speech, claiming, "It's one of the great honors Ill cherish in this lifetime." He was also honored with the "Cinema for Peace Award 2007 for Most Valuable Movie of the Year" for "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima".
Eastwood received the 2008 Best Actor award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for his performance in Gran Torino.
Politics
Eastwood has been registered as a Republican since 1951 and openly supported Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns. He usually describes himself as a libertarian in interviews. He says his philosophy is "Everyone leaves everyone else alone".
in the late 1980s]]
Eastwood made one successful foray into elected politics, becoming the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (population 4,000), a wealthy small town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula, for one term. During his tenure, he completed Heartbreak Ridge and Bird.
In 2001 he was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission, by Governor Gray Davis. He was reappointed in 2004 by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom he supported in the elections of 2003 and 2006.
Eastwood, the vice chairman of the commission, and commission chairman, Bobby Shriver, Schwarzenegger's brother-in-law, led a California State Park and Recreation Commission panel in its unanimous opposition in 2005 to a six-lane, , toll road that would cut through San Onofre State Beach, north of San Diego, and one of Southern California's most cherished surfing beaches. Eastwood and Shriver also supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road and urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project, which it did in February 2008.
In March 2008, Eastwood and Shriver, whose terms had expired, were not reappointed. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ask for a legislative investigation into the decision to not re-appoint Eastwood and Shriver, citing their opposition to the toll road extension. According to the NRDC and The New Republic, Eastwood and Shriver were not reappointed again in 2008 because both Eastwood and Shriver opposed the freeway extension of California State Route 241, that would cut through the San Onofre State Beach. This extension is likewise supported by Governor Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger's press release appointing Alice Huffman and Lindy DeKoven to replace Eastwood and Shriver makes no mention of a reason for the commission change.
Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Eastwood (along with actor and director Danny DeVito, actor and director Bill Duke, producer Tom Werner and producer and director Lili Zanuck) to the California Film Commission in April 2004. Eastwood supported John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election.
Personal life
Relationships
Eastwood married model and fellow college student Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, just six months after being set up on a blind date. According to the unauthorized biography, Clint: The Life and Legend, Eastwood was unfaithful to her the entire time they were married, and he had affairs with many women including Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lipton, Jean Seberg, and James Brolin's ex-wife Jane.
In the early 1960s, Eastwood began a secret affair with Roxanne Tunis, an extra on Rawhide. They had a daughter, Kimber, born on June 17, 1964. Over the years, Eastwood financially supported Kimber and her mother and would secretly visit them every three to four months. Kimber's existence was not made public until 1989. She had a small role in her father's film, Absolute Power in 1997.
Eastwood refused to have children with his wife at first, then she became very ill with hepatitis. After she recovered, he changed his mind. They went on to have two children: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood, (born May 22, 1972). They split when she became aware that he had been carrying on a long-term affair with Sondra Locke. Clint was ordered to pay Maggie $25 million, $1 million for each year they were married. Though they had filed for a legal separation in 1978, their divorce was not finalized until May 1984.
Eastwood and Sondra Locke starred together in six films: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. They first met in 1972 and began a romantic relationship during the filming of Josey Wales, though both denied it at the time. They lived together for 14 years. In 1989, unbeknown to Locke, Eastwood changed the locks on their home and put all of her belongings in storage while she was at work. Locke filed a palimony suit against him, asking for $1.3 million. She claimed that Eastwood persuaded her to have two abortions and a tubal ligation. Eastwood has adamantly denied the allegations. He gained a reputation as a womanizer when it was discovered he fathered two children, Scott Eastwood (b. March 21, 1986) and Kathryn Eastwood (b. Feb 2, 1988), with airline hostess Jacelyn Reeves while he was still involved with Locke. In 1991, they reached an amicable agreement that consisted of Eastwood giving Locke a directing deal with Warner Bros., but the studio never produced her proposed films nor hired her to direct. In 1996, they were back in court with Locke filing another lawsuit, this time against Warner Bros., alleging that the company had never intended to make any films with her, and that Eastwood had compensated Warner Bros. for the contract. On September 10, 1996, not long after the trial began, the trial judge issued an order ejecting the media from all hearings in the trial held outside of the presence of the jury; the order was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court of California in 1999. Locke's autobiography The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly includes a harrowing account of her years with Eastwood. In 1999, they settled out of court for a reportedly large settlement, details of which were not publicly disclosed.
Following his breakup with Locke, Eastwood moved in with Frances Fisher, whom he had began an affair with during the filming of Pink Cadillac in 1988. The couple went on to co-star together in the blockbuster Unforgiven. They had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, born on August 7, 1993. Their relationship ended in 1995, but they remained friends and have since costarred in another film, True Crime. Frances is very close to Eastwood's wife Dina.
in 2007]]
Eastwood met wife Dina Eastwood, an anchorwoman 35 years his junior, when she interviewed him in 1993. They became good friends, and began a romantic relationship two years later. They married on March 31, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clint's son, Kyle, served as best man. Their daughter, Morgan Eastwood, was born on December 12, 1996. Dina maintains a friendly relationship with all of her husband's children and their mothers, and often brings the whole family together at their ranch.
Eastwood, speaking in 2008 said of his fatherhood in his late seventies; "I'm a much better father now than when I was younger because then I was working all around the world and I was desperate to find the brass ring, so I worked constantly. Now my daughter takes precedence over everything and, even though I've done a lot of work in the past year, I haven't ignored her or have not been involved in her school activities. I go to all the softball games and look ridiculous out there because almost everybody's got a much younger father than me. But it's fun. I think you appreciate everything a lot more when you get to my age. I never started out thinking I would have a big family but now it's very important to me and family relationships take precedence over work".
Eastwood has two grandchildren, Clinton (Kimber's son, born February 21, 1984) and Graylen (Kyle's daughter, born March 28, 1994).
Leisure
Eastwood owns the exclusive Tehΰma Golf Club, located in Carmel within Monterey County. The invitation-only club reportedly has around 300 members and a joining price of $500,000. He is a co-owner of the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Club. Eastwood is also the owner of both the Hogsbreath Inn and the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, both located in Carmel. He is an experienced pilot and sometimes flies his own helicopter to the studio to avoid traffic.
Eastwood is an audiophile, known for his love of jazz. He owns an extensive collection of LPs which he plays on a Rockport turntable. His interest in music was passed on to his son Kyle, now a jazz musician. Eastwood co-wrote "Why should I care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager which was recorded by Diana Krall. He has voiced criticism of hunters, saying, "I don't go for hunting. I just don't like killing creatures. Unless they're trying to kill me. Then that would be fine." He loves to play golf and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Academy Award nominations
Golden Globe nominations
Discography
Eastwood is also a musician, pianist and composer. He composed the film score to the 2007 film Grace is Gone and original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire.
Albums
| Year | Album |
|---|
| 1963 | Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album |
|---|
| US Country | US |
|---|
| 1961 | "Unknown Girl" | | | singles only | | 1962 | "Rowdy" | | | | "For You, For Me, For Evermore" | | | | 1980 | "Bar Room Buddies" (with Merle Haggard) | 1 | | Bronco Billy Soundtrack | | "Beers to You" (with Ray Charles) | 55 | | singles only | | 1981 | "Cowboy in a Three Piece Suit" | | | | 1984 | "Make My Day" (with T. G. Sheppard) | 12 | 62 | Slow Burn (T. G. Sheppard album) | | 2009 | "Gran Torino" (as Walt Kowalski with Jamie Cullum) | | | single only |
Further reading
External links
- (July 18, 2003). Retrieved January 17, 2006.
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