Clint Eastwood
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Clinton Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930,) is an American actor, Academy Award winning film director, film producer and composer. Eastwood is famous for his "tough guy" roles, including Dirty Harry and the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. As a director, Eastwood has become known for high-quality dramas imbued with a pessimistic tone, such as Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.
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Early life
Born in San Francisco, California on May 31, 1930, as the son of a steel worker, Eastwood did a stint in the United States Army before moving to Los Angeles to study at Los Angeles College. He studied primarily business administration, but eventually dropped out.
Film career
Eastwood began work as an actor, appearing in B-films such as Tarantula and Francis in the Navy. In 1959, he got his first break with the long-running Television series, Rawhide. As Rowdy Yates, he made the show his own and became a household name across the country. But Eastwood found bigger roles with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) in 1964, and soon followed it with For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) (1965). In these and his third film with Leone, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) he found one of his trademark roles, the mysterious "man with no name". All three films were hits, particularly the third, and Eastwood became an instant international star, redefining the traditional image of the American cowboy.
Stardom brought more roles, though still in the "tough guy" mold. In Where Eagles Dare (1968) he had second billing to Richard Burton but was paid $800,000. However, he also began to branch out. Paint Your Wagon (1969) was a Western, but a musical. Kelly's Heroes (1970) combined tough guy action with offbeat humor. 1971 proved to be one of his best years in films. He starred in the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), and The Beguiled (1971). But it was his role that year as the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that gave Eastwood one of his most memorable roles. The film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that remains imitated to this day. Many have said that Eastwood's portrayal of the tough, no-nonsense cop touched a nerve with many who were just plain fed up with crime in the streets.
Eastwood continued to take cop, western and thriller roles, including sequels to Dirty Harry: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) was an important contribution to the western genre. As the late '70s approached, he found more solid work in comedies such as Every Which Way But Loose (1978).
It was the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), that made Eastwood a viable star for the '80s. President Reagan even used his famous "make my day" line in one of his speeches. He did make his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch his previous films had achieved. After much less successful films such as Pink Cadillac (1989), and The Rookie (1990), Eastwood started taking on more personal projects such as directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie "Bird" Parker, and starring in and directing White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), an uneven, loose biography of John Huston.
Eastwood rose to stardom yet again in the 1990s. He starred in and directed the gritty, cynical western, Unforgiven in 1992, taking on the role of an aging ex-gunfighter, long past his prime. The film was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Actor for Eastwood, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. The following year, Eastwood gave a fine performance as a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire. He expanded his repertoire again with the love story, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and took on more work as director, much of it well received, including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Mystic River (2003), and Million Dollar Baby (2004), for which he won a rare second Best Director award -- at 74 the oldest active director to do so.
Eastwood developed directing as a second career, and has, indeed, generally received greater critical acclaim for his directing than for his acting. He has chosen a wide variety of films to direct, some clearly commercial, others highly personal. Unlike many actors who also direct, Eastwood frequently directs films in which he does not appear. Eastwood has become a highly respected American director. Eastwood also produces many of his movies, and is well known in the industry for his efficient, low-cost approach to making films. 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 Warner Bros. studio, which finances and releases most of his films. In more recent years, Eastwood also has started to write music for some of his films.
Eastwood received Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.
Personal life
Eastwood, who has been married twice, has four daughters and two sons by five different women: Kimberly, 40, with actress Roxanne Tunis; and Kyle, 36, and Alison 32, with his ex-wife Maggie Johnson. He has an 11-year-old daughter Francesca with Frances Fisher, his co-star in Unforgiven, and 7-year-old Morgan with his new wife Dina Ruiz. He also has an older son, Lesly (born February 13, 1959), to Rosina Mary Glen (born September 1, 1940). He was adopted after spending six months in a Salvation Army Home for young unmarried mothers. Clint and his wife Maggie (Maggie was pregnant at the time) found and introduced themselves to him in the late summer of 1967 (he was 8). He was living in a small village in Fife, Scotland, called Kinghorn. Although they never made contact with him in any way again, Clint would regularly vacation at the secluded Kingswood Hotel on the road between Kinghorn and Burntisland. He was seen on many occasions, playing golf at Burntisland golf course. His autographed picture still hangs in the Penny Farthing Bar in Kirkaldy, which he donated personally.
"I like to joke that since my children weren't giving me any grandchildren, I had two of my own. It's a terrific feeling being a dad again at my age. I am very fortunate. I realize how unfair a thing it is that men can have children at a much older age than women."
Political career
In addition to his career as an actor, Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California on April 8, 1986. Running on a Republican ticket, he received 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election). He served a two-year term before declining to run for re-election. Though Eastwood ran as a republican, he has recently offended many conservatives with his movie Million Dollar Baby but Eastwood has described the movie as simply a "What If" story.
Neither a conservative or a liberal, Eastwood charactorizes himself in interviews as a libertarian. He has become one of the most prominent opponents of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the disability rights movement, after his restaurant in Carmel was hit with an ADA enforcement lawsuit. In May 2000, he testified before Congress in support of a bill that would have added procedural protections for small-business owners. A few disability rights activists have alleged that his decision to make Million Dollar Baby may have been motivated by this earlier experience.
In 2005 Eastwood threatened to kill the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore if ever Moore showed up at his home with a camera. This appears to have been a jesting reference to Moore's controversial interview with legendary movie star and conservative activist Charlton Heston for the movie Bowling for Columbine.
Filmography
Eastwood also has directed a number of films, including many that he starred in.
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Million Dollar Baby | Frankie Dunn |
| 2002 | Blood Work | Terry McCaleb |
| 2000 | Space Cowboys | Dr. Frank Corvin |
| 1999 | True Crime | Steve Everett |
| 1997 | Absolute Power | Luther Whitney |
| 1995 | The Bridges of Madison County | Robert Kincaid |
| 1993 | A Perfect World | Chief Red Garnett |
| 1993 | In the Line of Fire | Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan |
| 1992 | Unforgiven | William 'Bill' Munny |
| 1990 | The Rookie | Nick Pulovski |
| 1990 | White Hunter Black Heart | John Wilson |
| 1989 | Pink Cadillac | Tommy Nowak |
| 1988 | The Dead Pool | Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1986 | Heartbreak Ridge | Gunnery Sergent Tom 'Gunny' Highway |
| 1985 | Pale Rider | Preacher |
| 1984 | City Heat | Lieutenant Speer |
| 1984 | Tightrope | Wes Block |
| 1983 | Sudden Impact | Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1982 | Honkytonk Man | Red Stovall |
| 1982 | Firefox | Mitchell Gant |
| 1980 | Any Which Way You Can | Philo Beddoe |
| 1980 | Bronco Billy | Bronco Billy McCoy |
| 1979 | Escape from Alcatraz | Frank Morris |
| 1978 | Every Which Way But Loose | Philo Beddoe |
| 1977 | The Gauntlet | Ben Shockley |
| 1976 | The Enforcer | Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1976 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Josey Wales |
| 1975 | The Eiger Sanction | Dr. Jonathan Hemlock |
| 1974 | Thunderbolt and Lightfoot | Thunderbolt |
| 1973 | Magnum Force | Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1973 | High Plains Drifter | The Stranger |
| 1972 | Joe Kidd | Joe Kidd |
| 1971 | Dirty Harry | Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1971 | Play Misty for Me | David 'Dave' Garver |
| 1971 | The Beguiled | Cpl. John McBurney |
| 1970 | Kelly's Heroes | Private Kelly |
| 1970 | Two Mules for Sister Sara | Hogan |
| 1969 | Paint Your Wagon | Sylvester 'Pardner' Newel |
| 1968 | Where Eagles Dare | Lieutenant Morris Schaffer |
| 1968 | Coogan's Bluff | Deputy Sheriff Walt Coogan |
| 1968 | Hang 'Em High | Marshal Jed Cooper |
| 1967 | Le Streghe | Charlie (segment "Sera come le altre, Una") |
| 1966 | Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il | Blondie (The Man with No Name) |
| 1965 | Per qualche dollaro in più | Monco (The Man with No Name) |
| 1964 | Per un pugno di dollari | Joe (The Man with No Name) |
| 1959 | Rawhide (TV) | Rowdy Yates (1959-1966) |
| 1958 | Ambush at Cimarron Pass | Keith Williams |
| 1958 | Lafayette Escadrille | George Moseley |
| 1957 | Escapade in Japan | Dumbo Pilot (uncredited) |
| 1956 | The First Traveling Saleslady | Lieutenant Jack Rice, Roughrider |
| 1956 | Away All Boats | Marine (Medic; uncredited) |
| 1956 | Star in the Dust | Tom (ranch hand; uncredited) |
| 1956 | Never Say Goodbye | Will (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Tarantula | Jet Squadron Leader (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Lady Godiva | First Saxon (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Francis in the Navy | Jonesey |
| 1955 | Revenge of the Creature | Lab Technician (uncredited) |
Discography
- "Unknown Girl" (single, 1961)
- "Rowdy" (single)
- "For You, For Me, For Evermore" (single)
- "Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites" (LP)
- "Paint Your Wagon" (soundtrack)
- "Kelly's Heroes" (soundtrack)
- "Cowboy in a Three Piece Suit" (single, 1981)
Quotations
Some of Eastwood's lines are among the best-known movie quotations of all time. (Remembering, of course, that Eastwood himself did not write any of these lines. Eastwood has never taken a writing credit on a film.)
From Dirty Harry:
- Harry Callahan: "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 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?"
From Sudden Impact:
- Harry Callahan: "Go ahead, make my day."
From Bronco Billy:
- Bronco Billy: "Dyin's too good for ya."
From Million Dollar Baby:
- Frankie Dunn: "Girlie, tough ain't enough."
External links
- Template:Imdb name
- ClintEastwood.net (http://www.clinteastwood.net/welcome.html)
- Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database (http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/eastwood.html)da:Clint Eastwood
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