Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood
at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007
Born	Clinton Eastwood, Jr. May 31, 1930 (1930-05-31) (age 79) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	actor, film producer, film director, composer, politician
Years active	1955–present
Spouse(s)	Maggie Johnson (1953–1984) Dina Ruiz (1996–present)
Domestic partner(s)	Sondra Locke (1975–1989) Frances Fisher (1990–1995)

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received four Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People's Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star and the Brass Balls Spikes Men Choice Awards.^[1]

Eastwood is primarily known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in violent action films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Following his role on the long-running television series Rawhide, he was cast as the Man with No Name in the Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry police dramas, which have made him an enduring icon of masculinity.^[2] Eastwood is also known for his comedic efforts in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), his two highest-grossing films after adjustment for inflation.^[3]

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director, producer of the Best Picture, and received nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others such as Paint Your Wagon (1969), Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008) have all received great critical acclaim and commercial success. He has directed many of his films, and has also found success in others in which he has not acted such as Mystic River (2003).

He also has an interest in politics, serving as Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, 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 (née Runner), a factory worker. Clint was born a very large baby at 11 pounds (5 kgs).^[4] Eastwood has English, Scottish, Dutch, and Irish ancestry.^[5] He was raised in a "middle class Protestant home"^[6] and moved often as his father worked at a variety of jobs along the West Coast.^[7] 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.^[8] Eastwood then worked as a gas station attendant, as a fireman, and played ragtime piano at a bar in Oakland.^[9] In 1950, during the Korean War, Eastwood was drafted into the U.S. 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.^[10] During his military service, Eastwood became friends with fellow soldiers and future actors Martin Milner and David Janssen.

Film career

Clint Eastwood began acting during the mid-1950s , with uncredited appearances in B-films such as Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, and Francis in the Navy. Later on, he was credited for his roles in several more films, including Ambush at Cimarron Pass, which he has dismissed as "probably the lousiest Western ever made." Around the time the film was released Eastwood described himself as feeling "really depressed" and regards it as the lowest point in his career.^[11] He seriously considered quitting the acting profession and returning to school to start doing something with his life. His break came when he won the role of Rowdy Yates in the TV series Rawhide, which ran from 1959 to 1966. As Rowdy Yates (whom Eastwood privately described as "the idiot of the plains"),^[12] he became a household name across the United States. He did not make another theatrical film until he was contacted by Sergio Leone in 1964, although he did make several guest appearances on TV, including the western comedy series Maverick, in which he fought James Garner in the "Duel at Sundown" episode.

1960s

Eastwood as the Man with No Name in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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. A variety of actors, including Charles Bronson, Richard Harrison, Henry Fonda, James Coburn and Ty Hardin^[13] were considered for the part.^[14] 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".^[15] The film was to be shot in Spain and 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 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 the film was an Italian/German/Spanish co-production, there was a major language barrier on the set. Eastwood communicated with the Italian cast and crew mostly through stuntman Benito Stefanelli, who acted as an interpreter for the production. Leone commented, "I like Clint Eastwood because he has only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without it".^[16]

A model of Eastwood as the Man with No Name.

Leone hired Eastwood to star in his trilogy, followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967). Leone depicted a more lawless and desolate world than traditional westerns. All three films were hits, particularly the third, making Eastwood 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. Eastwood was paid $800,000 in 1968 for the war epic Where Eagles Dare opposite Richard Burton. The same year, he starred in the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High and 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 collaboration between Eastwood and Siegel that lasted more than ten years, and set the prototype for the macho hero that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films. He was cast as Two-Face in the Batman television series, but the series was cancelled before he played the part.

In 1969, Eastwood branched out by starring in his first and only musical, Paint Your Wagon. He and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin played gold miners who share the same wife (played by Jean Seberg). Although the film received mixed reviews, it was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

1970s

In 1970, Eastwood appeared in the war movie, Kelly's Heroes with Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas, and in the Siegel-directed western, Two Mules for Sister Sara with 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.

Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry

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, a thriller in which he played a DJ who is haunted by a crazed female admirer (played by Jessica Walter). Nevertheless, 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.

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

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

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

with Beverly D'Angelo, Geoffrey Lewis and Clyde the orangutan in Every Which Way but Loose

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

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

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

1980s

Eastwood in 1981

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

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

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

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

"Go ahead, make my day."

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

1990s

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

a mural of Clint Eastwood

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

In 1993, Eastwood played a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire, co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (as of 2009 it is his last acting role in a film he did not direct himself). This film was a blockbuster and among the top 10 box-office performers in that year. That same year Eastwood directed and starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. In 1995, Eastwood received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards. He continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the love story The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Based on a best-selling novel, it was also a hit at the box-office and grossed $182 million.^[17] The film, which Eastwood also produced and directed, was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as well as an Oscar.

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

2000s

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

Eastwood in May 2005

In 2005, Eastwood found critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with the female boxer (Hilary Swank) he reluctantly trains after being persuaded by his lifelong friend (Morgan Freeman). The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as earning Eastwood a Best Actor nomination and a win for Best Director. Swank and Freeman also won Oscars for their performances, and the trio was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Eastwood also received a Grammy nomination for the score he composed for the film. Million Dollar Baby grossed more than $216 million at the box office and was his highest-grossing film at the time.^[18]

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

In 2008, Eastwood directed the Oscar-nominated drama Changeling, which starred Angelina Jolie. Later that year, he ended his "self-imposed acting hiatus"^[19] with Gran Torino. Eastwood directed, starred, held a producer role, and co-wrote the theme song for the film.^[20] It grossed close to $30 million during its wide-release opening weekend in January 2009, making Eastwood, at age 78, the oldest leading man to reach #1 at the box office. Gran Torino has grossed over $262 million in theaters as of June 8^[21] and is the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far without adjustment for inflation.

Other projects

Eastwood's handprints on Hollywood Boulevard

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

Eastwood had tried for some time to direct an episode of Rawhide, even being promised at one point the possibility of doing so. However, because of differences between the president of the studio and show producers, Eastwood's opportunity fell through.^{[citation needed]} In 1985, he made his only foray into TV direction to date with the Amazing Stories episode Vanessa In The Garden, starring Harvey Keitel and Sondra Locke; this was his first collaboration with writer/executive producer Steven Spielberg (Spielberg later produced A Perfect World, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima). Eastwood has chosen a wide variety of films to direct, some clearly commercial, others highly personal. Eastwood produces many of his films, and is well known in the industry for his efficient, low-cost approach to making films; he has said that "everything I do as a director is based upon what I prefer as an actor."^[22] 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.^[23] He is one of the subjects profiled in the documentary Fog City Mavericks, which interviews Eastwood alongside other fellow San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers such as George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. As producer, director, and actor, Eastwood has worked exclusively with legendary film poster designer Bill Gold. Gold designed (and often photographed) posters for 35 Clint Eastwood films, from Dirty Harry (1971) to Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Eastwood will be directing the Nelson Mandela bio-pic Invictus, a film based on a 2008 book by John Carlin (Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation - ISBN 978-1-59420-174-5), starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar. Carlin sold the film rights to Morgan Freeman.^[24] 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.^[25] Eastwood had announced that he has all but retired from acting, although maintained that "if a good western script turns up, you never know..."^{[citation needed]} 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.^[26]

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.^[27] He says his philosophy is "Everyone leaves everyone else alone".^[28]

Eastwood with President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s

Eastwood made one successful foray into elected politics, becoming the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (population 4,000), a wealthy small town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula, for one term. During his tenure, he completed Heartbreak Ridge and Bird.^[29]

In 2001, he was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission by Governor Gray Davis.^[30] He was reappointed in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,^[31] whom he supported in the elections of 2003 and 2006. Soon afterwards Governor Schwarzenegger announced a proposal to close 80 percent of California State Parks. To know more about Clint Eastwood and the state park system, see his short film on Save Onofre State Beach.^[32]

Eastwood, the vice chairman of the commission, and commission chairman, Bobby Shriver, Schwarzenegger's brother-in-law, led a California State Park and Recreation Commission panel in its unanimous opposition in 2005 to a six-lane, 16-mile (26 km), toll road that would cut through San Onofre State Beach, north of San Diego, and one of Southern California's most cherished surfing beaches. Eastwood and Shriver also supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road and urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project, which it did in February 2008.^[33]

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

In March 2008, Eastwood and Shriver, whose terms had expired, were not reappointed.^[33] The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asked for a legislative investigation into the decision to not re-appoint Eastwood and Shriver, citing their opposition to the toll road extension.^[34] 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.^[35][36] This extension is likewise supported by Governor Schwarzenegger.^[35][36] 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.^[37][38]

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.^[39]

During the 2008 United States Presidential Election, Eastwood endorsed John McCain for President.^[40]

Personal life

Relationships and family

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Eastwood married model and fellow college student Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, six months after being set up on a blind date. They had two children: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood, (born May 22, 1972). Johnson filed for a legal separation in 1978. Eastwood and Johnson finalized their divorce in May 1984.

Eastwood's oldest daughter, Kimber, was born on June 17, 1964. Both Kimber and Alison Eastwood appeared in their father's film Absolute Power.

Eastwood had a long-running, public relationship with actress Sondra Locke, who appeared with him in six films: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. Their relationship broke down acrimoniously in 1989. Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood, and the litigation dragged for a decade. Locke and Eastwood finally resolved the dispute with a non-public settlement in 1999.

Following his breakup with Locke, Eastwood moved in with Frances Fisher. They appeared together in Unforgiven, and had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, born on August 7, 1993. Fisher moved out of their shared home in 1995, but later appeared with Eastwood in True Crime.

Eastwood with wife Dina in 2007

Eastwood married anchorwoman Dina Ruiz, 35 years his junior, on March 31, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. His son Kyle served as best man. The couple's daughter, Morgan Eastwood, was born on December 12, 1996.

Eastwood has two grandchildren, Clinton (Kimber's son, born February 21, 1984) and Graylen (Kyle's daughter, born March 28, 1994). Speaking in 2008 said of his fatherhood in his late seventies, Eastwood said: "I'm a much better father now than when I was younger because then I was working all around the world and I was desperate to find the brass ring, so I worked constantly. Now my daughter takes precedence over everything and, even though I've done a lot of work in the past year, I haven't ignored her 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".^[41]

Leisure

Eastwood owns the exclusive Tehàma Golf Club, located in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The invitation-only club reportedly has around 300 members and a joining price of $500,000. He is an investor of the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Links.^[42] Eastwood is also the owner of the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, located in Carmel-by-the-Sea. 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.^[43] He has voiced a lack of interest in hunting, saying, "I don't go for hunting. I just don't like killing creatures. Unless they're trying to kill me. Then that would be fine."^[44] He loves to play golf and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments.

In 1975 Eastwood publicly proclaimed his participation in Transcendental Meditation when he appeared on the Merv Griffin Show with the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.^[45]

Image and popularity

See Clint Eastwood in popular culture

Filmography

See Clint Eastwood filmography

Awards and honors

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

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

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.^[46] 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.^[47]

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

In early 2007, Eastwood was presented with the highest civilian distinction in France, Légion d'honneur, at a ceremony in Paris. French President Jacques Chirac told Eastwood that he embodied "the best of Hollywood".^[48]

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."^[49] 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 Costarring Jerry Castellanos.^[50]

On 29 April 2009, the Japanese government announced that Eastwood was to receive the Order of the Rising Sun 3rd Class-Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon on 8 May in a formal presentation.^[51]

Academy Awards

Won

• 1992 Best Director - Unforgiven
• 1992 Best Picture - Unforgiven
• 2004 Best Director - Million Dollar Baby
• 2004 Best Picture - Million Dollar Baby

Nominated

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

Discography

Eastwood is also a musician, pianist and composer. He composed the film score to the 2007 film Grace is Gone and original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire.

Albums

Singles

See also

• List of directors

Notes

Further reading

• Engel, Leonard (2007). Clint Eastwood, Actor and Director: New Perspectives. University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874809008, ISBN 0-87480-900-2. 
• Johnstone, Iain (2007). The Man with No Name: The Biography of Clint Eastwood. Plexus Publishing, Limited. ISBN 9780859653879, ISBN 0-85965-387-0. 
• McGilligan, Patrick (2001). Clint: The Life and Legend. Perseus Books Group. ISBN 9780786708437, ISBN 0-7867-0843-3. 
• Schickel, Richard (1996). Clint Eastwood: A Biography. Knopf. ISBN 9780679429746, ISBN 0-679-42974-3. 
• Thompson, Douglas (2005). Clint Eastwood: Billion Dollar Man. John Blake. ISBN 1857825721, ISBN 978-1-85782-572-5. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Clint Eastwood

• Clint Eastwood at the Internet Movie Database
• Clint Eastwood Icon Photo Gallery at AMCTV.com
• Charlie Rose show: An hour with Clint Eastwood
• 2007 In-depth interview with Clint Eastwood from The Observer
• Entertainment Weekly Photo Gallery: Clint Eastwood
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Clint Eastwood Forums
• Last Man Standing: On Clint Eastwood The Nation