Clint Eastwood is an American actor, director, producer and composer born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco. Today we celebrate his 92nd birthday together by telling you how he became an actor, then producer and director.
In fact, after he became famous for the role of “The man with no name” in the Dollar Trilogy and Harry Callahan in the Detective Harry film series, he dedicated himself to directing and producing, creating masterpieces such as Madison Count’s Bridges, Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino. But, as is done in your film, let’s go from the beginning …
Career of Clint Eastwood
Actor by chance
Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco and grew up in a rather wealthy family. Mediocre and turbulent student, he was not destined for great studies, despite the passion for music that he could have cultivated more. But that he did not abandon … we’ll explain everything!
He then did odd jobs and then enlisted in the US military during the Korean War, during which time he worked primarily as a rescuer at Fort Ord. From his height of 1.93 meters, the young Clint is noticed by a man who works for the Universal studio.
He then attends an audition in front of Arthur Lubin who, although impressed by his height, advises him to take acting lessons. And after following that advice, Eastwood managed to land several small roles, most notably in Arthur Lubin’s Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955). But it was on television that he landed a bigger role with the Rawhide series (1959-1966).
Frustrated by the long days of filming, Clint Eastwood tries his hand at directing for the first time by creating several trailers for the series, never convincing the producers to give him a chance. Rawhide, on the other hand, will allow him to distinguish himself in the western genre and to attract the attention of a certain Sergio Leone, in the midst of filming a western in Italy, entitled For a fistful of dollars (1964).
Happy to play an anti-hero, Clint accepts the role of “The man with no name” and soon becomes a star in Italy. Hired for the trilogy sequel, he shot And for a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), which gave him star status when they came out in the United States in 1967.
The Dollar Trilogy, with the inimitable soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, is to be considered one of the archetypes of the “spaghetti western” genre, a genre very dear to many directors: one of them all, Quentin Tarantino.
First steps as producer and director
With the money raised by Sergio Leone’s “Dollar Trilogy”, Clint Eastwood founded his production company, Malpaso Productions, in 1967. He then produced his first film, Hang Em High (1968), a western in which acts under the direction of Ted Post. He has produced and starred in other westerns and action films, including many directed by Don Siegel, including A Sheriff in New York (1968), Sierra Torride (1970) and The Prey (1971).
The early 1970s also marked Clint Eastwood’s first steps as a director. In 1971 he finds himself in front of and behind the camera for Play Misty for Me. That same year, he first appeared in Inspector Harry Callahan’s skin, in the first part of a series of five films.
He then continued with his first western as a director, High Plains Drifter (1973), followed by The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and violent action films, such as The Man in The Gauntlet (1977).
The actor continues to act for other directors as well, most notably for Siegel, with whom he last worked in Escape from Alcatraz (1979). In the late 1980s, his Charlie Parker biopic Bird (1988) earned him his first Golden Globe for Best Director, marking the beginning of a very successful period for Clint Eastwood.
Bird also testifies to Clint Eastwood’s great passion for jazz. The actor also wanted to make a career in music in Rawhide’s time. If he has never been able to break through as a singer, he still loves composition and has even written the music for many of his films. He is therefore a colleague of John Williams in this, do you remember the article from a few weeks ago?
A series of masterpieces
Starting in the 1990s, Clint Eastwood has continued to receive awards and accolades for his achievements. We can thus cite the western The Unforgiven (1992), the drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995), where he shared the poster with Meryl Streep, Mystic River (2003), with Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, or even Million Dollar Baby (2004), which won around twenty awards.
At more than 70 years old, Clint Eastwood devotes himself more to directing, making himself more and more absent in front of the camera. However, he distinguished himself in his production of him Gran Torino (2008) then in Robert Lorenz’s Trouble with the Curve (2012). This was followed by the musical biopic Jersey Boys (2014), the war movie American Sniper (2014), and the biopic Sully (2016) before Clint Eastwood again showed his acting skills in his movie The Mule (2018).
A successful career
Accustomed to red carpets, Clint Eastwood has received dozens of awards and nominations. His awards include three Césars for Best Foreign Film for Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, three Golden Globes for Best Director for Bird, Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby and five Oscars, including two for best film and two for best director for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby and an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
The actor-director, as we have said, has been awarded several times throughout his career, receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1988, the honorary César in 1998, various David di Donatello, the Leone d’Oro at the Mostra del Cinema of Venice in 2000 and the Palme of Honor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, the year in which he was also named Commander of the Legion of Honor.
With more than 70 films as an actor, 40 hits and around thirty productions, Clint Eastwood is undoubtedly a true living legend of cinema. A legend that has not only a Gorillaz song that bears his name, but also an asteroid dedicated to him!
Private life of Clint Eastwood
Women of his life and children
Clint Eastwood has had many women in his life. He marries model Maggie Johnson in 1953, six months after a blind date. They quickly separate but the flame is reborn in 1967.
Together they have two children: Kyle and Alison. During his separation from Maggie Johnson, Eastwood will have an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis, who will give him a daughter, Kimber. His existence will be a secret until 1989. After more than ten years of relationship, Clint Eastwood and Maggie Johnson separated in 1978 and officially divorced in 1984.
In 1975, Eastwood met actress Sondra Locke on the set of The Outlaw Josey Wales. They will form a couple for nearly 14 years and five films. In April 1989, their relationship ends abruptly.
Sondra Locke will drag the director to the judge and even describe him as a “monster”. Eastwood then lives a love affair with a flight attendant, Jacelyn Reeves. From this union two children will be born, Scott and Kathryn.
He then has a daughter, Francesca, born from his relationship with actress Frances Fisher. Their story, however, will end in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Clint Eastwood has an affair with TV presenter Dina Ruiz, 35 years his junior. They married in 1996 and shortly thereafter had a daughter, Morgan. They divorced in 2013 after 17 years of marriage. Following this new sentimental fiasco, the director will have an affair with Erica Tomlinson-Fisher and with an employee of one of his hotels, Christina Sandera.
Clint Eastwood officially had seven children, but also a daughter he did not know existed, Laurie Murray, born of an extramarital affair in 1954. For thirty years Laurie has been trying to find her biological father, so Eastwood then comes to to know that he had an eighth child at the age of 88.
Clint Eastwood victim of fake news
We close this article on Eastwood by telling you an anecdote. Crazy rumors about Clint Eastwood’s death rocked the web in September 2019. In the US, the media are in turmoil when a video that appears to have been released by the US channel CNN Breaking News announces the death of the elderly actor and director at the time. eighty-nine, victim of a heart attack.
However, the video at the source of the rumor immediately appears suspicious: it was not published on the official CNN Youtube account, but on an obscure channel, which has only 567 subscribers. The video also didn’t appear to be recent. So many elements that, in the end, will arouse suspicion and suggest that it is a hoax.
Immediately the entourage of the director of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Gran Torino” confirmed that the director was “alive and well” and that he was fine.
Misinformation about celebrity deaths is commonplace, and it is even more so with the advent of social media. It is not the first time that Clint Eastwood has fallen victim to a hoax: rumors of his possible death had already circulated in 2017.
Clint, please, debunk all these hoaxes by living another hundred years!
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