Clint Eastwood: Summary

Recent Role:: Guest on Lopez Tonight

Gender:: Male

Birthday:: 5-31-1930

Birthplace:: San Francisco, California, USA

Birth Name:: Clinton Eastwood Jr.

Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in 1930 in San Francisco, the son of a steel worker, Clint was a college dropout from Los Angeles College, attempting a business related degree. He found work in such B-films as Tarantula (1955), and Francis in the Navy (1955) until he got his first breakthrough with the long-running TV series Rawhide (1959). As Rowdy Yates, he made the show his own and became a household name around the country.

Clint found even bigger and better things with Per un pugno di dollari (1964) (A Fistful of Dollars), and Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) (For A Few Dollars More ). But it was the third sequel to A Fistful of Dollars where he found one of his trademark roles: Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). The movie was a big hit and he became an instant international star. Clint got some excellent roles thereafter: Where Eagles Dare (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968) and the unusual but successful Paint Your Wagon (1969).

1971 proved to be one of Clint's best. He starred in the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971) and The Beguiled (1971). But it was his role as the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971) that gave Clint one of his signature roles and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day.

As the late seventies approached, Clint found more solid work in comedies like Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and in thrillers like Escape from Alcatraz (1979), but he seemed to have lost his edge in making great films. In the early eighties Clint made credible movies with Honkytonk Man (1982) and Firefox (1982) , but it was the fourth sequel to Dirty Harry, Sudden Impact (1983), that made him a viable star for the eighties and onwards.

Clint has seven children, has been married twice, and had a long time relationship with frequent co-star Sondra Locke. Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in 1930 in San Francisco, the son of a steel worker, Clint was a college dropout from Los Angeles College, attempting a business related degree. He found work in such B-films as

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revbucky
member since: Jun 27, 2008
A real American hero ...Continue »
From his humble beginnings as Rowdy Yates on Rawhide, Clint Eastwood has become an American icon in acting and directing. His name is synonymous with tough-guy action films. Numerous biographers have reminded us that he was the first real anti-hero (seen in his western roles and as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan). Many of his one-liners have become part of our culture ("Go ahead, make my day" for example).

Soft-spoken during interviews, Clint is fun to watch on TV talk shows. (Don't forget his hilarious "chasing bad guys in a walker" comments to David Letterman when asked if he would do another Dirty Harry movie.) He's intelligent, well-read, and articulate in responding to his critics and fans alike.

We love Clint Eastwood because "he is who he is." No plastic surgery. No hidden agendas. What you see is what you get with Clint. It's refreshing to see a famous person who doesn't take himself too seriously and yet *is* serious about his work. May his tribe increase.
07/10/08 12:31pm | report abuse
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RonPrice1
member since: Dec 13, 2006
After watching a Clint Eastwood doco this weekend on Australian TV, I wrote the following prose-poem linking my life to Clint's and following them from the 1930s and 1940s until 2007. ...Continue »
FALLING INTO LIFE
What A Run Its All Been, Eh Clint?

Several days ago I watched a documentary Clint Eastwood: A Life in Film with its special emphasis on the movies he made and his philosophy of life and of making films. This French doco was screened on SBS in Australia on 6 October 2007 at 1:55 to 3:20 p.m. I made a few notes because I have seen many of Eastwoods films as an actor and as a director; I had also seen one or two docos about him in previous years and this was a new one for me. I printed out a Wikipedia(internet encyclopedia) outline of his life, gathered my notes from the TV program and after 80+ hours of quasi and semi-gestation I set about to write following prose-poem. -Ron Price, Section VIII Poetry, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, 10 October 2007.

As you say, Clint, there is a certain
falling into life, fate if you like and
trying to make the parts of life come together may be, as you said in your
last lines, impossible. And yet we try.

We both got our first big breaks in 59:
you in the TV series Rawhide and me in the early stages of an emerging world religion that had been in Canada for just on 60 years with only 700 members back then in those my-halcyon days.

While you were becoming one of those instant international stars back in the 60s I was going to uni and trying to work out the enigmas of a bipolar disorder which had no name then just a lot of trouble, angst and a series of crises that threatened to arrest my lifes unfoldment and blast all hopes which my progress had engendered.

I was finishing my career teaching in high schools when Dirty Harry appeared and was settling down into Perth Western Australia when that series of four films finished in 1988.....and what a run those
years were for me, too, Clint, me too....

You had your Escape from Alcatraz in 79 about a real escape back in 62 when I began my pioneering life and my escape from the normalities of a middle class life. In 79 I began my escape from BPD, yes it was
a lifelong journey, yessireeebob....

You were redefining yourself as director
and I was redefining myself as a writer
and poet little by little beginning in the early 1970s. You achieved so much,
Clint. Ive got to take my hat off to you.

Way back to your first marriage in 1953
when the Kingdom of God was getting its kick-start in Chicago, I was in grade four and in love with Susan Gregory: what a run its all been, eh Clint, eh?..what a run??

Ron Price 10 October 2007
10/09/07 07:25pm | report abuse
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koberfan
member since: Oct 2, 2006
Eastwood: He makes my day! ...Continue »
I have always admired Cint Eastwood's acting. "The Dirty Harry" series of films are some of the best "shoot'em ups" ever, but as a director is where this man truly has shown absolute genius. From "The Unforgiven" to "Million Dollar Baby", he has consistently produced motion pictures that are at a level of near perfection. The only complaint I have with Mr.Eastwood is that he did not start directing sooner! His ability to pull a performance from other actors is amazing. My favorite film, Mr.Eastwood has directed remains, "The Unforgiven", an account of the Old West that reveals things as they really were, not Roy Rogers singing on Trigger. Clint Eastwood has won two Academy Awards for directing, I hope there is room for many more in his trophy case.
06/22/07 08:06am | report abuse
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NoOneIsAlone
member since: Oct 17, 2006
empty ...Continue »
One of the best. I really admired Clint Eastwood, I think that he is simply one of the best actors and directors ever. My favorite movie has to the be "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" one of the best movies of all time, and I really like him in modern movies like in "Million Dollar Baby", I also like him as a director, directing great works such as Mystic River or Letters from Iwo Jima. Great star, and great director.
03/05/07 08:16pm | report abuse
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minimax34
member since: Sep 20, 2005
empty ...Continue »
What an actor, but What a director too! I was so surprised by all the movie he directed. He is so talented in both domain. Flags of our father and Letters from Iwo Jima are both fantastic and he really deserve the wins he got in the awards shows.
02/05/07 08:51pm | report abuse