Overview (3)
Date of Birth | 31 May 1930, San Francisco, California, USA |
Birth Name | Clinton Eastwood Jr. |
Height | 6' 4" (1.93 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, the elder of two children in an upper middle-class family, Eastwood finished high school at the comparatively late age of 19 and worked odd jobs for several years before enrolling at Los Angeles City College, from which he dropped out after two semesters to pursue acting. He found uncredited bit parts in such B-films as Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) during the mid-'50s while simultaneously digging swimming pools for a living, until he got his first breakthrough in the long-running TV series Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Though only a secondary player in the first season, Eastwood made the show his own by end of its run and became a household name around the country.
Eastwood found bigger and better things in Italy with the excellent spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), but it was the third installment in the trilogy where he found one of his signature roles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The movie was a big hit and he became an instant international star. His first American-made western, Hang 'Em High (1968), was yet again a success, and he followed it up with another starring role in Coogan's Bluff (1968) (the loose inspiration to the TV series McCloud (1970)) before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood then combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and Kelly's Heroes (1970).
1971 proved to be one of his best years in film, if not the best. He starred in The Beguiled (1971) and the classic thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), but it was his role as the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971) that elevated his status from star to superstar and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day. Eastwood had constant quality films thereafter with the road movies Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and The Gauntlet (1977), the Dirty Harry sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976), the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (his first of six films alongside then live-in love Sondra Locke), and the fact-based thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979). In 1978 Eastwood branched out into the comedy genre with Every Which Way But Loose (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time (taking inflation into account, it still is). In short, notwithstanding The Eiger Sanction (1975), the '70s were an uninterrupted roll of success.
Eastwood kicked off the '80s with Any Which Way You Can (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way But Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), was the highest-grossing film of the franchise and spawned his trademark catchphrase, "Make my day". He also starred in Bronco Billy (1980), Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), City Heat (1984), Pale Rider (1985), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Honkytonk Man (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988 Eastwood did 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 the previous films had. Shortly thereafter, with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990), it became apparent that Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on more personal projects, such as directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker, and starring in and directing White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston.
But Eastwood bounced back in a big way, first with his western, Unforgiven (1992), which garnered him an Oscar for Best Director, and a nomination for Best Actor. Following up with a quick hit, he took on the secret service in In the Line of Fire (1993), then was relegated to second billing for the first time in over two decades in the interesting but poorly received drama, A Perfect World (1993), opposite Kevin Costner. Next up was a love story, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), but it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. His subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Among them were the moderately well-received Absolute Power (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000), and the badly received True Crime (1999) and Blood Work (2002). But Eastwood surprised yet again, returning to the top of the A-list with Million Dollar Baby (2004), a big hit which earned him an Oscar for Best Director and a Best Actor nomination for the second time. Behind the camera, he had success directing the multi-award-winning films Mystic River (2003), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and Changeling (2008) which starred Angelina Jolie. Eastwood's next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), gave him a $30 million opening weekend, proving his box office appeal has not waned with old age.
Eastwood has managed to keep his extremely convoluted personal life secretive for the most part and never discusses his families with the media. He had a long time relationship with frequent co-star Locke and has eight children by six other women, although he has only been married twice. Clint Eastwood lives in Los Angeles and owns homes in Monterey, Northern California, Idaho and Hawaii.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Scott- msa0510@mail.ecu.edu
Spouse (2)
Dina Eastwood | (31 March 1996 - 22 December 2014) (divorced) (1 child) |
Margaret (Maggie) Neville Johnson | (19 December 1953 - 19 November 1984) (divorced) (2 children) |
Trade Mark (12)
Trivia (157)
Personal Quotes (109)
It was a wonderful adventure. It takes a -- to make a picture in 37 days, it takes a well-oiled machine. And that well-oiled machine is the crew -- the cast, of course, you've met a lot of them. But there's still Margo and Anthony and Michael and Mike and Jay and everybody else who was so fabulous in this cast. And the crew, Campanelli. Billy Coe and, of course, Tom Stern, who is fantastic. And Henry Bumstead, the great Henry Bumstead who is the head of our crack geriatrics team. And Henry and Jack Taylor, and Dick Goddard [Richard C. Goddard], all those guys. Walt and everybody. I can't think of everybody right now.
I'm drawing a blank right now. But, Warren, you were right. And thank you, for your confidence earlier in the evening. I'm just lucky to be here. Lucky to be still working. And I watched Sidney Lumet, who is 80, and I figure, "I'm just a kid. I'll just -- I've got a lot of stuff to do yet." So thank you all very much. Appreciate it.
Salary (20)
Francis in the Navy (1955) | $300 |
Star in the Dust (1956) | $75 |
The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) | $750 |
Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958) | $750 |
Rawhide (1959) | $700 per episode (season 1) |
Per un pugno di dollari (1964) | $15,000 |
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) | $50,000 |
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966) | $250,000 + 10% of Western Hemisphere profits |
Le streghe (1967) | $20,000 |
Hang 'Em High (1968) | $400,000 |
Coogan's Bluff (1968) | $1,000,000 |
Where Eagles Dare (1968) | $500,000 |
Paint Your Wagon (1969) | $500,000 |
Every Which Way But Loose (1978) | $16,000,000 (after 15% take from the gross) |
Sudden Impact (1983) | $30,000,000 (includes salary and 60% of all profits) |
Tightrope (1984) | $5,000,000 |
City Heat (1984) | $5,000,000 |
Pale Rider (1985) | $6,000,000 |
Heartbreak Ridge (1986) | $10,000,000 |
In the Line of Fire (1993) | $7,000,000 |