Full name: Clint Eastwood
Zodiac sign:
Gemini
Date of birth:
May 31, 1930
Age:
90 years old
Place of birth:
San Francisco, USA
Height:
193 cm
;
Weight: 86 kg
Occupation:
Actor, director, composer
Education:
Seattle University
Marital status:
divorced
Spouse:
Dina Eastwood, Maggie Johnson
Children:
Kyle Eastwood, Francesca Eastwood, Morgan Eastwood, Scott Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, Kimber Lynn Eastwood, Catherine Eastwood
Parents:
Clint Eastwood, Margaret Ruth Runner
Childhood and youth
Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco. Clinton Eastwood Sr.'s father was a steel mill worker. Margaret's mother Ruth Runner worked as an engineer. Clint's parents were devout people, although they attended different churches. The father was a Presbyterian, and the mother belonged to the Mormon church.
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Actor Clint Eastwood
Since America was in the throes of the Great Depression at the time, the family frequently moved along the West Coast in hopes of finding high-paying jobs. Clint went to elementary and high school in Piedmont. Here he first appeared on the stage of the school theater.
He attended high school at Oakland Technical School, graduating in 1948. After receiving his matriculation certificate, the young man got a job at a gas station, later became a fireman and played the piano in various bars and clubs in California.
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Clint Eastwood in his youth
In 1950, Eastwood Jr. was drafted into the US Armed Forces. He was assigned to the air force unit in which Clint underwent flight training. He was supposed to go to fight in Korea, but during one of his training flights, Eastwood's plane crashed. The young pilot was saved and was able to swim about 5 km to the shore. After this, it was decided to leave the guy in the training camp as a swimming instructor.
After demobilization, Clint entered the local Los Angeles college, but studied there for only a year, as he decided to follow the advice of fellow soldiers Martin Milner and David Jansen, who recommended that a representative-looking young man (Clint’s height is 193 cm, weight - 86 kg) try himself in acting craft.
Eastwood's passion for women makes him an actor
“At one time all I knew was that I was chasing skirts. It was like an illness, I couldn't do anything, but now it's over. That's what's good about middle age: suddenly your brain cells begin to slowly gather back into your skull, they say something like: “Okay, okay, we'll figure it out.”
- Clint Eastwood
Among other things, in the army, Eastwood courted the daughter of one of the Ford Ord officers, which requires not only a fair amount of charm, but also arrogance. Both of these qualities were noted not only by the beauty: it was in the army that Clint was first offered acting work, although it was impossible to become the new Humphrey Boggart while simultaneously marching on the parade ground - luck awaited him a little later.
After returning from the army, Clint again turns into a kind of cliche about the Real American Boy. He tries himself in a dozen jobs: as a firefighter extinguishing forests, a courier, a clerk, an assistant at a golf club, a lifeguard on the beach, a pumping station worker and, finally, a worker at a gas station. It was from there that his film career began.
After the army, Eastwood settled in Los Angeles, where he entered the local City College of the Arts. Despite the respectable name, the establishment was so unassuming and cheap that it was possible to save up to pay for school even with the salary of a gas station worker. It was here that industry bigwigs noticed him and offered to try himself in extras and supporting roles.
Eastwood had some experience working on camera since his time in the army, and he also took acting classes in college. It turned out quite comically: Clint went there because he succumbed to the persuasion of a student friend. He described that this college is simply a paradise: there are only girls (and most of them are beautiful), and the only competitors are nerdy guys. If Eastwood's comrade had not used this trump card, we would now have neither Gran Torino, nor Million Dollar Baby, nor Dirty Harry.
Movies
In his youth, Clint Eastwood appeared in low-budget horror films, thrillers and westerns - “Revenge of the Creature”, “Francis in the Navy”, “Tarantula”, “Ambush at Cimarron Canyon” and a dozen other similar films. In 1956, the artist played his first leading role - Jack Rice in the comedy western "The First Female Salesman". In 1958, the actor appeared as another main character, Keith Williams, in the western Ambush at Cimarron Pass.
Clint Eastwood (still from the movie A Fistful of Dollars)
In 1959, Eastwood played the lead role in the television series Rawhide. The film project itself did not become particularly popular, but it was here that the actor was noticed by Italian film director Sergio Leone, who invited Clint in 1964 to play the role of cowboy Joe in his film A Fistful of Dollars.
This film became popular in Europe and the USA, so two sequels were released at once - “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. The latter film also became famous for the fact that in 2001, the quote from the leading actor “I’ve got sunshine in a bag” (“I carry happiness in my bag”) was used to create the single Clint Eastwood of the virtual British group Gorillaz.
Clint Eastwood (still from the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly")
Subsequently, those films with Clint's participation in which he played the brave and purposeful “good guy with a gun” were more often successful. The actor continued to play leading roles in Westerns, gradually becoming an icon of this genre. Such films included “Hang Them High,” “Two Mules for Sister Sarah,” “High Plains Rider,” “Josie Wales is an Outlaw,” and the crime action films “Coogan’s Bluff,” “Kelly’s Heroes,” “Dirty Harry,” “Thunderbolt and Swiftfoot”, “Sanction on the Eiger Peak” and others.
The role of recidivist Frank Morris in the drama-thriller “Escape from Alcatraz” was somewhat different from similar images. The film told the story of the first escape from the impregnable Alcatraz prison fortress, from which it was considered impossible to escape for 30 years after its construction. It was built on an island and isolated from the outside world. The film is based on the biography of bank robber Frank Morris, who was the first to escape from this prison.
Clint Eastwood (still from the film "Escape from Alcatraz")
From 1980 to 1990, Clint played leading roles in all the films in which he participated, with the only exception being the film “Heartbreak Pass” in 1986. Viewers remember him as the central character of the films “Pink Cadillac”, “Game of Death”, “His Name is Death”, “Sudden Impact”, “Any Way You Can” and others.
Almost until the end of the 80s, Clint was a kind of cinema icon, included in the list of the most popular actors in Hollywood. But then its popularity declines. In the future, the artist will only play in films in which he himself acts as a director. Of these works, it is worth highlighting the drama “An Ideal World”, the melodrama “The Bridges of Madison County” and the dramatic film “Absolute Power”.
Clint Eastwood (still from the movie "The Bridges of Madison County")
Clint Eastwood was nominated for an Oscar for the detective story Mystic River. The Western “Unforgiven” in 1993 brought Eastwood the coveted statuette as a director, as well as a nomination as an actor. This success was repeated by the sports drama Million Dollar Baby, which was released in 2004.
A big event in American cinema was the thriller “Gran Torino,” created by the director in 2008. The director himself portrayed on screen the main character of the story - the elderly American Walt Kowalski, a veteran of the Korean War, who later worked at the Ford plant for 50 years. The old man lives in the suburbs of industrial Detroit, which is overpopulated with Asians and African Americans.
Clint Eastwood (still from the film "Gran Torino")
The character does not hide his dislike for them, but gradually he develops friendly relations with his neighbors, Hmong by nationality. To save his new friend from the demands of a local gang, Walt sacrifices his life. The film received positive reviews from film critics and impressive box office receipts.
The last time Clint's filmography appeared was in a film by another director in 2012. Her role was in the sports drama Curveball, where the actor plays the main role of an aging baseball scout.
Clint Eastwood (still from the movie Curveball)
In 2014, the historical drama “Sniper” became a landmark directorial work. This film was nominated for Oscars in 6 categories and won the award for Best Sound Editing. The film is based on the biography of SEAL Team 3 sniper Chris Kyle from Texas, who became the record holder for the most enemy kills while serving in Iraq and was nicknamed the Devil of Ramadi by the Iraqis.
Also in 2014, Eastwood directed the film Jersey Boys. This is also a biographical film, a musical drama about the formation of the group The Four Seasons, which became a symbol of the generation. In 2020, the film “Bringing the War Home: The Cost of Heroism,” again directed by Clint, was released in the United States. It has not been translated into Russian.
In 2016, Eastwood directed and produced the drama Miracle on the Hudson. The film was an adaptation of Chesley Sully Sullenberger and Jeffrey Sasslow's autobiography A Higher Duty: My Search for What Really Matters and was about the 2009 incident with US Airways Flight 1549.
Tom Hanks as Chesley Sullenberger (still from the film "Miracle on the Hudson")
Pilot Sullenberger made an emergency water landing on the Hudson River in New York. At the same time, 155 people - passengers and crew members - remained alive. The landing was called the “miracle on the Hudson,” but instead of gratitude, Sullenberger received a lawsuit and a career threat. The drama tells the story of the events after landing and the doubts about the actions of the hero pilot.
The role of Chesley Sullenberger was played by Tom Hanks. Other main roles were played by Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney. The film was released on September 9, 2020 by Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Dollar Trilogy and the Real Origins of Charisma
"Macho" was a buzzword in the 1980s. Macho this, macho that, this one is macho, that one is not macho. But I still didn’t fully understand what a macho is. Is this someone walking around oozing testosterone? Who opens the door with his foot and can walk with a wheel?”
- Clint Eastwood
At first, Eastwood was given only minor roles. The Hollywood western industry, where he immediately entered, was in crisis. The heroes of past years already seemed too caricatured and old-fashioned to everyone, and the public did not accept new ones. So in America, Clint did not receive even a hundredth of the popularity that awaited him after filming in Italy.
Americans came to Italy and Spain to film their Westerns because it was much cheaper than in Hollywood. Here they hired film crews and extras from local colorful workers. At some point, the Italians, looking at all this cuisine, realized that they themselves could make “spaghetti westerns” and even sell them in the USA. The only problem was that an American actor was still needed for the main role. An Italian with a terrible accent in the role of a lonely cowboy would be perceived in the States as an unfunny parody.
It was thanks to this that Sergio Leone, who was then a real locomotive of Italian westerns, noticed Clint Eastwood. Subsequently, the director himself will claim that Eastwood is not even a professional actor, but God knows what, some extra who was lucky enough to star in the leading role. But what Leone didn’t say was that he himself immediately realized how charismatic this “mediocre” would look on the screen.
And he looked great. The image of a lonely cowboy anti-hero - an egoist, a tough individualist and, in a sense, a hermit and anarchist - turned out to be exactly what the public, tired of too good guys on the screen, was waiting for. Thanks to the talent of the intellectual Leone, who, under the guise of a commercial western, made a postmodern film full of references and hidden irony, Eastwood looks perfect in this role.
The image of the “Man with No Name” from the “Dollar Trilogy” became so attached to Clint that it still haunts him. Eastwood himself understands this, but has already come to terms with it and often mocks him. Even in his most recent films, in which he appears as an actor, Clint often succumbs to conscious self-parody. If you can’t get rid of a cliché, then you need to use it.
In fact, Eastwood was for a long time not too happy about the clinginess of this Western image. He actually has a lot in common with his character - a cold-blooded individualist who disregards public opinion and is truly masculine. But he draws his charisma from a rather unexpected area. Few people know that for the last half century, Eastwood, like David Lynch, has been practicing transcendental meditation. This helps him gain the necessary self-control and restraint.
And one more thing you wouldn't expect from the man who played Dirty Harry: Eastwood is a longtime fan of cool jazz, blues and bebop. Since childhood, he learned to play the piano and simply adores jazz improvisation and the madcap geniuses of the 50s - like Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck. Suffice it to say that his own son, Kyle Eastwood, having absorbed this love from his father, became a successful jazz musician.
Personal life
In 1953, before becoming a famous actor, Clint Eastwood married actress Maggie Johnson. They had two children: a son, Kyle Clinton, and a daughter, Alison. Clint and Maggie officially divorced in 1984, although they separated much earlier. Back in 1964, the actor had a daughter, Kimber, from a short-term affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis, and starting in 1978, for 4 years, Clint lived in a civil marriage with actress Sondra Locke.
In 1985, Eastwood met flight attendant Jacqueline Reeves, with whom he lived in a de facto marriage for about 3 years. They had two children: son Scott and daughter Katherine. In the early 90s, he began dating actress Frances Fisher, who gave birth to Clint's daughter Francesca. In 1995, the couple separated.
Embed from Getty Images Clint Eastwood and Frances Fisher
In 1996, Eastwood officially married TV presenter Dina Ruiz, who was 35 years younger than the actor. Another daughter was born in this marriage, Morgan. It seemed that there was peace in the actor’s personal life. Clint and Dina lived together until 2013, when the wife filed for divorce due to the fact that her husband began to cheat on her. After the divorce, the 83-year-old artist began dating actress Erica Fisher.
The artist’s children chose creative professions. Eastwood's eldest son Kyle became interested in music and is now an established jazz musician with an extensive discography. Alison Eastwood became famous as an actress and producer.
Embed from Getty Images Clint Eastwood and Dina Ruiz
The youngest son Scott began his professional career as a model. At one time he collaborated with the Hugo Boss brand, and later began appearing on screens. He has roles in the films “Suicide Squad”, “Snowden”, “Fast and Furious 8”. Francesca Eastwood also gained media fame when she became a participant in the reality show “Mrs. Eastwood and Company.” In 2013, she was awarded the Miss Golden Globe Award.
Clint, in addition to directing and acting, is also interested in jazz. He even composed several compositions himself, which are heard in some of the director’s films. In addition, the man is a successful businessman and owns a restaurant and hotel in the city of Carmel. By the way, Clint Eastwood was the mayor of this town from 1986 to 1988.
Embed from Getty Images Clint Eastwood plays golf
The actor's main hobbies are golf and transcendental meditation. The celebrity carefully monitors his health; his excellent condition can be judged from the latest photos. Unlike his heroes, he does not smoke, and he also trains in the gym every day. On each film set, Eastwood sets up a small training area with exercise equipment.
Despite his on-screen “tough guy” persona, in real life Eastwood is afraid of insects. The artist is famous for his conservatism; for transportation he prefers not a premium car, but an old Cadillac.
From now on we lose Eastwood as a person
“In the words of John Wilson in White Hunter, Black Heart, I will not let eight million popcorn eaters pull my strings.”
- Clint Eastwood
And here, from the very moment when the future star of the “dollar trilogy” is offered his first film roles, what can be called the “Clint Eastwood Paradox” begins. From a real person of flesh and blood, he finally turns into an image and symbol.
From now on, for him, life means filming films, preparing for new roles, ambitions, a whole heap of ambitions. And most importantly: the non-stop projection of the image, which was then absurdly called the “macho image.” Eastwood himself speaks with disgust of this definition; his masculine role is much deeper and more complex than some lout who opens doors with a kick, takes women regardless of their desire and sprays testosterone around him.
It is here, at a gas station in Los Angeles, where a student fresh from the army works part-time for college, that we irrevocably lose Eastwood as a person. From now on, he is replaced by Eastwood the symbol, or even Eastwood the legend. Therefore, from this moment on, one can (and must) write about him precisely as an iconic figure. This is not because he suddenly gained some kind of greatness, but in that moment he managed to get to a point in time and space that changed everything: Clint himself, the image of masculinity that reigned in America and the world, and, of course, , movie. Especially when it comes to Westerns.
You could call this twist the “Clint Eastwood Singularity,” and it wouldn’t even be entirely a joke.
Clint Eastwood now
On the eve of his 90th birthday, the actor once again surprised fans of his work. Clint directed the crime drama Drug Courier, in which he played the main character. As the artist explained in an interview, he is disgusted by the very idea of participating in fantasy films, where there are still big roles for older actors. Otherwise, modern cinema does not provide the opportunity to reveal one’s potential at such an advanced age.
The script of the film seemed worthy of film adaptation to the director. An elderly American, mired in debt, decides to earn extra money by transporting cargo. The old man does not suspect that the goods will be drugs. Now his task is to break the vicious circle.
Embed from Getty Images Clint Eastwood in 2020
Film critics saw in the plot echoes of another Eastwood film – “Gran Torino”, only, unlike its hero, the main character of “Drug Courier” made a mistake for which he had to pay dearly. The premiere of Eastwood's new work took place in the United States at the end of 2020; in Russia, viewers saw the film in February 2019.
Clint's latest directorial work includes the film "Train to Paris", created in the genre of dramatic thriller. The film deals with the case of preventing a terrorist attack that occurred in 2020. The main roles of the three friends were played by real participants in those events.
Confession
In the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy, the hero of the film, Marty McFly, sees Biff in his skyscraper in the company of two girls watching the film A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood, who puts a metal plate under his clothes that plays the role of a bulletproof vest. In the third part, Marty finds himself in the Wild West of 1885, where he introduces himself as Clint Eastwood. He repeats Eastwood's trick with the body armor, which he saw in the movie in the second part. After Marty went to the future, and the engine that was used to accelerate the DeLorean DMC-12 fell into the gorge (and "Clint Eastwood" was considered dead in this gorge), this gorge was called "Eastwood Gulch".
In 2001, the Gorillaz music project released their debut album with the single Clint Eastwood, which is still considered the group's most successful single.
In the cartoon "Rango", Clint Eastwood is shown as the Spirit of the West, who is guarded by five golden guards - five Oscars (Clint Eastwood is the owner of four cinematic and one honorary Oscar).
Filmography
- 1964 – “For a Fistful of Dollars”
- 1965 – “For a Few Dollars More”
- 1966 – “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
- 1971 – “Dirty Harry”
- 1976 – “Josie Wales – Outlaw”
- 1978 – “No matter how you look at it, you’ll lose”
- 1979 – “Escape from Alcatraz”
- 1980 – “Any Way You Can”
- 1982 – “The Man from the Brothel”
- 1992 – “Unforgiven”
- 1993 – “Ideal World”
- 1995 – “The Bridges of Madison County”
- 2000 – “Space Cowboys”
- 2004 – “Million Dollar Baby”
- 2012 – “Curve Ball”
- 2018 – “Drug courier”
Charisma is impossible without self-irony
“You need to take your work seriously and not take yourself seriously”
- Clint Eastwood
In the list of masculine images created by Eastwood, “Dirty Harry” from the 1971 film of the same name comes first, even ahead of the hero of the “Dollar Trilogy.” Here Clint plays the role of a reckless, cynical cop who violates every conceivable rule of subordination and regulations. However, it is precisely thanks to this feature and his brutal methods of work that Dirty Harry consistently achieves success.
The image of a nonconformist cop and an ass-kicker back then in the 70s was received rather one-sidedly. Many considered him the standard of deadly serious cool, many accused Eastwood of promoting police brutality and even racism. Although for a modern viewer, Clint’s total banter and self-irony over himself and over action films about cops is even too striking. Dirty Harry is both an extremely masculine character and a grotesque, almost parodic image.
Perhaps the main moment of the film occurs at the very beginning: the main character once again defeats crime, destroying half a block along the way, returns to the station and tells his colleagues how much he hates all these Mexicans and intellectuals with higher education - they have ruined America! ...And at the same moment he is given a Puerto Rican partner who has just graduated from university with honors. As the story progresses, he turns out to be a much nicer person and often even smarter than Harry, who fires a Magnum first and then asks.
“I know what you’re thinking. Did he shoot five times or six? To be honest, in this turmoil, I myself have already lost count. This is the Magnum 44, the most powerful revolver in the world. He can blow your head off. All you have to do is ask: “Are you lucky or not?” How's it going, freak?
— “Dirty Harry”, a phrase that became one of the main symbols of the 70s.
It is “Dirty Harry” that best reveals Clint’s character and his attitude towards acting on the screen and himself. To some extent, Sergio Leone was right when he said that Eastwood is not an actor at all, since he, in fact, plays himself every time, but with different variations. However, he himself understands this very well and is constantly trying to expand the range of variations, adding self-irony along the way.
In Gran Torino, Eastwood introduces a rather harsh self-mockery into the plot. Clint, as already mentioned, served in military service during the Korean War. For a long time, it was a taken-for-granted fact for his fans that he certainly took part in hostilities, simply keeping silent out of modesty (or because of the secrecy of operations). Eastwood, let's say, was in no hurry to refute this misconception, and when the “truth” emerged, many were disappointed. His former common-law wife, Sondra Locke, who was rightfully offended by the actor in many ways, even tried to “expose” him in the media.
In Gran Torino, Eastwood himself develops this theme, making his character the hero of the Korean campaign. When a teenage neighbor asks him how many enemies he has killed, the military grandfather makes a face, answers “about a dozen” and shows military orders. If another director had shown Eastwood in this light, it could have been taken as a serious insult. However, here he inflicts it on himself.
Speaking about the legendary Eastwood squint and self-irony: in many of his films, Clint often plays on it, sometimes reaching the point of conscious self-parody. He has at least a couple of films in which he acts as a real buffoon and at the same time manages to maintain the core of his eternal image. Watching Eastwood in “Pink Cadillac” and “No matter what you do, you lose” is very unusual, but extremely funny.
If in “Cadillac” Clint plays a private detective (albeit an extravagant one and crazy about magic tricks and dressing up), then in “Whatever One Looks Like It” he plays around like a boy. Eastwood's agent generally tried to ban him from starring in this film, believing that it would inevitably end the actor's career. Here he plays a simple guy, a bully and a boxer in underground rings, who rescues a huge, sweet orangutan from captivity. Both become friends forever and travel around America, simultaneously fighting with caricature bikers and trying to pick up beauties in a bar. Not a movie, but real trash from the 70s, but for some reason I’m not at all ashamed of Eastwood here - apparently, at that time he was so sick of the images of tough, taciturn guys that acting in the company of an orangutan was an outlet for him.
