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| Honkytonk Man (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Clint Eastwood ("Letters from Iwo Jima" Screening, Berlinale 2007) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
1980s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1980s
Eastwood directed and played the lead role in the 1980 comedy Bronco Billy alongside Locke, Scatman Crothers, and Sam Bottoms.[138] His children, Kyle and Alison, also had small roles as orphans.[139] Eastwood has cited Bronco Billy as being one of the most relaxed shoots of his career[citation needed] and biographer Richard Schickel has argued that Bronco Billy is Eastwood's most self-referential character.[140][141] The film was a commercial failure,[142] but was liked by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", and praised Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new.[143] Later in 1980, Eastwood starred in Any Which Way You Can, the sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The film received a number of bad reviews from critics, although Maslin described it as "funnier and even better than its predecessor".[142] The film became another box office success and was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred alongside his son Kyle in Honkytonk Man, based on the eponymous Clancy Carlile's depression-era novel. Eastwood portrays a struggling western singer Red Stovall who suffers from tuberculosis, but has finally been given an opportunity to make it big at theGrand Ole Opry. He is accompanied by his young nephew (Kyle) to Nashville, Tennessee, where he is supposed to record a song. Only Time gave the film a good review in the United States, with most reviewers criticizing its blend of muted humor and tragedy.[144] Nevertheless the film received critical acclaim in France, where it was compared to John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath,[145] and it has since acquired the very high rating of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.[146] In the same year Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox alongside Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Warren Clarke and Ronald Lacey. Based on a 1977 novel with the same name written byCraig Thomas, the film was shot before but released after Honkeytonk Man. Russian filming locations were not possible due to the Cold War, and the film had to be shot in Vienna and other locations inAustria to simulate many of the Eurasian story locations. With a production cost of $20 million, (US$48.2 million in 2012 dollars[23]) it was Eastwood's highest budget film to date.[147] Peoplemagazine likened Eastwood's performance to "Luke Skywalker trapped in Dirty Harry's Soul".[147]
Eastwood directed and starred in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact, which was shot in the spring and summer of 1983 and is considered the darkest and most violent of the series.[148] By this time Eastwood received 60 percent of all profits from films he starred in and directed, with the rest going to the studio.[149] Sudden Impact was the last film which he starred in with Locke. She plays a woman raped, along with her sister, by a ruthless gang at a fairground and seeks revenge for her sister's now vegetative state by systematically murdering her rapists. The line "Go ahead, make my day" (uttered by Eastwood during an early scene in a coffee shop) is often cited as one of cinema's immortal lines. It was quoted by President Ronald Reagan in a speech to Congress, and used during the 1984 presidential elections.[150][151][152] The film was the most commercially successful of theDirty Harry films, earning $70 million (US$163 million in 2012 dollars[23]). It received very positive reviews, with many critics praising the feminist aspects of the film through its explorations of the physical and psychological consequences of rape.[153]
Tightrope (1984) had Eastwood starring opposite his daughter Alison, Geneviève Bujold, and Jamie Rose in a provocative thriller, inspired by newspaper articles about an elusive Bay Area rapist. Set in New Orleans to avoid confusion with the Dirty Harry films,[154]Eastwood played a single-parent cop drawn into his target's tortured psychology and fascination for sadomasochism.[155] Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (1984) alongside Burt Reynolds, a film about a private eye and his partner who get mixed up with gangsters in the prohibition era of the 1930s. The film grossed around $50 million (US$112 million in 2012 dollars[23]) domestically, but was overshadowed by Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop.[156]
"Westerns. A period gone by, the pioneer, the loner operating by himself, without benefit of society. It usually has something to do with some sort of vengeance; he takes care of the vengeance himself, doesn't call the police. Like Robin Hood. It's the last masculine frontier. Romantic myth, I guess, though it's hard to think about anything romantic today. In a Western you can think, Jesus, there was a time when man was alone, on horseback, out there where man hasn't spoiled the land yet."
—Eastwood, on the philosophical allure of portraying western loners[157]
Eastwood made his only foray into TV direction with the 1985 Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa In The Garden", which starred Harvey Keiteland Sondra Locke. This was his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg, who later co-produced Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.[158] Eastwood revisited the western genre when he directed and starred in Pale Rider (1985) opposite Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress. The film is based on the classic 1953 western Shane and follows a preacher descending from the mists of the Sierras to side with the miners during the California Gold Rush of 1850.[159] The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of the pale horse is Death, and shows similarities to Eastwood's 1973 westernHigh Plains Drifter in its themes of morality and justice as well as its exploration of the supernatural.[160] Pale Rider became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date. It was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best western to appear for a considerable period, with Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune remarking, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist".[161]
In 1986, Eastwood co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge, about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. He portrays an aging United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant and Korean War veteran. Production and filming were marred by internal disagreements between Eastwood and long-time friend and producer Fritz Manes, as well as between Eastwood and the United States Department of Defense who expressed contempt for the film.[162][163] At the time the film was a commercial rather than a critical success, and has only come to be viewed more favorably in recent times.[164] The film grossed $70 million (US$148 million) domestically.[165]
Eastwood starred in The Dead Pool (1988), the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series. It co-starred Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, and a young Jim Carrey who plays Johnny Squares, a drug-addled rock star and the first of the victims on a list of celebrities drawn up by horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson) who are deemed most likely to die, the so-called "Dead Pool". The list is stolen by an obsessed fan who, in mimicking his favorite director, makes his way through the list killing off celebrities, of which Dirty Harry is also included. The Dead Pool grossed nearly $38 million (US$74.7 million), relatively low receipts for a Dirty Harry film and it is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series, although Roger Ebert perceived it to be as good as the original.[166][167]
Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, he directed Bird (1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker. Alto saxophonistJackie McLean and Spike Lee, son of jazz bassist Bill Lee and a long time critic of Eastwood, criticized the characterization of Charlie Parker remarking that it did not capture his true essence and sense of humor.[168] Eastwood received two Golden Globes for the film, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifelong contribution, and the Best Director award. However, Bird was a commercial failure, earning just $11 million, which Eastwood attributed to the declining interest in jazz among black people.[169]
Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) alongside Bernadette Peters. The film is about a bounty hunter and a group of white supremacists chasing an innocent woman who tries to outrun everyone in her husband's prized pink Cadillac. The film failed both critically and commercially,[170] earning barely more than Bird and marking a low point in Eastwood's career.[171]
[edit]1990s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 1990s
Eastwood directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman à clef, about John Huston and the making of the classic film The African Queen. Shot on location in Zimbabwe in the summer of 1989,[172] the film received some critical attention but with only a limited release earned just $8.4 million (US$14.9 million in 2012 dollars[23]).[173] Later in 1990, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie, a buddy cop action film. Critics found the film’s plot and characterization unconvincing, but praised its action sequences.[174] An ongoing lawsuit, in response to Eastwood allegedly ramming a woman’s car,[175] resulted in no Eastwood films being shown in cinemas in 1991.[176] Eastwood won the suit and agreed to pay the complainant’s legal fees if she did not appeal.[176]
"...if possible, he looks even taller, leaner and more mysteriously possessed than he did in Sergio Leone's seminal Fistful of Dollars a quarter of a century ago. The years haven't softened him. They have given him the presence of some fierce force of nature, which may be why the landscapes of the mythic, late 19th-century West become him, never more so than in his new Unforgiven. ... This is his richest, most satisfying performance since the underrated, politically lunaticHeartbreak Ridge. There's no one like him."
In 1992, Eastwood revisited the western genre in the self-directed filmUnforgiven, in which he played an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. Scripts existed for the film as early as 1976 under titles such asThe Cut-Whore Killings and The William Munny Killings but Eastwood delayed the project because he wanted to wait until he was old enough to play his character and to savor it as the last of his western films.[176]Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success; Jack Methews of the Los Angeles Times described it as "the finest classical western to come along since perhaps John Ford's 1956 The Searchers.[178] The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards,[179] (including Best Actorfor Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples) and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. In June 2008 Unforgiven was ranked as the fourth-best American western, behind Shane, High Noon, and The Searchers, in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 10 Top 10" list.[180][181]
Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire (1993) directed byWolfgang Petersen and co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo. Horrigan is a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent haunted by his failure to save John F. Kennedy's life.[182] The film was among the top 10 box office performers in that year, earning a reported $200 million (US$322 million in 2012 dollars[23]) in the United States alone.[183] As of 2012, In the Line of Fire was the last film Eastwood acted in that he did not direct. Later in 1993, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner inA Perfect World. Set in the 1960s,[184] Eastwood plays a Texas Ranger in pursuit of an escaped convict (Costner) who hits the road with a young boy (T.J. Lowther). Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film marked the highest point of Eastwood's directing career,[185] and the film has since been cited as one of his most underrated directorial achievements.[186][187]
At the May 1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettresmedal[188] then on March 27, 1995, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the67th Academy Awards.[189] His next film appearance was in a cameo role as himself in the 1995 children's film Casper. Later in the same year he continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the romantic picture The Bridges of Madison County. Based on the novel byRobert James Waller,[190] the film relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for National Geographic, who has an affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife, Francesca (Streep). Despite the novel receiving unfavorable reviews and a subject deemed potentially unsuitable for film, The Bridges of Madison County was a commercial and critical success.[191] Roger Ebert wrote, "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age."[192] The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. Streep was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
In 1997 Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power, alongside Gene Hackman (with whom he had appeared inUnforgiven). Eastwood played the role of a veteran thief who witnesses the Secret Service cover up of a murder. The film received a mixed reception from critics.[193] Later in 1997, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, based on the novel by John Berendt and starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. The film again met with a mixed critical response.[194]
"The roles that Eastwood has played, and the films that he has directed, cannot be disentangled from the nature of the American culture of the last quarter century, its fantasies and its realities."
—Author Edward Gallafent, commenting on Eastwood's impact on film from the 1970s to 1990s[195]
Eastwood directed and starred in True Crime (1999), which also featured his young daughter Francesca Fisher-Eastwood. He plays Steve Everett, a journalist and recovering alcoholic, who has to cover the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (played by Isaiah Washington). The film received a mixed reception, with Janet Maslin of The New York Times writing, "his direction is galvanized by a sense of second chances and tragic misunderstandings, and by contrasting a larger sense of justice with the peculiar minutiae of crime. Perhaps he goes a shade too far in the latter direction, though."[196] The film was a box office failure, earning less than half its $55 million (US$76.7 million in 2012 dollars[23]) budget and was Eastwood's worst-performing film of the 1990s aside from White Hunter Black Heart, which had a limited release.[197]
[edit]2000s
Main article: Clint Eastwood in the 2000s
In 2000 Eastwood directed and starred in Space Cowboys alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner. Eastwood played one of a group of veteran ex-test pilots sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite. The original music score was composed by Eastwood and Lennie Niehaus. Space Cowboys was critically well received and holds a 79 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[198] although Roger Ebert wrote that the film was, "too secure within its traditional story structure to make much seem at risk."[199] The film grossed more than $90 million in its United States release, more than Eastwood's two previous films combined.[200]The following year Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent chasing a sadistic killer (Jeff Daniels) in the thriller Blood Work, loosely based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Michael Connelly. The film was a commercial failure, grossing just $26.2 million (US$33.9 million in 2012 dollars[23]) on an estimated budget of $50 million (US$64.6 million in 2012 dollars[23]) and received mixed reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes describing it as, "well-made but marred by lethargic pacing".[201] Eastwood did, however, win the Future Film Festival Digital Award at the Venice Film Festival for the film.
"Clint is a true artist in every respect. Despite his years of being at the top of his game and the legendary movies he has made, he always made us feel comfortable and valued on the set, treating us as equals."
—Tim Robbins, on working with Eastwood.[5]
Eastwood directed and scored the crime drama Mystic River (2003), a film dealing with themes of murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse and starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins. Mystic River was praised by critics and won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins – with Eastwood garnering nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.[202] The film grossed $90 million (US$114 million in 2012 dollars[23]) domestically on a budget of $30 million (US$37.9 million in 2012 dollars[23]).[203] In 2003 Eastwood was named Best Director of the Year by the London Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.[citation needed]
The following year Eastwood found further critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, playing a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with female boxer (Hilary Swank), who he is persuaded to train by his lifelong friend (Morgan Freeman). The film won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Freeman).[204] At age 74 Eastwood became the oldest of eighteen directors to have directed two or more Best Picture winners.[205][206] He also received a nomination for Best Actor and a Grammy nomination for his score.[207] A. O. Scott of The New York Times lauded the film as a "masterpiece" and the best film of the year.[208]
In 2006 Eastwood directed two films about World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima. The first, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi. This was followed by Letters from Iwo Jima, which dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote home to family members. Letters from Iwo Jima was the first American film to depict a war issue completely from the view of an American enemy.[209] Both films received praise from critics and garnered several nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay for Letters from Iwo Jima. At the 64th Golden Globe Awards Eastwood received nominations for Best Director in both films. Letters from Iwo Jima won the award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Eastwood next directed Changeling (2008), based on a true story set in the late 1920s. Angelina Joliestars as a woman reunited with her missing son only to realize he is an impostor.[210] After its release at several film festivals the film grossed over $110 million (US$119 million in 2012 dollars[23]), the majority of which came from foreign markets.[211] The film was highly acclaimed, with Damon Wise of Empire describing Changeling as "flawless".[212] Todd McCarthy of Variety described it as "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed" and that the film’s characters and social commentary were brought into the story with an "almost breathtaking deliberation".[213] For the film Eastwood received nominations for Best Original Score at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, Best Direction at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards and director of the year from the London Film Critics' Circle.
Eastwood ended a four-year "self-imposed acting hiatus"[214] by appearing in Gran Torino, which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Biographer Marc Eliot called Eastwood's role "an amalgam of the Man with No Name, Dirty Harry, and William Munny, here aged and cynical but willing and able to fight on whenever the need arose".[215] Gran Torino grossed almost $30 million (US$32.4 million in 2012 dollars[23]) during its opening weekend release in January 2009, the highest of his career as an actor or director.[216] Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million (US$289 million in 2012 dollars[23]) in theaters worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far (without adjustment for inflation).
Eastwood's 30th directorial outing came with Invictus, a film based on the story of the South African team at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, Matt Damon as rugby team captain François Pienaar and Grant L. Roberts as Ruben Kruger.[217] The film met with generally positive reviews; Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars and described it as a "very good film... with moments evoking great emotion",[218] while Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote, "Inspirational on the face of it, Clint Eastwood's film has a predictable trajectory, but every scene brims with surprising details that accumulate into a rich fabric of history, cultural impressions and emotion."[219] For the film Eastwood was nominated for Best Director at the 67th Golden Globe Awards.
[edit]2010s
"Everybody wonders why I continue working at this stage. I keep working because there's always new stories. ... And as long as people want me to tell them, I'll be there doing them."
—Eastwood, reflecting on his later career[220]
In 2010, Eastwood directed the drama Hereafter, again working with Matt Damon, who portrayed a psychic. The film had its world premiere on September 12, 2010 at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festivaland had a limited release later in October.[221][222] Hereafter received mixed reviews from critics, with the consensus at Rotten Tomatoesbeing, "Despite a thought-provoking premise and Clint Eastwood's typical flair as director, Hereafter fails to generate much compelling drama, straddling the line between poignant sentimentality and hokey tedium."[223] In the same year, Eastwood served as executive producer for a Turner Classic Movies (TCM) documentary about jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, to commemorate Brubeck's 90th birthday.[224]
In 2011 Eastwood directed J. Edgar, a biopic of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.[225] The film received mixed reviews, although DiCaprio's performance as Hoover was widely praised. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus was, "Leonardo DiCaprio gives a predictably powerhouse performance, but J. Edgar stumbles in all other departments".[226] Roger Ebertwrote that the film is "fascinating," "masterful," and praised DiCaprio's performance. David Edelstein of New York Magazine, while also praising DiCaprio, wrote, "It's too bad J. Edgar is so shapeless and turgid and ham-handed, so rich in bad lines and worse readings".[227] In January 2011, it was announced that Eastwood was in talks to direct Beyoncé Knowles in a third remake of the 1937 film A Star Is Born;[228] however, the project was delayed due to Beyoncé’s pregnancy. In October 2011, Entertainment Weeklyannounced that Eastwood was in talks to star in the baseball drama Trouble with the Curve, as a veteran baseball scout who travels with his daughter for a final scouting trip. Robert Lorenz, who worked with Eastwood as an assistant director on several films, is in talks to direct the film.[229]
During the Super Bowl XLVI Eastwood narrated a half-time advertisement for Chrysler titled "Half Time in America".[230] The advertisement was criticized by several leading US conservatives, who claimed it implied that President Barack Obama deserved a second term.[231] In response to the criticism, Eastwood stated "I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America."[232]
[edit]Directing style
Beginning with the thriller Play Misty for Me, Eastwood has directed over 30 films in his career, including westerns, action films, and dramas. He is the only top Hollywood actor to have also become a critically and commercially successful director. The New Yorkerwrote that, unlike Eastwood,[233]
John Ford appeared in just a few silent films; Howard Hawks never acted in movies. Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Steve McQueen, and Sean Connery never directed a feature. John Wayne directed only twice, and badly; ditto Burt Lancaster. Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, and Sean Penn have directed a few movies each, with mixed commercial and artistic success.
From the very early days of his career Eastwood was frustrated by directors' insistence that scenes be re-shot multiple times and perfected, and when he began directing in 1970, he made a conscious attempt to avoid any aspects of directing he had been indifferent to as an actor. As a result, Eastwood is renowned for his efficient film directing and ability to reduce filming time and to keep budgets under control. He usually avoids actors' rehearsing and prefers most scenes to be completed on the first take;[234][235] Eastwood's rapid filmmaking has been compared to Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Coen brothers. When acting in others' films he sometimes takes over directing, such as for The Outlaw Josey Wales, if he believes production is too slow.[233] In preparation for filming Eastwood rarely uses storyboards for developing the layout of a shooting schedule.[236][237][238] He also attempts to reduce script background details on characters to allow the audience to become more involved in the film,[239] considering their imagination a requirement for a film that connects with viewers.[239][240] Eastwood has indicated that he lays out a film's plot to provide the audience with necessary details, but not "so much that it insults their intelligence."[241]
According to Life magazine, "Eastwood's style is to shoot first and act afterward. He etches his characters virtually without words. He has developed the art of underplaying to the point that anyone around him who so much as flinches looks hammily histrionic."[242]Interviewers Richard Thompson and Tim Hunter note that Eastwood's films are "superbly paced: unhurried; cool; and [give] a strong sense of real time, regardless of the speed of the narrative"[243] while Ric Gentry considers Eastwood's pacing to be "unrushed and relaxed".[244] Eastwood is fond of low-key lighting and back-lighting to give his movies a "noir-ish" feel.[235][245]
Eastwood's frequent exploration of ethical values has drawn the attention of scholars, who have explored Eastwood's work from ethical and theological perspectives, including his portrayal of justice, mercy, suicide, and the angel of death.[246]
[edit]Personal life
Main article: Personal life of Clint Eastwood
[edit]Relationships
Eastwood has fathered at least seven children by five different women and been described as a "serial womanizer".[4][5] He has had affairs with actresses Catherine Deneuve,[247][248] Jill Banner,[249] Jamie Rose,[250] Inger Stevens,[251] Jo Ann Harris,[252] Jean Seberg,[253] script analyst Megan Rose,[252][254] James Brolin's former wife Jane,[255] columnist Bridget Byrne, [256] and swimming champion Anita Lhoest.[247] One relationship that could not be classified as an "affair" was with Barbra Streisand, whom he briefly dated.[257]
Eastwood married Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, six months after they met on a blind date.[258] While separated from Johnson, Eastwood had an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis, with whom he had his first child, Kimber Tunis (born June 17, 1964); he did not publicly acknowledge her until 1996.[259] After a reconciliation, he had two children with Johnson: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972). Eastwood filed for divorce in 1979 after another long separation, but the $25 million divorce settlement was not finalized until May 1984.[260][261]
Eastwood entered a relationship with actress Sondra Locke in 1975. They lived together for fourteen years, despite the fact that Locke remained married (in name only) to her gay husband, Gordon Anderson.[262][263] Locke had two abortions and a tubal ligation within the first four years of the relationship.[264][265] The couple starred in six films together: The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. On April 10, 1989, while Locke was directing the filmImpulse, Eastwood changed the locks on their Bel Air home, had many of her possessions removed and placed in storage.[266] Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood, then sued him a second time for fraud, regarding a phony directing contract he set up for her in settlement of the first lawsuit.[267] Eastwood and Locke finally resolved the dispute with a non-public settlement in 1999.[268] Her autobiography, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly, includes a harrowing account of Eastwood's treatment of her during the events surrounding their separation.[269]
During the last four years of his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood had an intermittent, hidden affair with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves. According to biographers, the two met at a pub in Carmel, and conceived a son, Scott Reeves (born March 21, 1986), at the premiere of Pale Rider.[270] They also had a daughter, Kathryn Reeves (born February 2, 1988).[261] The birth certificates for both children stated "Father declined."[271][272] Although they were mentioned in exposé articles as early as 1997, Eastwood did not present his and Reeves' children to the public until 2002.[273] Kathryn served as Miss Golden Globe at the 2005 ceremony where she presented Eastwood with an award for Million Dollar Baby.[274]
In 1990, Eastwood began living with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac (1989).[275] They co-starred in Unforgiven, and had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (born August 7, 1993).[276] The couple ended their relationship in early 1995,[277] but remain friends and later acted together in True Crime.
Eastwood subsequently began dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993.[276] They married on March 31, 1996, when Eastwood surprised her with a private ceremony at a home on theShadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.[278] After their wedding, Dina commented "The fact that I am only the second woman he has married really touches me."[279] The couple have one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (born December 12, 1996).[280]
Johnson, Tunis and Reeves have never publicly discussed their time with Eastwood, while Fisher said of their relationship "If the other person is not willing to grow and work on it, you can't do it by yourself."[281] When asked to comment on the news of Eastwood's marriage to Dina Ruiz in 1996, Sondra Locke told People magazine "The only thing that's sad is that there are several women in his life who are the mothers of his children, and he chose to marry one who is not."[282]
[edit]Leisure
Despite smoking in some of his films, Eastwood is a lifelong non-smoker, has been conscious of his health and fitness since he was a teenager, and practices healthy eating and daily Transcendental Meditation.[283][284][285] He opened an old English-inspired pub called the Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1971.[286] Eastwood eventually sold the pub and now owns the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, also located in Carmel-by-the-Sea.[287][288]
Eastwood is a keen golfer and owns the Tehàma Golf Club. He is also an investor in the world-renowned Pebble Beach Golf Links and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments.[287][289][290] Eastwood is a licensed pilot and often flies his helicopter to the studios to avoid traffic.[291][292]
[edit]Politics
Main article: Political life of Clint Eastwood
Eastwood registered as a Republican to vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and endorsed Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972presidential campaigns. However, during the subsequent Watergate scandal, Eastwood criticized Nixon's morality and later his handling of the Vietnam War, calling it "immoral".[293][294] He has disapproved of America's wars in Korea (1950–1953), Vietnam (1964–1973),Afghanistan (2001–present), and Iraq (2003–2011), believing that the United States should not be overly militaristic or play the role of global policeman.[295][296][297] He considers himself "too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing",[298] describing himself in 1974 as "a political nothing" and "a moderate"[293] and in 1997 as a "libertarian".[299] "I don't see myself as conservative," Eastwood has stated, while noting in the same breath that he isn't "ultra-leftist" either.[300] At times, he has supported Democrats in California, including liberal Representative Sam Farr in 2002[301] and Governor Gray Davis, whom he voted for in 1998 and hosted pricey fundraisers for in 2002 and 2003.[302] A self-professed "liberal on civil rights",[293] Eastwood has stated that he is pro-choice on abortion.[299] He has endorsed same-sex marriage[300][303] and contributed to groups supporting the Equal Rights Amendment for women, which failed to receive ratification in 1982.[304] In 1992, Eastwood acknowledged to writer David Breskin that his political views represented a fusion of Milton Friedman and Noam Chomsky.[305]
As a politician, Eastwood has made successful forays into both local and state government. In April 1986 he was elected mayor for one term in his home town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California – a small, wealthy town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula.[306] During his term he tended towards supporting small business interests and advocating environmental protection.[307][308] In 2001 Eastwood was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation Commission by Governor Davis,[309] then reappointed in 2004 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[309] As the vice chairman of the commission, in 2005 along with chairman Bobby Shriver, he led the movement opposed to a six-lane 16-mile (26 km) extension of California State Route 241, a toll road that would cut through San Onofre State Beach. Eastwood and Shriver supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road and urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project, which it duly did in February 2008.[310] In March 2008 Eastwood and Shriver's non-reappointment to the commission on the expiry of their terms[310] prompted the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to request a legislative investigation into the decision.[311] Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Eastwood to theCalifornia Film Commission in April 2004.[312] He has also acted as a spokesman for Take Pride in America, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior which advocates taking responsibility for natural, cultural, and historic resources.[313] During the 2008 United States presidential election, Eastwood endorsed John McCain, citing the fact that he had known McCain since he returned to America in 1973 as a recently released POW. Saying of the famous war veteran, "I met him years ago when he first came back from Vietnam. This was back when (Ronald) Reagan was the governor of California and he had a big function for all of the prisoners of war who were released. I thought he was a terrific guy, a real American hero." Nevertheless, Eastwood, in an expression of patriotism, wished Barack Obama well upon his subsequent victory saying, "Obama is my president now and I am going to be wishing him the very best because it is what is best for all of us."[314][315] However, Eastwood has seemed to want stronger leadership from President Obama, stating in 2010, "I think he's a nice fella and I enjoyed watching him come along and I enjoyed watching him campaign and win the job. But I'm not a fan of what he's doing at the moment. ... I just don't think he's governing. I don't think he's surrounded himself with the people he could have surrounded himself with."[316] In January 2011, Eastwood told the UK's Daily Mail that "I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up. But I felt he was a greenhorn, and it turned out he didn’t have experience in decision-making." As for McCain, Eastwood reflected, "I voted for McCain, not because he was a Republican, but because he had been through war (in Vietnam) and I thought he might understand the war in Iraq better than somebody who hadn't. I didn't agree with him on a lot of stuff."[297]
In August 2010, Eastwood wrote to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to protest the decision to close the UK Film Council, warning that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK.[317]
On August 3, 2012, Eastwood attended a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, stating that Romney would boost the country and "restore a decent tax system" to create "fairness".[318] Eastwood spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention in support of the Romney–Ryan ticket on August 30. In a comedic portion, he addressed a vacant chair next to him as if it was occupied by President Obama.[319][320]
[edit]Music
Eastwood has possessed a passion for music all his life. He favors jazz (especially bebop), blues, classic rhythm-and-blues, classical, and country-and-western music; his favorite musicians include saxophonists Charlie Parker and Lester Young, pianists Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, and Fats Waller, and Delta bluesman Robert Johnson.[321] He is also a pianist and composer.[322] Jazz has played an important role in Eastwood's life from a young age and, although he never made it as a professional musician, he passed on the influence to his son Kyle Eastwood, a successful jazz bassist and composer. Eastwood developed as a boogie-woogie pianist early on and had originally intended to pursue a career in music by studying for a music theory degree after graduating from high school. In late 1959 he produced the album Cowboy Favorites, released on the Cameo label.[322]
Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers, which has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. Eastwood co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, which was recorded by Diana Krall.[323] Eastwood composed the film scores of Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Grace Is Gone, Changeling, Hereafter, J. Edgar, and the original piano compositions forIn the Line of Fire. He also wrote and performed the song heard over the credits of Gran Torino.[287] The music in Grace Is Gonereceived two Golden Globe nominations by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 65th Golden Globe Awards. Eastwood was nominated for Best Original Score, while the song "Grace is Gone" with music by Eastwood and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager was nominated for Best Original Song.[324] It won the Satellite Award for Best Song at the 12th Satellite Awards. Changeling was nominated for Best Score at the 14th Critics' Choice Awards, Best Original Score at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, and Best Music at the 35th Saturn Awards. On September 22, 2007, Eastwood was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Musicat 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."[325]
[edit]Awards and honors
Main articles: List of awards and nominations received by Clint Eastwood and List of awards and nominations received by Clint Eastwood by film
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Best Director | Unforgiven | Won |
| Best Picture | Unforgiven | Won | |
| Best Actor | Unforgiven | Nominated | |
| 1994 | Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award | Won | |
| 2003 | Best Director | Mystic River | Nominated |
| Best Picture | Mystic River | Nominated | |
| 2004 | Best Director | Million Dollar Baby | Won |
| Best Picture | Million Dollar Baby | Won | |
| Best Actor | Million Dollar Baby | Nominated | |
| 2006 | Best Director | Letters from Iwo Jima | Nominated |
| Best Picture | Letters from Iwo Jima | Nominated | |
Eastwood has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for his work in film, television, and music. His widest reception has been in film work, for which he has received Academy Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards,Golden Globe Awards, and People's Choice Awards, among others. Eastwood is one of only two people to have been twice nominated for Best Actor and Best Director for the same film (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby) the other beingWarren 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, he became one of only three living directors (along withMiloš Forman and Francis Ford Coppola) to have directed two Best Picture winners.[326] At age 74, he was also the oldest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Director. Eastwood has directed five actors in Academy Award–winning performances: Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn inMystic River, and Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby.
On August 22, 1984, Eastwood was honored at a ceremony at Grauman's Chinese theater to record his hand and footprints in cement.[327] Eastwood received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996, and received an honorary degree from AFI in 2009. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First LadyMaria Shriver inducted Eastwood into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.[328] 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".[329] In October 2009, he was honored by the Lumière Award (in honor of the Lumière Brothers, inventors of the Cinematograph) during the first edition of the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France. This award honors his entire career and his major contribution to the 7th Art. In February 2010, Eastwood was recognized by President Barack Obama with an arts and humanities award. Obama described Eastwood's films as "essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American."[330]
Eastwood has also been awarded at least three honorary degrees from universities and colleges, including an honorary degree from theUniversity of the Pacific in 2006, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern California on May 27, 2007, and an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 22, 2007.[331][332]
On July 22, 2009, Eastwood was bestowed by Emperor Akihito of Japan with the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his notable contributions to the enhancement of Japan–United States relations.[333]
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