Go Ahead, Make His Day

Clint Eastwood has spent 70 years in film and television, playing a string of rugged tough guys and cantankerous old men. He made a career out of portraying stereotypically macho men, layering them with complicated emotions and grumpy guy charm.

Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California. His family traveled around the area during the Great Depression, before settling in Piedmont, CA. After graduating from Oakland Technical High School in 1949, Eastwood worked as a hay baler, truck driver, and logger. He was drafted into the US Army in 1950 and worked as a swimming instructor, then was discharged in ’53.

Eastwood relocated to Los Angeles where he was working at a gas station when he got a screen test with Universal and started his film career. His earliest roles were small parts in Revenge of the Creature and Francis in the Navy, both in 1955. From ’59 to ’65, he starred in Rawhide as Rowdy Yates, the hot headed second in command to the trail boss.

Having cemented his ability to portray cowboys, Eastwood relocated to Italy to star in three of director Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns. Eastwood played the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Once he returned to the US, Eastwood set up his production company, Malpaso. Eastwood played another cowboy in Hang ‘Em High, then made his directorial debut with Play Misty for Me. In ’71, he played hardened cop Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry, spawning a popular gritty action series that included Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool.

Eastwood continued making Westerns with films like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Pale Rider, and starred in comedies that included Kelly’s Heroes, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and Every Which Way but Loose. He played real life convict Frank Lee Morris in Escape from Alcatraz, directed the Charlie Parker biopic Bird, and directed and starred in Unforgiven, winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture.

After that he acted and directed A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, Absolute Power, and True Crime. He directed and starred in Space Cowboys with fellow veteran actors Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner, and he directed the moody murder mystery Mystic River. Next, he directed and starred in Million Dollar Baby as an aging boxing trainer, earning Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

In 2006, he directed a pair of World War II dramas told from two different perspectives. Flags of Our Fathers followed an American man learning about his father’s involvement in raising the flag in Iwo Jima. Then Letters from Iwo Jima centered around the perspective of Japanese soldiers during the war – he won the Oscar of Best Director and the movie won Best Picture.

Eastwood directed Changeling, Gran Torino (which he also starred in), and the biopics Invictus about South African President Nelson Mandela, and J. Edgar about FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. He directed a film adaptation of the Jersey Boys Broadway musical, American Sniper about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and Sully about pilot Chesley Sullenberger. He also directed and starred in The Mule and Cry Macho.

He has also been politically active during his career, serving as mayor of Carmel, California from ’86 to ’88. He was on the California State Park and Recreation Commission in 2001 where he opposed the extension of a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach. In 2012 he endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president and in 2020 he put his support behind Democrat Michael Bloomberg.

Eastwood has also ventured into music during his career, particularly jazz and country. As a singer, pianist, and composer, he releasing the albums Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites and Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall, among others.