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Clint Eastwood Biography

in full Clinton Eastwood, Jr.

(1930–)

Related Works

Films
1964 A Fistful of Dollars
1965 For A Few Dollars More

1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1967 Hang 'em High
1968 Coogan's Bluff
1969 Where Eagles Dare
1969 Two Mules for Sister Sarah
1970 Beguiled
1971 Dirty Harry
1971 Play Misty for Me (also director)
1972 High Plains Drifter
1973 Magnum Force
1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales
1978 Every Which Way But Loose
1980 Any Which Way You Can
1980 Bronco Billy (also director)
1983 Sudden Impact
1984 Tightrope
1985 Pale Rider
1986 Heartbreak Ridge (also director)
1987 Bird (also director)
1990 White Hunter Black Heart (also director)
1992 Unforgiven (also director)
1994 A Perfect World
1995 Bridges of Madison County
1997 Absolute Power (also director)
1997 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (also director)
1998 True Crime (also director)
2000 Space Cowboys
2002 Blood Work (also director)
2003 Mystic River (director)
2004 Million Dollar Baby (also director)
2006 Flags of our Fathers (director)
2006 Letters From Iwo Jima
2008 The Changeling
Television
1959-66 Rawhide

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Actor, director, producer. Born Clinton Eastwood, Jr., on May 31, 1930, to Clinton, Sr. and Ruth Eastwood. He has one older sister, Jean. After traveling and looking for work throughout California during the Depression, the family settled in Oakland, where Eastwood graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1948.

Eastwood worked odd jobs as a hay bailer, logger, truck driver, and steel-furnace stoker. In 1950, he was called to military duty with the Army Special Services, based at Ford Ord in Monterey, California. While in the Army, Eastwood met actors David Janssen and Martin Milner, who convinced him to move to Los Angeles in 1954 after he finished his military duty. Eastwood took a screen test and signed a contract with Universal for seventy-five dollars a week. His first roles were in the science fiction films Revenge of the Creature (1955), and Tarantula (1955). Eastwood's rugged looks landed him the role of Rowdy Yates in the CBS TV series Rawhide (1959), which ran for eight seasons.

In 1964, he went to Italy to star in a trio of westerns directed by Sergio Leone. The role Eastwood took—the cool, laconic "Man with No Name"—had been turned down by James Coburn and Charles Bronson. The films included A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) (a remake of the classic Yojimbo), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Nicknamed "spaghetti westerns" due to their Italian production, these films gained worldwide popularity and Eastwood became internationally known.

Back in the United States, he directed his first film, the thriller Play Misty For Me (1971), and starred in the leading role. His next important project was a series of violent action movies portraying Harry Callahan, a contentious San Francisco cop. The Dirty Harry series proved immensely popular with the public and included five films over a period of seventeen years, including Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988).

Eastwood then started directing, winning critical acclaim for the Charlie Parker biography, Bird (1988). He also earned accolades for directing and producing the 1992 Western Unforgiven, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. He directed and starred in A Perfect World (1993); The Bridges of Madison County (1994) with Meryl Streep; and Absolute Power (1997). He directed (but did not appear in) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997); and produced, directed and starred in the thriller True Crime (1999).

August of 2000 saw the release of his directorial and acting project, Space Cowboys, costarring James Garner, Donald Sutherland, and Tommy Lee Jones. In 2003, he released the haunting and award-winning directorial effort Mystic River starring Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Eastwood won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Director for Million Dollar Baby starring Hilary Swank two years later. The film also won the Best Picture Oscar. That same year, he received the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles.