Clint Eastwood

Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in music and mechanics, but was an otherwise bored student; this resulted in being held back a grade. In 1949, the year he is said to have graduated from high school, his parents and younger sister Jeanne moved to Seattle. Clint spent a couple years in the Pacific Northwest himself, operating log broncs in Springfield, Oregon, with summer gigs life-guarding in Renton, Washington. Returning to California in 1951, he did a two-year stint at Fort Ord Military Reservation and later enrolled at L.A. City College, but dropped out to pursue acting.During the mid-1950s he landed uncredited bit parts in such B-films as Zemsta potwora (1955) and Tarantula (1955) while digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to supplement his income. In 1958, he landed his first consequential acting role in the long-running TV show Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Although only a secondary player the first seven seasons, he was promoted to series star when Fleming departed--both literally and figuratively--in its final year, along the way becoming a recognizable face to television viewers around the country.Eastwood's big-screen breakthrough came as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's trilogy of excellent spaghetti westerns: Za garść dolarów (1964), Za kilka dolarów więcej (1965), and Dobry, zły i brzydki (1966). The movies were shown exclusively in Italy during their respective copyright years with Enrico Maria Salerno providing the voice of Eastwood's character, finally getting American distribution in 1967-68. As the last film racked up respectable grosses, Eastwood, 37, rose from a barely... registering actor to sought-after commodity in just a matter of months. Again a success was the late-blooming star's first U.S.-made western, Powieście go wysoko (1968). He followed that up with the lead role in Blef Coogana (1968) (the loose inspiration for the TV series Szeryf McCloud (1970)), before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Tylko dla orłów (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical Pomaluj swój wóz (1969). In Muły siostry Sary (1970) and Złoto dla zuchwałych (1970), Eastwood leaned in an experimental direction by combining tough-guy action with offbeat humor.1971 proved to be his busiest year in film. He starred as a sleazy Union soldier in Oszukany (1971) to critical acclaim, and made his directorial debut with the classic erotic thriller Zagraj dla mnie Misty (1971). His role as the hard edge police inspector in Brudny Harry (1971), meanwhile, boosted him to cultural icon status and helped popularize the loose-cannon cop genre. Eastwood put out a steady stream of entertaining movies thereafter: the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), Mściciel (1973) and Wyjęty spod prawa Josey Wales (1976) (his first of six onscreen collaborations with then live-in love Sondra Locke), the Dirty Harry sequels Siła magnum (1973) and Egzekutor (1976), the action-packed road adventures Piorun i Lekka Stopa (1974) and Wyzwanie (1977), and the prison film Ucieczka z Alcatraz (1979). He branched out into the comedy genre in 1978 with Każdy sposób jest dobry (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time; taking inflation into account, it still is. In short, Akcja na Eigerze (1975) notwithstanding, the 1970s were nonstop success for Eastwood.Eastwood kicked off the 1980s with Jak tylko potrafisz (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Nagłe zderzenie (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), Lina (1984), Gorący towar (1984), Niesamowity jeździec (1985) and Wzgórze Rozdartych Serc (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Droga do Nashville (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988, he did his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, Pula śmierci (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch the previous films had. About this time, with outright bombs like Różowy cadillac (1989) and Żółtodziób (1990), it seemed Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on low-key projects, directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker that earned him a Golden Globe, and starring in and directing Biały myśliwy, czarne serce (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston (both films had a limited release).Eastwood bounced back big time with his dark western Bez przebaczenia (1992), which garnered the then 62-year-old his first ever Academy Award nomination (Best Actor), and an Oscar win for Best Director. Churning out a quick follow-up hit, he took on the secret service in Na linii ognia (1993), then accepted second billing for the first time since 1970 in the interesting but poorly received Doskonały świat (1993) with Kevin Costner. Next was a love story, Co się wydarzyło w Madison County (1995), where Eastwood surprised audiences with a sensitive performance alongside none other than Meryl Streep. But it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. Subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Władza absolutna (1997) and Kosmiczni kowboje (2000) did well enough, while Prawdziwa zbrodnia (1999) and Krwawa profesja (2002) were received badly, as was Północ w ogrodzie dobra i zła (1997), which he directed but didn't appear in.Eastwood surprised again in the mid-2000s, returning to the top of the A-list with Za wszelką cenę (2004). Also starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, the hugely successful drama won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. He scored his second Best Actor nomination, too. His next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), earned almost $30 million in its opening weekend and was his highest grosser unadjusted for inflation. 2012 saw him in a rare lighthearted movie, Dopóki piłka w grze (2012), as well as a reality show, Mrs. Eastwood & Company (2012).Between acting jobs, he chalked up an impressive list of credits behind the camera. He directed Rzeka tajemnic (2003) (in which Sean Penn and Tim Robbins gave Oscar-winning performances), Sztandar chwały (2006), Listy z Iwo Jimy (2006) (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), Oszukana (2008) (a vehicle for Angelina Jolie), Invictus - Niepokonany (2009) (again with Freeman), Medium (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Chłopaki z Jersey (2014), Snajper (2014) (2014's top box office champ), Sully (2016) (starring Tom Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger) and The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Back on screens after a considerable absence, he played an unlikely drug courier in Przemytnik (2018), which reached the top of the box office with a nine-figure gross, then directed Richard Jewell (2019). At age 91, Eastwood made history as the oldest actor to star above the title in a movie with the release of Cry Macho (2021).Away from the limelight, Eastwood has led an aberrant existence and is described by biographer Patrick McGilligan as a cunning manipulator of the media. His convoluted slew of partners and children are now somewhat factually acknowledged, but for the first three decades of his celebrity, his personal life was kept top secret, and several of his families were left out of the official narrative. The actor refuses to disclose his exact number of offspring even to this day. He had a longtime relationship with similarly abstruse co-star Locke (who died aged 74 in 2018, though for her entire public life she masqueraded about being younger), and has fathered at least eight children by at least six different women in an unending string of liaisons, many of which overlapped. He has been married only twice, however, with a mere three of his progeny coming from those unions.His known children are: Laurie Murray (b. 1954), whose mother is unidentified; Kimber Eastwood (b. 1964) with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis; Kyle Eastwood (b. 1968) and Alison Eastwood (b. 1972) with his first ex-wife, Margaret Neville Johnson; Scott Eastwood (b. 1986) and Kathryn Eastwood (b. 1988) with stewardess Jacelyn Reeves; Francesca Eastwood (b. 1993) with actress Frances Fisher; and Morgan Eastwood (b. 1996) with his second ex-wife, Dina Eastwood. The entire time that he lived with Locke she was legally married to sculptor Gordon Anderson.Eastwood has real estate holdings in Bel-Air, La Quinta, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cassel (in remote northern California), Idaho's Sun Valley and Kihei, Hawaii.show more