Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, the elder of two children in an upper middle-class family, Eastwood finished high school at the comparatively late age of 19 and worked odd jobs for several years before enrolling at Los Angeles City College and dropping out after two semesters to pursue acting. He found uncredited bit parts in such B-films as La revanche de la créature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) during the mid-'50s while simultaneously digging swimming pools for a living, until he got his first breakthrough in the long-running TV series Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Though only a secondary player in the first season, Eastwood made the show his own by end of its run and became a household name around the country.
Eastwood found bigger and better things in Italy with the excellent spaghetti westerns Pour une poignée de dollars (1964) and Et pour quelques dollars de plus (1965), but it was the third installment in the trilogy where he found one of his signature roles: Le bon, la brute et le truand (1966). The movie was a big hit and he became an instant international star. His first American-made western, Pendez-les haut et court (1968), was yet again a success, and he followed it up with another starring role in Un shérif à New-York (1968) (the loose inspiration to the TV series Un shérif à New York (1970)) before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Quand les aigles attaquent (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical La kermesse de l'Ouest (1969). Eastwood then combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor in Sierra torride (1970) and De l'or pour les braves (1970).
1971 proved to be one of his best years in film, if not the best. He starred in Les proies (1971) and the classic thriller Un frisson dans la nuit (1971), but it was his role as the hard edge police inspector in L'inspecteur Harry (1971) that elevated his status from star to superstar and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day. Eastwood had constant quality films thereafter with the road movies Le canardeur (1974) (alongside Jeff Bridges) and L'épreuve de force (1977), the Dirty Harry sequels Magnum Force (1973) and L'inspecteur ne renonce jamais (1976), the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), L'homme des hautes plaines (1973) and Josey Wales hors-la-loi (1976) (his first of six films opposite live-in love Sondra Locke), and the fact-based thriller L'évadé d'Alcatraz (1979). In 1978 Eastwood branched out into the comedy genre with Doux, dur et dingue (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time (taking inflation into account, it still is). In short, notwithstanding La sanction (1975), the '70s were an uninterrupted roll of success.
Eastwood kicked off the '80s with Ça va cogner (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way But Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact - Le retour de l'inspecteur Harry (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, l'arme absolue (1982), La corde raide (1984), Haut les flingues! (1984) (co-starring Burt Reynolds), Pale Rider - Le cavalier solitaire (1985), and Le maître de guerre (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Honkytonk Man (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988 Eastwood did his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, La dernière cible (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch the previous films had. Shortly thereafter, with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and La relève (1990) (with Charlie Sheen), it became apparent that Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on more personal projects, such as directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker, and starring in and directing Chasseur blanc, coeur noir (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston.
But Eastwood bounced back in a big way, first with his western, Impitoyable (1992), which garnered him an Oscar for Best Director, and a nomination for Best Actor. Following up with a quick hit, he took on the secret service in Dans la ligne de mire (1993), then was relegated to second billing for the first time in over two decades in the interesting but poorly received drama, Un monde parfait (1993), with Kevin Costner. Next up was a love story, Sur la route de Madison (1995), but it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. His subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Among them were the moderately well-received Les pleins pouvoirs (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000), and the badly received Jugé coupable (1999) and Créance de sang (2002). But Eastwood surprised yet again, returning to the top of the A-list with Million Dollar Baby (2004), another big hit which earned him an Oscar for Best Director and a Best Actor nomination for the second time. Behind the camera, he had success directing the multi-award-winning films Mystic River (2003), Mémoires de nos pères (2006), Lettres d'Iwo Jima (2006), and L'échange (2008) which starred Angelina Jolie. Eastwood's next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), gave him a $30 million opening weekend, proving his box office appeal has not waned with old age.
Eastwood has managed to keep his extremely convoluted personal life secretive for the most part and never discusses his families with the media. He had a long time relationship with frequent co-star Locke and has eight children by six other women, although he has only been married twice. Clint Eastwood lives in Los Angeles and owns homes in Monterey, Northern California, Idaho and Hawaii.
