| ActorDirectory.Com/clinteastwood Actor / Director / Producer Clint Eastwood |
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Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in 1930 in San Francisco, the son of a steel worker, Eastwood was a college dropout from Los Angeles College, attempting a business related degree. He found work in such B-films as Tarantula (1955), and Francis in the Navy (1955) until he got his first breakthrough with the long-running TV series "Rawhide" (1959). As Rowdy Yates, he made the show his own and became a household name around the country. But Eastwood found even bigger and better things with Per un pugno di dollari (1964) ("A Fistful of Dollars"), and Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) ("For a Few Dollars More"). But it was the second sequel to "A Fistful of Dollars" where he found one of his trademark roles: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) ("The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"). The movie was a big hit and he became an instant international star. Eastwood got some excellent roles thereafter: Where Eagles Dare (1968) found him second fiddle to Richard Burton but to the tune of 800,000 dollars in this classic World War II movie. He also starred in Coogan's Bluff (1968), (the loose inspiration to the TV series "McCloud" (1970)) and the unusual but successful Paint Your Wagon (1969). In 1970 Eastwood went in an experimental direction again with the offbeat Kelly's Heroes (1970), which was yet again a success. 1971 proved to be his best year in films, or at least one of his best. He starred in the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971) and The Beguiled (1971). But it was his role as the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971) that gave Eastwood one of his signature roles and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day. Eastwood also found work in American revisionist westerns like High Plains Drifter (1973) -- which he also directed, Joe Kidd (1972) and Hang 'Em High (1968). Eastwood had constant quality films with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and Magnum Force (1973), a sequel to Dirty Harry (1971), but 1976 found Eastwood with even more legendary films. The first was The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), considered to perhaps be one of the quintessential westerns, and The Enforcer (1976/I), the third film in the "Dirty Harry" series. As the late seventies approached Eastwood found more solid work in the action flick The Gauntlet (1977), the comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and the thriller like Escape from Alcatraz (1979). His career continued to thrive with box-office blockbusters like Any Which Way You Can (1980), but many of his films were panned by critics. In the early eighties, Eastwood made credible movies with Honkytonk Man (1982) and Firefox (1982), but it was the fourth sequel to 'Dirty Harry', Sudden Impact (1983) (the highest grossing film of the series) that made him a viable star for the eighties. In the mid-eighties Clint made some solid movies but nothing really stuck out. Tightrope (1984), City Heat (1984), and others were solid but not classic films. In 1988 Eastwood did his fifth and up to this point final "Dirty Harry" movie, The Dead Pool (1988). Although it was a box-office success, it lacked the critical acclaim that the previous films had. About this time with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990), it was fairly obvious Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on more personal projects such as White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an uneven, loose biography of John Huston. But Eastwood surprised yet again. First with his western, Unforgiven (1992), which garnered him an Oscar for director, and nomination for best actor. Then he took on the secret service in In the Line of Fire (1993), which was a big hit, followed by the interesting but poorly received drama, A Perfect World (1993), with Kevin Costner. Next up was a love story, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), but it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. The quality of his films over the next few years was uneven, starring in the well-received films Absolute Power (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000), and the badly received True Crime (1999) and Blood Work (2002). However, Eastwood rose to prominence once again with what is arguable his finest screen performance to date in Million Dollar Baby (2004). The film was a huge commercial and critical success, winning him Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, as well as a nomination for Best Actor. He continued to direct, but stayed away from acting for four years until he starred in Gran Torino (2008). The film grossed $30 million during its opening weekend in 2009, making him the oldest leading man to reach #1 at the box office, and becoming the biggest commercial success of his career. Although he is aging now, Eastwood continues to thrive and will undoubtedly continue to surpise audiences. Like most superstars, Clint Eastwood's success can be attributed to equal parts good fortune, tenacity, and talent. Eastwood may have been too young to fight in World War II, but he managed to miss out on action in Korea too. On leave as a G.I., his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and steely-eyed Clint swam three miles to shore. He later was made boot camp swimming instructor and missed out on action in Korea (confined to base). Encouraged to try acting by two of his Army buddies, David Janssen and Martin Milner, he landed a contract at Universal Studios in 1954, earning 75 USD a week playing bit parts in B-grade movies like Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955). He was dropped when some studio execs decided his Adam's apple was too big. The determined Eastwood swallowed his pride and, over the next few years, he dug swimming pools between playing bit parts in movies and on TV. While visiting a friend at CBS, Eastwood was spotted by a network exec who cast him as cattle driver Rowdy Yates in the long-running western series "Rawhide" (1959). That, in turn, led to spaghetti stardom in a string of Sergio Leone westerns, beginning with Per un pugno di dollari (1964) ("A Fistful of Dollars"). Eastwood has seven children from five different women. He has been divorced once and had a long time relationship with frequent co-star Sondra Locke. He lives in Carmel and has been married to Dina Eastwood since 1996. IMDb Mini Biography By: Tzvetislav Samardjiev, tzvetislav@abv.bg Spouse Dina Eastwood (31 March 1996 - present) 1 child Maggie Johnson (19 December 1953 - 14 May 1984) (divorced) 2 children Trade Mark His characters have a new "trademark expression" in each movie. The same character (e.g., Dirty Harry) will have a different one in each movie. At the end of movies he directs, during the credits the camera will move around the location it was filmed in. then freezeframe for the rest of the credits. Frequently uses shadow lighting in his films. The lead characters in his movie are often outsiders with a dark past they prefer not to remember His movies usually begin and end with the death of a character. His films often deal with the gap between the truth and the mythologized version of the truth (White Hunter Black Heart, Unforgiven, Flags of our Fathers) Often plays characters who are consumed by regrets over past mistakesand are given one chance to redeem themselves (Unforgiven, In the Lineof Fire, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino) Trivia Is a partial owner of the Pebble Beach Golf Country Club in Monterey Peninsula, California. Owns the inn Mission Ranch, Carmel, California, USA. 1998: Received an honorary Cesar award in Paris, France, for his body of work. 10/97: Ranked #2 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. He wore the same poncho, without ever having washed it, in all three of his "Man with No Name" Westerns. Gained popularity with his first three major films, Per un pugno di dollari (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966). Soon afterwards Jolly Films (which produced Per un pugno di dollari (1964)) came out with a film called "The Magnificent Stranger", which was actually two episodes of "Rawhide" (1959) edited together. Eastwood sued and the film was withdrawn. 1986: Elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It has often been claimed that he ran for office as a Republican. In fact, although he was registered as a Republican in California, the position of mayor is non-partisan. Was apparently such an organized director that he finished Absolute Power (1997) days ahead of schedule. When Don Siegel fell ill during production of Dirty Harry (1971), Eastwood stepped in as director during the attempted-suicide/jumper sequence. Got his role in "Rawhide" (1959) while visiting a friend at the CBS lot when a studio exec spotted him because he "looked like a cowboy." 1950-1954: Drafted and served in the United States Army, assigned to Special Services. He was a swimming instructor. Lived with Sondra Locke from 1976 to 1990. They never married. It's interesting, given his penchant towards directing or starring in westerns, that his name, Clint Eastwood, is an anagram for 'old west action.' His name is used as the title of the hit Gorillaz song and video "Clint Eastwood" (2001). Mentioned in the theme song of the 1980s TV hit "The Fall Guy" (1981). For many years he was the owner of the nation's largest known hardwood tree, a bluegum eucalyptus, until a larger version of the tree was discovered in 2002. 6/8/02: Sworn in as Parks Commissioner for the state of California at Big Basin Redwood Park, Santa Cruz. Holding up his new commissioner's badge, he told the crowd, "You're all under arrest.". 2000: Recipient of John F. Kennedy Center Honors. 2000: Received the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Is of a mixed heritage that includes Dutch, Scottish, Irish and English blood. Redubbed his own dialogue for the American releases of Per un pugno di dollari (1964) ("A Fistful Of Dollars"), Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) ("For A Few Dollars More"), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) ("The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"). When he directs, he insists that his actors wear as little makeup as possible and he likes to print first takes. As a result, his films consistently finish on schedule and on budget. When directing, he simply says "okay" instead of "action" and "cut." (source: "Sunday Morning Shootout"). Weighed 11 lbs 6 oz at birth. He was a contract player at Universal International. He and another young actor named Burt Reynolds were released from their contracts and left the studio on the same day. They were both fired by the same director. Eastwood was fired when the director didn't want to use him in a movie because "his Adam's Apple was too big." Reynolds, who was serving as a stunt man, was fired after he shoved the director into a water tank during an argument over how to do a stunt fall. Mentioned on T.G. Sheppard's hit single "Make My Day," which in the first half of 1984 reached #12 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and also reached #62 on that magazine's Hot 100 singles survey. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 294-302. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. He was going to play the villain Two-Face on the "Batman" (1966) TV series, but the show was canceled before the project began. He would later be considered to play Batman as an older man before Warner Brothers decided to proceed with Batman Begins. He was voted the 16th "Greatest Movie Star of All Time" by Entertainment Weekly. Eastwood was only two rankings behind his own all-time favorite film actor, James Cagney. Has 2 grandchildren: Graylen Eastwood (Kyle's daughter, born 28 March 1994) and Clinton (Kimber's son, born 21 February 1984). Has 7 children: Kimber Eastwood (born 17 June 1964), Kyle Eastwood (born 19 May 1968), Alison Eastwood (born 22 May 1972), Scott Eastwood (born 21 March 1986), Kathryn Eastwood (2 February 1988), Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (born 7 August 1993) and Morgan Eastwood (born 12 December 1996). Is owner of the exclusive Tehama golf club in Carmel Valley, California. He refused to have children with his wife at first (although he did have a daughter in 1964 from an affair), but then she became very ill. Once she recovered, he changed his mind, and almost 15 years after they married, their first child together was born. Although he has been associated with violence throughout his career, he personally detests it and has carefully shown the horrific consequences of violence in his more recent films, such as Unforgiven (1992), A Perfect World (1993), Absolute Power (1997), Mystic River (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Gran Torino (2008)_. He has always disliked the reading of political and social agendas in his films, which has occurred from Dirty Harry (1971) to Million Dollar Baby (2004). He has always maintained that all of his films are apolitical and what he has in mind when making a film is whether it's going to be entertaining and compelling. Has been named to Quigley Publications' annual Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars 21 times, making him #2 all-time for appearances in the top 10 list. Only John Wayne, with 25 appearances in the Top 10, has more. Eastwood, who first appeared in the Top Ten at #5 in 1968, finished #2 to Wayne at the box office in 1971 after finishing #2 to Paul Newman in 1970. After his first two consecutive #1 appearances in 1972 and 1973, he dropped back to #2 in 1974, trailing Robert Redford at the box office. Clint was again #2 in 1979, 1981 and 1982 (topped by Burt Reynolds all three years), before leading the charts in 1983 and '84. He last topped the poll in 1993. Was named the top box-office star of 1972 and again in 1973 by the Motion Picture Herald, based on an annual poll of exhibitors as to the drawing power of movie stars at the box-office, conducted by Quigley Publications. He was the only nominee for the Best Actor Oscar in 2004 (for Million Dollar Baby (2004)) to play a fictitious character. All four other nominees portrayed real people in their respective films. A sample of his whistling can be heard on the track "Big Noise" from his son Kyle Eastwood's jazz CD "Paris Blue" (2004). At the The 45th Annual Academy Awards (1973) (TV), he presented the 1972 Best Picture Oscar to Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of The Godfather (1972). Thirty-two years later, they would jointly accept the 2004 Best Picture Oscar at the The 77th Annual Academy Awards (2005) (TV), along with fellow Million Dollar Baby (2004) co-producer Tom Rosenberg. At the The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000) (TV) in 2000, presented the Best Picture statuette to American Beauty (1999). Was named the #1 top money-making star at the box office in Quigley Publications' annual poll of movie exhibitors five times between 1972 and 1993. Bing Crosby, Burt Reynolds and Tom Hanks also have been named #1 five times, while Tom Cruise holds the record for being named #1 six times. 12/12/96: Daughter Morgan Eastwood, with Dina Ruiz (Dina Eastwood), born. 1999: Wife Dina Ruiz (Dina Eastwood) is a former local television news anchor/reporter in California. At age 74, he became the oldest person to win the Best Director Oscar for Million Dollar Baby (2004). He directed 9 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank, Angelina Jolie, and himself (in Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)). Hackman, Penn, Robbins, Freeman and Swank won Oscars for their performances in one of Eastwood's movies. For two consecutive years he directed two out of the four actors who won Oscars for their performances: Sean Penn (Best Actor) and Tim Robbins (Best Supporting Actor) in Mystic River (2003)) in 2004, and Hilary Swank (Best Actress) and Morgan Freeman (Best Supporting Actor) for Million Dollar Baby (2004)) in 2005. 2000: Received an honorary Doctorate from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Wesleyan is also home to his personal archives. Every year the PGA tour comes to Pebble Beach, California, to host a celebrity golf tournament where celebrities team up with the professionals. Clint has participated in this every year from 1962-2002 and has been the longest running participant. He now serves as Host. In early 2005 he announced that he would supply the voice for a "Dirty Harry" video game. 2005: Premiere Magazine ranked him as #43 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature. Favorite actor is James Cagney. Some of his favorite movies are, The 39 Steps (1935), Sergeant York (1941), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Chariots of Fire (1981). Some of his favorite actors are Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and James Stewart. In the late 1990s he said that Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Bronco Billy (1980),Honkytonk Man (1982), Unforgiven (1992) and A Perfect World (1993) are the favorites of the films he had done. Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de l'info" (1988). He stood at 6'4" at his peak, but due to recent back problems, he can only stretch up to 6'2". He, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Richard Attenborough and Kevin Costner are the only directors best known as actors who have won an Academy Award as Best Director. 1994: President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Claimed that the trait he most despised in others was racism. The boots that he wore in Unforgiven (1992) are the same ones he wore in the TV series "Rawhide" (1959). They are now a part of his private collection and were on loan to the 2005 Sergio Leone exhibit at the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, California. In essence these boots have book-ended his career in the Western genre. He and former partner Sondra Locke made six films together: Any Which Way You Can (1980), Bronco Billy (1980), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), The Gauntlet (1977), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983). As a director, he has always refused, and refuses to this day, to test screen his films before their release. He objected to the end of Dirty Harry (1971) when Harry throws his badge away after killing the Scorpio Killer, arguing with director Don Siegel that Harry knew that being a policeman was the only work for which he was suited. Siegel eventually convinced Eastwood that Harry threw his badge away as a symbol that he had lost faith in the justice system. His production company is Malpaso Productions, which he formed in 1968. 2005: At the National Board of Review awards dinner in New York City, Eastwood joked that he would kill filmmaker Michael Moore if Moore ever showed up at his home with a camera (an evident reference to Moore's controversial interview with Eastwood's friend, actor/Second Amendment advocate Charlton Heston, for the movie Bowling for Columbine (2002)). After the crowd laughed, Eastwood said, "I mean it." Moore's spokesman said, "Michael laughed along with everyone else, and took Mr Eastwood's comments in the lighthearted spirit in which they were given." Publicly, Eastwood has not commented further. Took acting class from Michael Chekhov in Hollywood. Under his direction in 2003 and 2004 respectively, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman both won Best Supporting Actor Oscars. They were both first time winners, and had previously starred alongside each other in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). 1972: He attended President Richard Nixon's landslide victory celebration in Los Angeles, along with John Wayne, Charlton Heston, and Glenn Ford. 1972: Was appointed to serve on the National Council of the Arts by President Richard Nixon. Admitted to voting for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and Ross Perot in 1992. Has ruled out the possibility of playing Dirty Harry again, saying he has "outgrown him age-wise." 2006: His performance as "Dirty" Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971) is ranked #92 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. At a press conference for his movie Mystic River (2003), Eastwood condemned the Iraq war as a "big mistake" and defended Sean Penn's visit to Baghdad, saying he might have done the same thing but for his age. 2/7/06: His mother, Francesca Ruth Eastwood, died at age 97. 1992: He declined an offer from President George Bush to campaign for him in the Presidential election. He told an interviewer the next year, "I think what the ultra-right wing conservatives did to the Republicans is really self- destructive, absolutely stupid.". His performance as Blondie in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) is ranked #50 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. His performance as "Dirty" Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971) is ranked #42 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Was friends with Robert Donner. He claims that he wound up getting the role in Sergio Leone's Per un pugno di dollari (1964) because James Coburn, to whom the role was originally offered, wanted $25,000. Eastwood accepted the role for $15,000. Was offered Al Pacino's role in Any Given Sunday (1999), but turned it down because Warner Bros. wouldn't let him direct it also. Is a patron of the arts, notably as an avid collector of western art. Presented the Golden Globe Award for Best Director to Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005). 2005: His "Fistful" mannerisms was imitated in Canada, by the Tim Horton's restaurant chain, to promote the Southwest chicken sub. Served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was stationed at Ft. Ord, California, across from Monterey (over the hill from where he now lives and has served as mayor, Carmel-by-the-Sea). He was a swimming instructor. Whenever asked if he would do a Dirty Harry 6, he often joked that he can imagined Dirty Harry now longed retired, and fly-fishing with his .44 magnum. His first screen appearance was an uncredited role in Revenge of the Creature (1955), as the goofy white-coated lab assistant who does the silly mouse gag in the lab scene with the monkey. His only line in the film is, "I've lost my white mouse". Cited as America's Favorite Movie Star by the Harris Polls conducted in 1993, 1994 and 1997. Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford are the only other actors to be cited as the #1 Movie Star as many times. He was not nominated for an Academy Award, either as an actor or as a director, until age 62. His favorite movie is John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941). 1968: Met John Wayne for the first time at the Republican National Convention. 2/17/07: He was awarded the rank of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur" by French President Jacques Chirac as a tribute to his career as an actor and a filmmaker. Voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California in 2003 and 2006. Son of Clinton Eastwood and wife Margaret Ruth Runner. 1969: Attended a celebration of John Wayne's 40-year career at Paramount Studios, along with Lee Marvin, Rock Hudson, Fred MacMurray, James Stewart, Ernest Borgnine, Michael Caine and Laurence Harvey. Fluent in Italian. 1972: Had to fill in for Charlton Heston at the The 44th Annual Academy Awards (1972) (TV) until Heston arrived. Was offered Gregory Peck's role in Mackenna's Gold (1969), but turned it down to make Hang 'Em High (1968) instead. The producers of Dirty Harry (1971) originally didn't want Eastwood, since they felt he was too young at 41. After older stars like John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Robert Mitchum turned the film down, Eastwood was cast. He last played Harry Callahan aged 57 in The Dead Pool (1988), which was the age the character was supposed to be in the first film according to the original screenplay. William Friedkin offered him the lead in Sorcerer (1977), but Eastwood didn't want to travel anywhere at that time. Jack Nicholson turned the film down for the same reason. Used to shop at Market Basket a lot when it was still open. Mentioned in theme song in The Adventures of George the Projectionist (2006). 5/11/07: Received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern California. Studied at Los Angeles City College. Learned mountain climbing for The Eiger Sanction (1975) because he felt the scenes were too dangerous for him to pay a stuntman to do for him. He was the last climber up The Totem Pole in Monument Valley, and as part of the contract, the movie crew removed the pitons left by decades of other climbers. The scene where he was hanging off the mountain by a single rope was actually Eastwood, and not a stuntman. An accomplished jazz pianist, he performs much of the music for his movies, including the scene in the bar in In the Line of Fire (1993). T12/6/06: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Eastwood into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. Along with John Travolta and Tom Selleck, he attended the formal state dinner at the White House held by President Ronald Reagan to welcome Prince Charles and Princess Diana to the United States in 1985. In the late 1980s he discussed remaking the classic Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country (1962) with Charlton Heston. He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture. William Goldman said of Eastwood that he was the only person to be a star in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. By "star" Goldman means Variety's list of top ten actors of the decade. Sondra Locke wrote an autobiography titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly", which included details about her troubled relationship with him. Former longtime companion Sondra Locke filed a palimony lawsuit against him after their break-up in 1990. The settlement included a financial payment and a contract between Locke and Warner Bros. She sued him again in 1996 for fraud. They settled out of court in 1999, for a reported large amount, details of which were not publicly disclosed. Though he often smokes in his movies, he is a lifelong non-smoker offscreen. Although he can handle pistols with either hand equally well, Clint is left-eye dominant, evident when he shoots a rifle as in Joe Kidd or The Unforgiven, but is right handed, as seen when he wears or handles one pistol. Personal Quotes My father used to say to me, "Show 'em what you can do, and don't worry about what you're gonna get. Say you'll work for free and make yourself invaluable." [to Eli Wallach prior to starting work on Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly")] Never trust anyone on an Italian movie. I know about these things. Stay away from special effects and explosives. [what he says after a take, instead of "Cut!"] That's enough of that shit. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live. I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life. Right now, the state of the movies in America, there's an awful lot of people hanging on wires and floating across things and comic book characters and what have you. There seems to be a lot of big business in that, a nice return on some of those. Nowadays you'd have many battles before you blow it up, but eventually you'd take it down. And that's okay, I don't heavily quarrel with that, but for me personally, having made films for years and directed for 33 years, it just seems to me that I long for people who want to see a story and see character development. Maybe we've dug it out and there's not really an audience for that, but that's not for me to really worry about. And I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed. [on directing] Most people like the magic of having it take a long time and be difficult . . . but I like to move along, I like to keep the actors feeling like they're going somewhere, I like the feeling of coming home after every day and feeling like you've done something and you've progressed somewhere. And to go in and do one shot after lunch and another one maybe at six o'clock and then go home is not my idea of something to do. I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don't have a toy they'll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time. There's really no way to teach you how to act, but there is a way to teach you how to teach yourself to act. That's kind of what it is; once you learn the little tricks that work for you, pretty soon you find yourself doing that. Again, after you've gone through all the various processes and the film comes out and is very successful, you're almost afraid to revisit it. You want to save it for a rainy day. ...in America, instead of making the audience come to the film, the idea seems to be for you to go to the audience. They come up with the demographics for the film and then the film is made and sold strictly to that audience. Not to say that it's all bad, but it leaves a lot of the rest of us out of it. To me cinema can be a much more friendly world if there's a lot of things to choose from. You know when you think of a particular director, you think you would have liked to be with them on one particular film and not necessarily on some other one. At the studios, everybody's into sequels or remakes or adaptations of old TV shows. I don't know if it's because of the corporate environment or they're just out of ideas. Pretty soon, they're going to be wanting to do one of "Rawhide" (1959). I think I'm on a track of doing pictures nobody wants to do, that they're all afraid of. I guess it's the era we live in, where they're doing remakes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979) and other old television shows. I must say, I'm not a negative person, but sometimes I wonder what kind of movies people are going to be making 10 years from now if they follow this trajectory. When I grew up there was such a variety of movies being made. You could go see Sergeant York (1941) or Sitting Pretty (1948) or Sullivan's Travels (1941), dozens of pictures, not to mention all the great B movies. Now, they're looking for whatever the last hit was. If it's The Incredibles (2004), they want 'The Double Incredibles.' My theory is they ought to corral writers into writers' buildings like they used to and start out with fresh material. I liked the Million Dollar Baby (2004)' script a lot. Warner Bros. said the project had been submitted to them and they'd passed on it. I said, "But I like it." They said, "Well, it's a boxing movie." And I said, "It's not a boxing movie in my opinion. It's a father-daughter love story, and it's a lot of other things besides a boxing movie." They hemmed and hawed and finally said that if I wanted to take it, maybe they'd pay for the domestic rights only. After that, I'd be on my own. We took it to a couple of other studios, and they turned it down, much like Mystic River (2003) was turned down, the exact same pattern. People who kept calling and saying, "Come on, work with us on stuff." I'd give it to them, and they'd go, "Uh, we were thinking more in terms of Dirty Harry coming out of retirement." And who knows? Maybe when it comes out they'll be proven right. Plastic surgery used to be a thing where older people would try to go into this dream world of being 28 years old again. But now, in Hollywood, even people at 28 are having work done. Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life. But I figure I might as well just be what I am. [on trying to get Million Dollar Baby (2004) made at Warner Bros.] They might have been a little more interested if I said I wanted to do "Dirty Harry 9" or something. [2005 Academy Awards acceptance speech for Best Director] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'd like to thank my wife, who is my best pal down here. And my mother, who was here with me in 1993. She was only 84 then. But she's here with me again tonight. And she just -- so, at 96, I'm thanking her for her genes. It was a wonderful adventure. It takes a -- to make a picture in 37 days, it takes a well-oiled machine. And that well-oiled machine is the crew -- the cast, of course, you've met a lot of them. But there's still Margo and Anthony and Michael and Mike and Jay and everybody else who was so fabulous in this cast. And the crew, Campanelli. Billy Coe and, of course, Tom Stern, who is fantastic. And Henry Bumstead, the great Henry Bumstead who is the head of our crack geriatrics team. And Henry and Jack Taylor, and Dick Goddard [Richard C. Goddard], all those guys. Walt and everybody. I can't think of everybody right now. I'm drawing a blank right now. But, Warren, you were right. And thank you, for your confidence earlier in the evening. I'm just lucky to be here. Lucky to be still working. And I watched Sidney Lumet, who is 80, and I figure, "I'm just a kid. I'll just -- I've got a lot of stuff to do yet." So thank you all very much. Appreciate it. [1985] My old drama coach used to say, "Don't just do something, stand there." Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing. One of the first films I went to - I went with my dad because my mother didn't want to go see a war movie - was Sergeant York (1941). My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from [World War I]. It was directed by Howard Hawks. That was when I first became aware of movies, who made them, who was involved. Most people who'll remember me, if at all, will remember me as an action guy, which is OK. There's nothing wrong with that. But there will be a certain group which will remember me for the other films, the ones where I took a few chances. At least, I like to think so. The plan was, when I first started directing in the 1970s, to get more involved in production and directing so at some point in my life, when I decided I didn't want to act anymore, I didn't have to suit up. I feel very close to the western. There are not too many American art forms that are original. Most are derived from European art forms. Other than the western and jazz or blues, that's all that's really original. In The Bridges of Madison County (1995) Kincaid's a peculiar guy. Really, he's kind of a lonely individual. He's sort of a lost soul in mid-America. I've been that guy. I think people jumped to conclusions about Dirty Harry (1971) without giving the character much thought, trying to attach right-wing connotations to the film that were never really intended. Both the director [Don Siegel] and I thought it was a basic kind of drama - what do you do when you believe so much in law and order and coming to the rescue of people and you just have five hours to solve a case? That kind of impossible effort was fun to portray, but I think it was interpreted as a pro-police point of view, as a kind of rightist heroism, at a time in American history when police officers were looked down on as "pigs", as very oppressive people - I'm sure there are some who are, and a lot who aren't. I've met both kinds. You have to trust your instincts. There's a moment when an actor has it, and he knows it. Behind the camera you can feel the moment even more clearly. And once you've got it, once you feel it, you can't second-guess yourself. You can find a million reasons why something didn't work. But if it feels right, and it looks right, it works. Without sounding like a pseudointellectual dipshit, it's my responsibility to be true to myself. If it works for me, it's right. None of the pictures I take a risk in cost a lot, so it doesn't take much for them to turn a profit. We don't deal in big budgets. We know what we want and we shoot it and we don't waste anything. I never understand these films that cost twenty, thirty million dollars when they could be made for half that. Maybe it's because no one cares. We care. [on how he decided to do Per un pugno di dollari (1964)] I'd done "Rawhide" (1959) for about five years. The agency called and asked if I was interested in doing a western in Italy and Spain. I said, "Not particularly." They said, "Why don't you give the script a quick look?" Well, I was kind of curious, so I read it, and I recognized it right away as Yojimbo (1961), a Kurosawa [Akira Kurosawa] film I had liked a lot. Over I went, taking the poncho with me - yeah the cape was my idea. There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality. I got where I am by coming off the wall. I've always considered myself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing. I don't like the wimp syndrome. No matter how ardent a feminist may be, if she is a heterosexual female, she wants the strength of a male companion as well as the sensitivity. The most gentle people in the world are macho males, people who are confident in their masculinity and have a feeling of well-being in themselves. They don't have to kick in doors, mistreat women, or make fun of gays. I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. The reason I became a Republican is because [Dwight D. Eisenhower] was running. A hero from World War II, a charismatic individual, a military man, a non-attorney - even then I liked that! I was a very young person voting for the first time. A lot of people joke that a conservative is a liberal who's made his first $100,000 and then decides,"Wait a second, I want to save this, why are they taxing it away?". Today the country's in kind of a turmoil over taxing. Being raised in the thirties, watching my parents work hard to make ends meet, with jobs scarce, and then the war years - it tends to make a person a little more fiscally conscious than if you've been born into a wealthier family. You know, if you go to most people who are self-made and ask them what their political philosophy is, usually they're a little more conservative than people who had a better start. This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country. They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning. I've always supported a certain amount of gun control. I think California has always had a mandatory waiting period, so we were never concerned about it like the rest of the country. Some states didn't have any at all. So I've always supported that. I think it's very important that guns don't get in the wrong hands, and, yes, I would support most of that. I don't know too much about trigger locks. I've never really discussed that with anyone. But I do feel that guns - it's very important to keep them out of the hands of felons or anyone who might be crazy with it. I've thought about retiring for years now. When I did "Play Misty for Me" in 1970, I thought that if I could pull this off maybe I could step behind the camera, and it would be time to see the end of me. Every year I have threatened to do that - and here I am. So it may come sooner than you think. [on World War II] I feel terrible for both sides in that war and in all wars. A lot of innocent people get sacrificed. It's not about winning or losing, but mostly about the interrupted lives of young people. I've done a lot of violent movies, especially in the early days. My recent efforts, like The Bridges of Madison County (1995), weren't too violent. In recent years I've done less, and, yes, I am concerned about violence in film. In '92, when I did Unforgiven (1992), which is a film that had a very anti- violence and anti-gun play - anti-romanticizing of gun play theme, I remember that Gene Hackman was concerned about it, and we both discussed the issue of too much violence in films. It's escalated ninety times since Dirty Harry (1971) and those films were made. Maybe I'm getting to the age when I'm starting to be senile or nostalgic or both, but people are so angry now. You used to be able to disagree with people and still be friends. Now you hear these talk shows, and everyone who believes differently from you is a moron and an idiot - both on the Right and the Left. I like to play the line and not wander too far to either side. If a guy has just had a bad day in the mines and wants to see a good shoot 'em up, that's great. My involvement goes deeper than acting or directing. I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I'm committed to it for life. Whatever success I've had is due to a lot of instinct and a little luck. I've always had the ability to say to the audience, watch this if you like, and if you don't, take a hike. I've actually had people come up to me and ask me to autograph their guns. [on former President Ronald Reagan] Yes, I liked him very much. When he was a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, I don't think he had the vast support that a lot of other presidents have had. So I don't know why that is, it's just the nature of things. [when asked if he is still registered as a Republican] Yes, I am. I started - I enrolled as a Republican in 1951 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was running. And I was in the military. I was a fan of his. And that's how I got started off. I was never - my parents were mixed, I think one Republican, one Democrat, so I didn't have any grand-pappies to influence me. When I was doing The Bridges of Madison County (1995), I said to myself, "This romantic stuff is really tough. I can't wait to get back to shooting and killing." [when asked if he has disappointed his conservative fans by directing Million Dollar Baby (2004)] Well, I got a big laugh out of that. These people are always bitching about "Hollyweird", and then they start bitching about this film. Are they all so mad because The Passion of the Christ (2004) is only up for the makeup award and a couple of other minor things? Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left. [On John Huston] It's another aspect of the character that pleased me: he was interested in other things besides his art. He liked women, gambling, living the high life. He could have a life parallel to his work. I could identify with this type of behavior. But, because of this very fact, he became attracted more and more by other things, so that what interested him in life moved him away from his art to the point that he nearly lived a tragedy. And the tragedy brings him back to reality. If you study Huston's life, you realize that at the age of nineteen he thought he didn't have long to live because of a heart defect a doctor has notified him of as a result of a misdiagnosis. It drove him to elaborate a personal philosophy according to which he would profit from life to the maximum. He didn't take care of himself - he was a confirmed smoker, a heavy drinker - and yet he lived to be more than eighty. Paul Newman spoke to me about him when we were acting at the same time, each in a different movie, in Tucson, Arizona. He was starring in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and I was doing Joe Kidd (1972) with John Sturges. Huston drank martinis and smoked cigars all night long, slept from one o'clock to four o'clock in the morning because he was an insomniac, did everything he shouldn't do to live to be old, and yet he died at a very great age! It was the same thing with John Wayne, who was first of all the opposite of a health fanatic. I never considered myself a cowboy, because I wasn't. But I guess when I got into cowboy gear I looked enough like one to convince people that I was. If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster. I always cry when I watch myself on screen. Guys I thought of as heroes were like Joe Louis and, maybe during the war, there was General [George S. Patton], of course, and maybe [Dwight D. Eisenhower], who was the head of the Allied forces. And Gary Cooper. There were just a handful of men and a handful of women. Now, people become stars who are just heiresses or something. I also wonder how I got this far in life. Growing up, I never knew what I wanted to do. I was not a terribly good student or a very vivacious, outgoing person. I was just kind of a backward kid. I grew up in various little towns and ended up in Oakland, California, going to a trade school. I didn't want to be an actor, because I thought an actor had to be an extrovert - somebody who loved to tell jokes and talk and be a raconteur. And I was something of an introvert. My mother used to say: "You have a little angel on your shoulder." I guess she was surprised I grew up at all, never mind that I got to where I am. The best I can do is quote a line from Unforgiven (1992): "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." Every movie I make teaches me something, and that's why I keep making them. I'm at that stage of life when I could probably stop and just hit golf balls. But in filming these two movies about Iwo Jima, I learnt about war and about character. I also learnt a lot about myself. I was a teenager when the battle of Iwo Jima took place. I remember hearing about the bond drive and the need to maintain the war effort. Back then, people had just come through 10 years of a Depression, and they were used to working for everything. I still have an image of someone coming to our house when I was about six years old, offering to cut and stack the wood in our back yard if my mother would make him a sandwich. The Americans who went to Iwo Jima knew it would be a tough fight, but they always believed they'd win. The Japanese were told they wouldn't come home - they were being sent to die for the Emperor. People have made a lot out of that very different cultural approach. But as I got into the storytelling for the two movies [Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)], I realised that the 19-year-olds from both sides had the same fears. They all wrote poignant letters home saying: "I don't want to die." They were all going through the same thing, despite the cultural differences. I guess if you see both of the movies [Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)] together, they sum up as an antiwar film. Whether it's about territory or religion, war is horrifyingly and depressingly archaic. But I didn't set out to make a war movie. I cared about those three fellows - Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon [John H. Bradley, Ira H. Hayes, 'René A. Gagnon'] - the headliners on that war-bond circus. The young men were taken off the front lines, wined and dined, introduced to movie stars. But it felt wrong to them. As for me, I like being behind the camera instead of in front of it. I can wear what I want. Will I act again? I never say never. I like doing things where I can stretch and go in different directions. I'm not looking to take it easy. Like the Marines on Iwo Jima, I understand that if you really want something, you have to be ready to fight. Life is a constant class, and once you think you know it all, you're due to decay. You're due to slide. I have to keep challenging myself and try something I haven't done before. The studios aren't always happy with that. When I wanted to make Mystic River (2003), the studio said, "Uh-oh, it's so dark." And I said, "Well, it's important. And it's a nice story." Then the next movie, Million Dollar Baby (2004), they said, "Who wants to see a picture about a girl boxing?" And I said, "It's really a father-daughter love story. Boxing just happens to be what's going on." They didn't have much faith. So there are always obstacles and people afraid to take risks. That's why you end up with remakes of old TV shows as movies. But playing it safe is what's risky, because nothing new comes out of it. [on the Iraq war] My druthers would have been, "Get a more benevolent dictator and stick him in. You know, try somebody a little less mean." You don't go in there and fire the army. The army's got to do something. When you fire 'em, you leave them all unemployed. Worst thing in the world. Just get somebody else who they respect and bring him on your side. That's one way of doing it. [on President George W. Bush] You've got to admire somebody who stands up for what they believe regardless of how the polls go. A lot of presidents do everything by the polls. They do a focus group then all of a sudden they say, "OK, that's what I'm going to be for because that's where focus group is leading me. [on the Iraq war] I wasn't for going in there. Only because democracy isn't something that you get overnight. I don't think America got democracy overnight. It's something we had to fight for and believe in. [on John Wayne] I gave him a piece of material that I thought had potential for us to do as a younger guy and an older guy. He wrote me back critical of it. He had seen High Plains Drifter (1973), and he didn't think that represented Americana like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and other John Ford westerns. I never answered him. [on Sergio Leone] I spun off Sergio and he spun off me. I think we worked well together. I like his compositions. He has a very good eye. I liked him, I liked his sense of humor, but I feel it was mutual. He liked dealing with the kind of character I was putting together. Macho was a fashionable word in the 1980s. Everybody was kind of into it, what's macho and what isn't macho. I really don't know what macho is. I never have understood. Does it mean somebody who swaggers around exuding testosterone? And kicks the gate open and runs sprints up and down the street? Or does handsprings or whatever? Or is macho a quiet thing based on your security. I remember shaking hands with Rocky Marciano. He was gentle, he didn't squeeze your hand. And he had a high voice. But he could knock people around, it was a given. That's macho. Muhammad Ali is the same. If you talked with him in his younger years, he spoke gently. He wasn't kicking over chairs. I think some of the most macho people are the gentlest. I was tired of playing the nice, clean-cut cowboy in "Rawhide" (1959), I wanted something earthier. Something different from the old-fashioned Western. You know: Hero rides in, very stalwart, with white hat, man's beating a horse, hero jumps off, punches man, schoolmarm walks down the street, sees this situation going on, slight conflict with schoolmarm, but not too much. You know schoolmarm and hero will be together in exactly 10 more reels, if you care to sit around and wait, and you know the man beast horse with eventually get comeuppance from hero this guy bushwhacks him in reel nine. But [Per un pugno di dollari (1964)] was different; it definitely had satiric overtones. The hero was an enigmatic figure, and that worked within the context of this picture. In some films, he would be ludicrous. You can't have a cartoon in the middle of a Renoir. In those days, they'd make interview tests, not acting tests. They'd sit you in front of the camera and talk- just as we're talking now. I thought I was an absolute clod. It looked pretty good; it was photographed well, but I thought, 'If that's acting, I'm in trouble.' But they signed me up as a contract player- which was a little lower than working in the mail-room. I like working with actors who don't have anything to prove. Probably the lousiest western ever made. - On Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958) [on the retirement of friend and fellow actor Gene Hackman]: It is a sad thing. I know his agent and I saw him recently, and he said, 'Can't you talk Gene into coming back?' I said, 'I'd love to see him come back, but I think it's not very nice to ride him.' He's too good an actor not to be performing, but by the same token, he probably thinks that's enough. That will probably do it for me as far as acting is concerned. You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don't want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you're not performing at your best. - On Gran Torino (2008) There are certain things you have to be realistic about. Dirty Harry would not be on a police department at my age so we'll move on from that. Having a good person as a foil certainly helps, because acting is an ensemble art form. Clark Gable is only as good as Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night. It wasn't like Singin' in the Rain, where it had a cohesive plotline. They started out with a real dramatic story and then made it fluffy. When they changed it around, I tried to bail out. It wasn't my favorite. I wasn't particularly nervous about singing on film. My dad was a singer and we'd have sing-arounds. But certainly Sinatra wasn't worried. - on Paint Your Wagon (1969) With "Every Which Way But Loose", they gave me the script and I thought, "This is something. This is kinda crazy. But there's something kind of hip about it. This guy's out drifting along and his best friend is an orangutan." I mean, the scenes of talking to an orangutan about your troubles, I'd never seen anything quite like it. He has a romance that falls through, he doesn't get the girl, and then he goes off with the orangutan. I thought, What could be better? I wouldn't put it in the time capsule of films you did that you thought were great, but everything's a challenge. Gene Hackman was interesting because I gave the "Unforgiven" script to his agent and he said no, he didn't want to do anything violent. But I went back to him and said, "I know where you're coming from. You get to a certain age and I'm there too, where you don't want to tell a lot of violent stories, but this is a chance to make a great statement." At this particular time in my life, I'm not doing anything as a moneymaker. It's like I'm pushing the envelope the other way to see how far we can go to be noncommercial. But I'm definitely not going for the demographics of 13- to 15-year-olds. I didn't know if Mystic River would go over at all. I had a hard time getting it financed, to tell you the truth. But I just told Warners the same thing I did with Million Dollar Baby: "I don't know if this is going to make any money. But I think I can make a picture that you'd be proud to have in your library." People have lost their sense of humor. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist. I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was just normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything. Salary Every Which Way But Loose (1978) $12,000,000 (15% of gross) Paint Your Wagon (1969) $750,000 Where Eagles Dare (1968) $750,000 Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) $250,000 +10% of Western Hemisphere gross Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) $50,000 Per un pugno di dollari (1964) $15,000 Francis in the Navy (1955) $100/week |
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