Clint Eastwood American Actor Born 1930 in San Francisco

Clint Eastwood is an American actor, director and producer. He was born Clinton Eastwood Jr. on 31 May 1930 in San Francisco. Over a career of more than six decades he became known for Western and crime films in front of the camera, and later for a long run of dramas he directed.

Early life

Eastwood was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Oakland and Piedmont area of California. He finished school at Oakland Technical High School, where he graduated in 1949. After school he took a series of casual jobs. He tried to enrol at Seattle University in 1951, but was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War and was discharged in early 1953. His education also included Los Angeles City College.

Career

His first screen credit was a small part in the comedy Francis in the Navy (1955), released while he was under contract at Universal. Steady work in television followed, and the Western series Rawhide gave him his first wide audience.

International recognition came in the mid-1960s, when the Italian director Sergio Leone cast him as the unnamed gunman in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). In the next decade he played the San Francisco police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971) and its sequels Magnum Force (1973) and Sudden Impact (1983), the latter of which he also directed. Other roles of the period include Frank Morris in Escape from Alcatraz (1979) and the title character of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), which he directed as well.

Eastwood's work as a director grew steadily from the 1970s. In Unforgiven (1992) he directed himself as the retired gunfighter William Munny, and he followed it with A Perfect World (1993), in which he took a supporting role, and The Bridges of Madison County (1995). In the 2000s he directed Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and the paired Second World War films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (both 2006). Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009) and J. Edgar (2011) continued the run, and Gran Torino (2008) gave him a leading role in one of his own films. American Sniper (2014) and Sully (2016) were among his later biographical dramas. His latest credit is the courtroom drama Juror #2 (2024). In all he has about ninety-five screen credits.

Music has also been part of his output. He is credited on the soundtrack album for Changeling and on the single "Bar Room Buddies" from 1980, and on the album Eastwood After Hours.

Recognition

Eastwood has won the Academy Award for Best Director and for Best Picture twice, for Unforgiven and for Million Dollar Baby. He was also nominated for Best Actor for both films, and received Best Director and Best Picture nominations for Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima, as well as a Best Picture nomination for American Sniper. In 1995 he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy.

He won the Golden Globe for Best Director for Unforgiven and for Million Dollar Baby and received a separate Golden Globes honour in 1989. Lifetime and national honours include the Golden Lion in 2000, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996, the National Medal of Arts in 2010, and the Commander rank of the Legion of Honour in 2007. He also received the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1994, a César Award in 1998, and Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays in 2009. Other recognitions include the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, the Directors Guild of America Award and fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His recorded totals are 26 wins and 12 nominations.

Public roles

In 1986 Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, a post he held for two years.

Personal life

Eastwood married Maggie Johnson in 1953; the marriage ended in 1984. He married Dina Eastwood in 1996, and that marriage ended in 2014. He has eight children. Those with their own public profiles include the musician Kyle Eastwood, the actor Scott Eastwood, and Morgan, Francesca, Kathryn and Alison Eastwood.