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Clinton Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an Academy Award-winning American film director, actor, producer, and composer. He has won Academy Awards five times - twice each as Best Director and as producer of the Best Picture; he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1995. While his work as a director, on recent films like Letters from Iwo Jima and Million Dollar Baby, and also earlier films like High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales, have received a high degree of critical acclaim, Eastwood is best known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles. Examples of these are his performances in western films, such as in the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's "Dollars trilogy" of Spaghetti Westerns, and as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry movies. A tall, soft-spoken and leathery leading man who, since the 1960s, has diversified into directing and producing after achieving iconic status, Clint Eastwood arose from the world of television westerns to become the number-one box-office star in the world, and subsequently earned critical acclaim as a director. His production company, Malpaso, has crafted moderate-budget features that range from mainstream fare to personal and ambitious endeavors. Eastwood is not entirely part of the Hollywood establishment—his business is run out of Carmel, California, on the Monterey Peninsula, where he has also served as mayor and ran a restaurant. Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret Ruth (née Runner), a factory worker, and Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migratory worker. Eastwood has Scottish, English, Dutch and Irish ancestry. He was raised in a "middle class Protestant home" and moved often as a child as his father worked a variety of jobs along the West Coast. The family settled in Piedmont, California during his teens, and he graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1949. After high school Eastwood worked as a gas station attendant, a firefighter, and played ragtime piano at a bar in Oakland. He was drafted in 1950 but his plane crashed in the Pacific north of San Francisco. He escaped serious injury, but had to remain behind to testify at a hearing investigating the cause of the crash. This prevented him from being shipped to Korea like some of his unit. Eastwood began work as an actor, making brief appearances in B-films such as Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula and Francis in the Navy. In 1958, he got his first starring role in a feature film, Ambush at Cimarron Pass, which he has dismissed as "probably the lousiest Western ever made." In 1959, he fistfought James Garner in the "Duel at Sundown" episode of Maverick. Eastwood then got a huge break when he was cast as the second lead in the long-running television series, Rawhide. As Rowdy Yates (whom Eastwood described as "the idiot of the plains" in private), he became a household name across the country. Eastwood grew up in Depression-era California, where his parents were itinerant workers. After high school, he worked as a lumberjack in Oregon, played honky-tonk piano and was a swimming instructor in the US Army. On the GI Bill, he studied at Los Angeles City College, after which he was signed by Universal. One of his first experiences with the indignity actors must suffer was in a "Francis the Talking Mule" movie, "Francis in the Navy" (1955). Also that year, Eastwood made a brief appearance as a Lab Technician in “Revenge of the Creature”, the sequel to “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (1954). The movie was later lampooned on the popular cult television show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (1989-2000)—Eastwood did not escape the barbs hurled by Mike and the bots. Many B-movies later, he moved to New York and gained recognition as trail boss Rowdy Yates in the successful television series "Rawhide" (1959-66)—a role he got despite trouble remembering lines in his screen test. Eastwood found lead roles as the mysterious Man With No Name in Sergio Leone's loose trilogy of westerns: A Fistful of Dollars / Per un pugno di dollari (1964), For a Few Dollars More / Per qualche dollaro in più (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966). Although the first of these was evidently a tribute to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, Leone used his innovative style to depict a wilder, more lawless and desolate world than traditional westerns. All three films were hits, particularly the third, and Eastwood became a star, redefining the traditional image of the American cowboy, though his character was actually a gunslinger and bounty hunter rather than a traditional hero. Stardom brought more roles in the "tough guy" mold. In 1968's Where Eagles Dare, he had second billing to Richard Burton, but was paid $800,000. In the same year, he starred in Don Siegel's Coogan's Bluff, in which he played a lonely deputy sheriff who came to the big city of New York to enforce the law in his own way. The film was controversial for its straightforward portrayal of violence, but it launched a more than ten-year collaboration between Eastwood and Siegel, and set the prototype for the macho cop hero that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films. In 1969, Eastwood began to branch out. Paint Your Wagon was a musical starring Eastwood and top-billing fellow non-singer Lee Marvin. A strong sensibility and understanding of the characters he played helped Eastwood develop the minimalist acting style for which he’s famous. It was first appreciated in Europe where he starred in a trilogy of popular spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone in Spain. As the laconic and lethal Man With No Name, Eastwood embodied archetypal violent American whose philosophy in "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) was "everybody gets rich or dead." The sequels, "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966), became classic revisionist Westerns and made Eastwood an international star. He returned stateside and starred in "Coogan's Bluff" (1968), a smart urban Western that marked the beginning of a long and successful collaboration with director Don Siegel. In 1970, Eastwood appeared in the war movie, Kelly's Heroes, and in the Siegel-directed western, Two Mules for Sister Sara, co-starring Shirley MacLaine. Both movies combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor. In The Beguiled, another movie directed by Siegel, Eastwood played a cad - as close to an outright villain as he has played. 1971 proved to be a professional turning point in Eastwood's career. His own production company, Malpaso, gave Eastwood the artistic control that he desired, allowing him to direct and star in the thriller, Play Misty for Me. But it was his portrayal of the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that propelled Siegel's most successful movie at the box-office. Dirty Harry is arguably Eastwood's most memorable character. The film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day. Eastwood's tough, no-nonsense cop touched a cultural nerve with many who were fed up with crime in the streets. Dirty Harry led to four sequels: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). Eastwood directed two allegorical westerns during the 1970s: High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Breezy (1973) was the first film directed by Eastwood in which he did not also appear. It starred William Holden. In 1974, Eastwood teamed with a young Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The movie was written and directed by Michael Cimino, who had previously written the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force. In 1975, Eastwood brought another talent to the screen: rock climbing. In The Eiger Sanction, which he directed and in which he starred, Eastwood — a 5.9 climber — performed his own rock climbing stunts. This film has become a cult classic among rock-climbers. This film was done before the advent of CGI, so no digital manipulation was used in the film. Eastwood's second famed screen incarnation was Harry Callahan, the rogue cop of Siegel's "Dirty Harry" (1971) who found it easier to shoot suspects than interrogate them—hence the immortal line in "Sudden Impact" (1983): "Go ahead, make my day.” Despite controversy about Dirty Harry’s penchant for violence over procedure, Eastwood and Siegel were more interested in making an exciting film than a political statement. Eastwood has stated "My characters are usually callused men with a sensitive spot for right and wrong." He has also noted that "My movies add up to a morality, not a politics." Even his friendship with Ronald Reagan has attracted criticism from some, but Eastwood's concern for the environment, he claims, would make him befriend any President. In 1977, Eastwood starred in The Gauntlet, in which he played a down and out cop assigned to escort a prostitute from Las Vegas to Phoenix to testify against the mob. This would be the first of 5 movies to co-star, his then girlfriend, Sondra Locke. ( She did have a small role in the 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales.) In 1978, he starred in Every Which Way But Loose in an uncharacteristic and offbeat comedy role. Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler who roamed the American West, searching for a lost love, while accompanying his brother/manager Orville and his pet orangutan, Clyde. Arguably, Clyde stole the show. Panned by critics, the movie was a box office success, and it spawned the 1980 sequel, Any Which Way You Can. Between these two flicks, he played the main attraction in a traveling circus show in Bronco Billy, which sparked collaboration between country music star Merle Haggard and Eastwood on the song "Bar Room Buddies." The song became a hit on country music stations. (Haggard also appeared in the movie). In 1979, Eastwood played yet another memorable role as the prison escapee Frank Morris in the fact-based movie Escape from Alcatraz, which was also his last collaboration with Don Siegel. Morris was an escape artist who was sent to Alcatraz in 1960, which was, at the time, one of the toughest prisons in America. Morris devised a meticulous plan to escape from "The Rock" and, in 1962, he and two other prisoners broke out of the prison and entered San Francisco Bay. They were never seen again, and although the FBI believes that the escapees drowned, to this day their actual fate is unknown. Eastwood became a fixture of masculine action flicks, but he also did well in several popular comedies—"Every Which Way But Loose" (1978) and “Any Which Way You Can" (1980). Though he could have coasted on his established persona, Eastwood chose to take chances with his material and subjected his image to thoughtful, but not always flattering scrutiny. His portraits of tormented men with intense inner lives and little ability to communicate reached an apogee with his acclaimed directorial effort, "Bird" (1988), a moody look at troubled jazz musician Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker). Over the years, Eastwood has attained virtual artistic control on his projects, which has enabled him to make unusual Westerns—"High Plains Drifter" (1973) and "Pale Rider" (1985)—and cop movies exploring feminist concerns—"Sudden Impact (1983) and "Tightrope" (1984). In 1982 Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in Firefox which thrived off the USSR Vs USA Cold War. The fourth Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact (1983) made Eastwood a viable star for the 1980s.President Ronald Reagan referenced his famous "Go ahead, make my day" line in one of his speeches. In Tightrope (1984) Eastwood starred as Capt. Wes Block set in New Orleans. Eastwood revisited the western genre directing and starring in Pale Rider (1985), a homage to the western film classic Shane, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. His fifth and final Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool (1988), was a success overall, but it lacked the box office punch his previous films had achieved. Eastwood alternated between more mainstream comedic films (if not particularly successful), such as Pink Cadillac and The Rookie (1990), and more personal projects, such as directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie "Bird" Parker which gave him the nomination for the Golden Palm in the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed and starred, as an ersatz John Huston, in White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), an uneven adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman à clef about the making of the classic The African Queen. The film received some critical acclaim, although Katharine Hepburn contested the veracity of much of the material. Eastwood's commercial viability appeared to be in decline by the late 80s—the fifth Dirty Harry movie, "The Dead Pool" (1988), was less successful than its predecessors. In 1990, Eastwood saw two significant box-office failures: "The Rookie,” a formula cop outing, and "White Hunter, Black Heart", an interesting, semi-fictional account of the making of "The African Queen". Eastwood enjoyed a popular and critical rebirth, however, with "Unforgiven" (1992), a so-called anti-Western which earned Eastwood Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director as well as several other major awards. A spellbinding morality tale about the effects of killing on a man’s soul, "Unforgiven" took both an ironic and sentimental view of several of Eastwood's earlier gunfighter incarnations. Dedicated to his mentors—"Sergio" (Leone) and "Don" (Siegel)—the film was a solid commercial hit, grossing over $100 million over its long run. Eastwood rose to prominence yet again in the early 1990s. He revisited the western genre one final time in the self-directed 1992 film, Unforgiven, taking on the role of an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. The film, also starring such esteemed actors as Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, laid the groundwork for such later westerns as Deadwood by re-envisioning established genre conventions in a more ambiguous and unromantic light. A great success both in terms of box office and critical acclaim, it was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples. It won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. The following year, Eastwood played a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire (1993) directed by Wolfgang Petersen. This film was a blockbuster and among the top 10 box-office performers in that year. Eastwood directed and starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World the same year. He continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the love story The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Based on a best-selling novel, it was also a hit at the box-office. Afterward, Eastwood turned to more directing work — much of it well received — including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He directed and starred in "Absolute Power" (1997), a political thriller co-starring Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, and Dennis Haysbert. Eastwood's next star vehicle, "In the Line of Fire" (1993), was an immediate hit. This taut political thriller—which pitted veteran a Secret Service agent (Eastwood) against a brilliant assassin (John Malkovich)—passed the $100 million mark in a few months. Eastwood directed his subsequent feature, "A Perfect World" (also 1993), wherein he portrayed an experienced law man tracking down a dangerous escaped convict (Kevin Costner) with a seven-year-old hostage-cum-companion. Even the most jaded critics praised Eastwood's restrained adaptation of "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995), which took a treacly best-seller and turned it into a well-acted adult love story. A detailed, mature look at passion, the film not only exhibited Eastwood's directorial skill but also provided him with a romantic lead that he played with confidence and charm. Starring opposite Meryl Streep, he exuded sex in a low-key manner and revealed a soft, yet masculine side. Eastwood contributed compositions to the soundtrack, released on his newly-launched Malpaso Records. That same year, Eastwood made an uncredited cameo in the fantasy "Casper.” With "Absolute Power" (1997), Eastwood began to address the issue of growing old. In this uneven thriller, he portrayed a thief out to commit one last crime before retiring, but witnesses a murder involving the President of the United States. Similarly, "True Crime" (1999) saw him portray a burnt-out reporter who finds a last shot at redemption when he becomes convinced a Death Row inmate is innocent. With "Space Cowboys" (2000), Eastwood made his most blatant attempt to deal with aging—he played the leader of a quartet of veteran astronauts called out of retirement to fix a satellite first sent into space forty years earlier. In 2002, Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent on the track of a sadistic killer in Blood Work, which was derived from a book by Michael Connelly. In 2003 he directed Mystic River for which he garnered a Best Director nomination. In Space Cowboys, which also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner, and James Cromwell, he plays Frank Corvin, a retired engineer NASA calls upon to save a dying Russian Mir satellite. He found critical acclaim with Million Dollar Baby in 2004, winning 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and Eastwood was nominated for Best Actor (the award went to Jamie Foxx). In 2002, Eastwood was once again the director and star of a feature film, "Bloodwork," a competent, yet standard thriller with Eastwood as a detective taunted by a clever serial killer. Eastwood received high praise when he stepped behind the camera for "Mystic River" (2003), an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s crime novel which explores the interwoven history of three men—played by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon—and the terrible events from their boyhood that later force them to make irrevocable choices. Considered on of his best pictures since "Unforgiven," it earned six Oscar nominations, including Eastwood's second as Best Director. Oscar buzz ignited anew with his follow up, “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), which was an even more effective than "Mystic River." Co-starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, Eastwood played Frankie Dunn, an old-school boxing trainer afraid of intimacy after a painful rift with his daughter. Praised by a majority of critics as an exquisite and subtle film, “Million Dollar Baby” received wide acclaim after earning five Golden Globe nominations, including Best Director, the trophy that Eastwood ultimately claimed. He also beat out "The Aviator's" sentimental favorite Martin Scorsese at the Directors Guild Awards, and when Oscar nominations were announced in January 2005, “Million Dollar Baby” came away with seven nods, including Best Picture, Best Director and a surprising Best Actor nomination for Eastwood—only the second of his long career. Eastwood didn't win for acting, but he did take home two Oscars, one as Best Director and one as one of the producers of the film, which was named Best Picture. As he mellowed with age, Eastwood became more ruminative and thought-provoking on a variety of themes—echoes were seen in his examination of violence in “Unforgiven.” With “Flags of Our Fathers” (2006), an epic World War II drama that focused on the three surviving U.S. servicemen who raised the American flag during the hellacious battle for Iwo Jima, Eastwood used the war genre to explore how a single image can rally a nation in a time of great need while cynical politicians callously disregard the truth and the people being propped up as gods among men. Leapfrogging from the violence of the black sand beaches to the war bond campaign back home, “Flags of Our Fathers” focused on two Marines (Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford) and a Navy corpsman (Ryan Phillippe) being shuttled across the nation by the government to raise money as they cope with the official sanitized version of events in contrast to the nightmare of battle that continually haunts them. Even before the film was released, “Flags of Our Fathers” was considered to be a top contender for Oscar consideration, including Eastwood, whose rich and deeply engaging direction seemed to poise him for a third straight nomination. But it was his companion film, “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006), which focused the oft-told tale on the unique perspective of the Japanese defenders of the black-sanded island, that earned Eastwood major award recognition. After winning Best Film from the National Board of Review and Best Picture of the Year from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, “Letters from Iwo Jima” earned to Golden Globe Award nominations in 2006, including one for Best Director – Motion Picture for Eastwood. But he wasn’t finished—Eastwood earned a second Best Director nod for his work on “Flags of Our Fathers.” He took one out of three nominations, winning a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film for “Letters from Iwo Jima." He went on to earn yet another Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards, setting the stage for a potential third win. In 2006, he directed two movies about the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The first one, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American Flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The second one, Letters from Iwo Jima, dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote to family members. Both films were highly praised by critics and garnered several Oscar Nominations, including Best Director and Picture for Letters from Iwo Jima. Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Bros. This deal was unchanged when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to private investors. Malpaso has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. It also released the album of a 1996 jazz concert he hosted, titled Eastwood after Hours — Live at Carnegie Hall. Eastwood has redefined himself as a director and has generally received greater critical acclaim for his directing than he ever did for his acting. His directorial debut occurred with Play Misty For Me in 1971. He had tried for some time to direct an episode of Rawhide, even being promised at one point the possibility of doing so. However, because of differences between the president of the studio and show producers, Eastwood's opportunity fell through. Eastwood has become known for directing high-quality but bleak dramas such as Unforgiven, A Perfect World, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima. However, he has chosen a wide variety of films to direct, some clearly commercial, others highly personal. Articles about Eastwood often neglect to mention that he has directed 27 films (as of 2006). Many actors direct occasionally, but Eastwood has established himself as a director of quality. Eastwood produces many of his movies, and is well known in the industry for his efficient, low-cost approach to making films. Over the years, he has developed relationships with many other filmmakers, working over and over with the same crew, production designers, cinematographers, editors and other technical people. Similarly, he has a long-term relationship with the Warner Bros. studio, which finances and releases most of his films. However, in a 2004 interview appearing in The New York Times, Eastwood noted that he still sometimes has difficulty convincing the studio to back his films. In more recent years, Eastwood also has begun composing music for some of his films. Eastwood has had a total of eight nominations for the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, winning in both categories for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. His other nominations were for Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima. He was also unsuccessfully nominated twice for Best Actor (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby). He is one of two people to have been twice nominated for Best Actor and Best Director for the same film (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby) the other being Warren Beatty ("Heaven Can Wait" and "Reds") He is one of only three living directors (along with Miloš Forman and Francis Ford Coppola) to have directed two Best Picture winners. At age 74, he was the oldest director to achieve this distinction. He directed two actors, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, in Academy Award winning roles as Best Supporting Actor in consecutive years. Robbins won in 2003 for Mystic River while Freeman won in 2004 for his role in Million Dollar Baby. He also directed Sean Penn in his Academy Award winning role as Best Actor in Mystic River, as well as Hilary Swank in her second win for Best Actress in Million Dollar Baby and Gene Hackman in "Unforgiven". Eastwood has received numerous other awards, including an America Now TV Award as well as one of the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors. He received an honorary degree from University of the Pacific in 2006, and an honorary degree from University of Southern California in 2007. In 1994 He received the honorary Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in film producing. In 2006, he received a nomination for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Million Dollar Baby. In 2007, Eastwood was the first recipient of the Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award, an annual award presented by the MPAA to individuals in the motion picture industry whose work has reached out positively and respectfully to the world. He received the award for his work on the 2006 films Flags of Our Fathers and the Academy Award-Winning Letters from Iwo Jima. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Clint Eastwood into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. In early 2007, Eastwood was presented with the highest civilian distinction in France, Légion d'honneur, at a ceremony in Paris. French President Jacques Chirac told Eastwood that he embodied "the best of Hollywood". On September 22, 2007, Clint Eastwood was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Berklee College of Music at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on which he serves as an active board member. Upon receiving the award he gave a speech, claiming, "It's one of the great honors I’ll cherish in this lifetime." Eastwood completed in December 2007 directing Universal Pictures' Changeling, a period thriller from noted writer J. Michael Straczynski and producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Angelina Jolie is starring in the film, with a fall 2008 release date. He is rumored to be directing the Nelson Mandela bio-pic The Human Factor, with Morgan Freeman playing Mandela. No confirmation has been released to date. Eastwood and Warner Bros. have purchased the movie rights to James Hansen's First Man, the authorized biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong. No production date has been announced. Eastwood recently announced that he has all but retired from acting, although maintains that "if a good western script turns up, you never know..." Clint Eastwood has been announced as director and star of the upcoming Warner Brothers film, "Gran Torino". In early 2007, Eastwood announced that he will produce a Bruce Ricker documentary about jazz legend Dave Brubeck. The film is tentatively titled Dave Brubeck – In His Own Sweet Way. It will trace the development of Brubeck's latest composition, the Cannery Row Suite. This work was commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival and premiered at the 2006 festival. Eastwood's film crews captured early rehearsals, sound checks and the final performance. Ricker and Eastwood are currently working on a documentary about Tony Bennett, as well, titled The Music Never Ends. Eastwood made one successful foray into elected politics, becoming the Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (usually abbreviated to Carmel; population 4,000), a wealthy small town and artist community on the Monterey Peninsula, for one term. Frustrated with what he perceived to be the bureaucracy in Carmel's politics, he ran a last-minute, small-scale campaign emphasizing better relations between the business and residential communities. On election day, April 8, 1986, with double the usual voter turnout, Eastwood obtained 72.5% of the vote and was elected to a position that paid $200 per month. During his tenure, he tried to weigh the rights of preservationists against development of the town for local business. Eastwood decided not to run for a second term owing to the number of trivial decisions required of the mayor in such a small town. During his tenure, he completed Heartbreak Ridge and Bird. Although Eastwood has been registered as a Republican since 1951 and supported Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, he describes himself as a libertarian. He says his philosophy is "Everyone leaves everyone else alone". He voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California in the 2003 recall election, and again in 2006. Eastwood, who has been married twice, has five daughters and two sons by five different women: Kimber (born 1964), with Roxanne Tunis; Kyle (born in 1968) and Alison (born on May 22, 1972), with ex-wife Maggie Johnson; Scott (born March 21, 1986) and Kathryn (born February 2, 1988), with airline hostess Jacelyn Reeves; Francesca Ruth (born August 7, 1993), with Frances Fisher, his co-star in Unforgiven; and Morgan (born December 12, 1996), with current wife Dina Ruiz. He lived with actress Sondra Locke from 1976 to 1988. The relationship produced no children. Eastwood remains a popular sex symbol. He once said, "I like to joke that since my children weren't making me any grandchildren, I had two of my own. It is a terrific feeling being a dad again at my age. I am very fortunate. I realize how unfair a thing it is that men can have children at a much older age than women." He now has two grandchildren, Clinton (born 1984) and Graylen (born 1994) of Kimber and Kyle, respectively. Eastwood owns the exclusive Tehama Golf Club, located in Carmel within Monterey County. The invitation-only club reportedly has around 300 members and a joining price of $500,000. He is a co-owner of the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Club. Eastwood is also the owner of the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, located in Carmel. Eastwood is an audiophile, known for his love of jazz. He owns an extensive collection of LPs which he plays on a Rockport turntable. His interest in music was passed on to his son Kyle, now a jazz musician. Eastwood co-wrote "Why should I care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager which was recorded by Diana Krall. A physical fitness fanatic, he has never smoked, except in some of his movies. He is a longtime animal rights activist and maintains a vegan diet "heavy on fruit, vegetables, tofu, and other soy products." People who have had an opportunity to meet or deal with Eastwood generally say that he is a genuinely nice person, usually reserved and quiet. He loves to golf and donates his time every year to charitable causes at major tournaments. Clint Eastwood is the name used by Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part III (1990), which parodies a western, though the other characters do not find it intimidating. Their reactions range from quizzical to insulting ("What kind of a stupid name is that?"). Marty also used a piece of metal as a bulletproof vest in a duel with Buford Tannen (as foreshadowed in Part II when Biff is watching A Fistful of Dollars in his hot tub). Stephen King stated in interviews, as well as in forewords and afterwords for the respective books, that one of the inspirations for Roland Deschain, a.k.a. Roland of Gilead, the Gunslinger in his popular The Dark Tower opus, is Clint Eastwood. He said that Roland is meant to embody a gritty, melancholy persona, like that of Eastwood's "The Man With No Name" in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Reggae/dub musician Lee Perry recorded a song entitled "Clint Eastwood" in 1969 Virtual band. There is a reggae/mc called Clint Eastwood who made an album with General Saint called Two Bad Dj in 1981. Gorillaz recorded songs called "Clint Eastwood" and "Dirty Harry". Gorillaz' frontman Damon Albarn released an album called The Good, the Bad and the Queen with the help of Paul Simonon, Simon Tong, Tony Allen, and Dangermouse. Rock band "The Transplants" make reference to Hang 'Em High and A Few Dollars More in some of their songs. The theme song to the television show The Fall Guy, "The Unknown Stuntman", references Eastwood with the line "I'm the unknown stuntman that makes Eastwood look so fine." Van Halen's song, "Hang 'Em High", from their 1982 release Diver Down, is inspired by Eastwood. Def Leppard used the famous speech from Dirty Harry, as an introduction to their concerts on several tours. Beastie Boys - High Plains Drifter-Release date: 1989 Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood- Release date: 25th June, 2001 Eastwood, in cybernetic form, is the main character/driver in the game Nitro for the Commodore Amiga and Atari-ST computers, by Psygnosis (1990). Eastwood's portrayal of the Man With No Name is also credited as an inspiration for the character Master Chief in the popular Halo series. A Swedish metal band from the 1980s was named after him: The Clint Eastwood Experience. The band featured members of Dismember and Entombed. In the computer game Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, one of the characters in the second allied mission (which is set in Hollywood) is named Flint Westwood. The character is also named for the game's produced, Westwood Studios. Eastwood appears as an audio-animatronic in the Disney's Hollywood Studios Theme Park at Walt Disney World on one of the park's most iconic attractions, The Great Movie Ride, along with other classic actors. In the computer game Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, there is a mention of the "East Clintwood Institute, named after the famous movie star". The final boss in the computer game Fallout 2 is called Frank Horrigan, a reference to Clint Eastwood's character in the movie In the Line of Fire. There are several references to Eastwood the Polish post-apocalyptic role-playing game Neuroshima. Eastwood is the name used by popular Reggae musician and D.J. Robert Brammer. Adam and the Ants chant Clint Eastwood's name as part of the chorus of "Los Rancheros", which appeared on their 1980 album titled Kings of the Wild Frontier. Big Audio Dynamite inserted several audio samples from Eastwood's spaghetti western movies into their song "Medicine Show", which appears on This is Big Audio Dynamite, released in 1985. Something Awful featured a four part article titled "Four Days in Winter", focused on a mercenary hired to protect teenagers on an MTV series. There are overt references to Eastwood, such as the main character carrying a .44 Magnum and yelling "Do you feel lucky?". An MTV cast member also says to him "We hear you have a famous grandfather". At the conclusion he reveals his identity saying "My name is Eastwood" before being gunned down. Two Japanese people in the film Crocodile Dundee II mistook the main character, Mick Dundee, as Clint Eastwood. One persistent rumor has it that Eastwood is the son (legitimate or otherwise) of British comic actor Stan Laurel. This is untrue, although a passing facial resemblance to the comedian (plus the fact that Eastwood was born on the same day as one of Laurel's children) has ensured that the legend often resurfaces. Eastwood is set to voice Harry Callahan for the Dirty Harry video game. The game was cancelled in 2007, but it is intended that it will be produced in the future. Actor Jeremy Bulloch has stated that he based his portrayal of the Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett on Eastwood. "I think the secret to playing Boba Fett -- if you can say I played (him) -- is the less you do, the better. There is no point in Boba Fett waving his gun around and saying, 'Look at me.' He was very cool, and he didn't move much. I always thought of Boba Fett as Clint Eastwood in a suit of armor." |
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