Eastwood, Clint (1930-…), is an American motion-picture actor and director. He is known for his roles in violent action films, especially Westerns and urban police dramas. Eastwood usually plays tough, alienated loners. Many of his films take a pessimistic view of human nature, emphasizing cruelty, greed, and violence. His films often include one strong female character who helps the hero to achieve some kind of redemption. Eastwood’s movies often use dark comedy. Eastwood won Academy Awards as best director for Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). Both films also won Academy Awards as best picture.
Clinton Eastwood, Jr., was born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco. He made his film debut in Revenge of the Creature (1955). Eastwood first gained international fame for his performance as a gunman in three European-made Westerns directed by Sergio Leone of Italy. They were A Fistful of Dollars (1964); For a Few Dollars More (1965); and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Eastwood made his debut as a director with Play Misty for Me (1971), a film in which he also starred.
Eastwood played police detective Harry Callahan in five action movies: Dirty Harry (1971); Magnum Force (1973); The Enforcer (1976); Sudden Impact (1983), which he also directed; and The Dead Pool (1988). Eastwood’s other notable films as an actor include Coogan’s Bluff (1968), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), In the Line of Fire (1993), and Trouble with the Curve (2012).
Eastwood directed and starred in High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), The Gauntlet (1977), Bronco Billy (1980), Pale Rider (1985), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Absolute Power (1997), Space Cowboys (2000), Blood Work (2002), and Gran Torino (2008).
Eastwood directed, but did not appear in, Bird (1988); Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997); Mystic River (2003); a pair of films about World War II, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (both 2006); Changeling (2008); Invictus (2009); Hereafter (2010); J. Edgar (2011); American Sniper and Jersey Boys (2014); Sully (2016); and Richard Jewell (2019).
From 1986 to 1988, Eastwood served as the elected mayor of Carmel, California. His son Scott Eastwood and daughter Alison Eastwood are also actors. His son Kyle Eastwood is a musician and composer.
