Clint Eastwood's Biography

Clint Eastwood was born on 31 May 1930 in San Francisco.

Known to many as the rugged, good-looking actor of spaghetti westerns, Clint Eastwood is also a very successful Academy Award winning producer/director.

After playing several small roles in the 1950s and appearing in the television series Rawhide, Eastwood found fame in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), A Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) which turned him into an international star.

Eastwood's talents on the other side of the camera were revealed when he directed the thriller Play Misty For Me (1971), in which he also starred. This was to be the first of many directorial occasions including the Oscar winning Unforgiven (1992) dedicated to Sergio Leone. As producer too, Eastwood found success, most notably with Bird (1988), a biopic of the legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker.

It is perhaps in his many roles as an actor though, that he will always be best remembered. Whether it is with the unforgettable line "You've got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" he spoke as the San Francisco cop in Dirty Harry (1971) or his role opposite Meryl Streep in the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Clint Eastwood's acting range went far beyond the cigar-chewing characters of those early westerns.

On January 30th, 1986 he announced his intention to run for mayor in Carmel, California. Many were amazed when he won 72% of the poll and he spent two years in office. He declined to run for a second term and decided once again to devote his full time to the cinema.

The cigar-loving giant of the cinema continues to captivate audiences today and the 2003 release of Mystic River, once again saw Clint Eastwood pick up the Best Director award at the Oscars.

In 2005, Clint Eastwood was nominated for best actor and won best director Oscars for Million Dollar Baby. Co-stars, Hilary Swank won best actress, and Morgan Freeman won best supporting actor. To round it all off Million Dollar Baby won best film.

Director, Christopher Nolan had an interesting take on Eastwood in a Channel 4 movie feature:

"I think of Clint Eastwood as a an incredible movie star because you grew up watching this incredible presence on screen who does almost nothing. I don't know of any other movie star or actor who's been able to do so little and communicate so much ..."

In December 2006, Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language film Letters from Iwo Jima won the US National Board of Review (NBR) award for best film and won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes.

Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was also nominated for an Oscar in 2007 and the man himself was nominated for best director.

In February 2007, Clint Eastwood was awarded France's Legion d'honneur.

In June 2008, Clint Eastwood in an interview with The Guardian responded to Spike Lee's claims that there were too few black actors in his films, by telling him he should "shut his face".

In January 2009, Clint Eastwood's film Gran Torino topped the North American box office in its opening weekend.

In February 2009, Clint Eastwood was awarded a Palme d'Or award. In November 2009 he was made a commander in France's Legion of Honour.

In August 2016, asked by Esquire magazine whether he would support Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, he replied, "That's a tough one, isn't it? I'd have to go for Trump ... you know, 'cause she's declared that she's gonna follow in Obama's footsteps."

In 2020, he directed Richard Jewell.