Clint Eastwood Jr. was born to Clint Eastwood Snr and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk in May 31, 1930, San Francisco, California, U.S.
GROWING UP
He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in music and mechanics, but was an otherwise bored student; this resulted in being held back a grade. In 1949, the year he graduated from high school, his parents and younger sister Jeanne moved to Seattle.
Clint spent a couple years in the Pacific Northwest himself, operating log broncs in Springfield, Oregon, with summer gigs life-guarding in Renton, Washington.
Returning to California in 1951, he did a two-year stint at Fort Ord Military Reservation and later enrolled at L.A. City College, but dropped out to pursue acting.
CAREER
During the mid-1950s he landed uncredited bit parts in such B-films as Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) while digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to supplement his income.
In 1958, he landed his first consequential acting role in the long-running TV show Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming.
Although only a secondary player the first seven seasons, he was promoted to series star when Fleming departed–both literally and figuratively–in its final year, along the way becoming a recognizable face to television viewers around the country.
The American film actor eventually emerged as one of the most popular Hollywood stars in the 1960s, known for his portrayal of tough individualists, first as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s western trilogy and later as such characters as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series.
Eastwood also enjoyed success as a director, earning Academy Awards for his work in The Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Between acting jobs, he chalked up an impressive list of credits behind the camera. He directed Mystic River (2003) (in which Sean Penn and Tim Robbins gave Oscar-winning performances), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), Changeling (2008) (a vehicle for Angelina Jolie), Invictus (2009) (again with Freeman), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) (2014’s top box office champ), Sully (2016) (starring Tom Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger) and The 15:17 to Paris (2018).
Back on screens after a considerable absence, he played an unlikely drug courier in The Mule (2018), which reached the top of the box office with a nine-figure gross, then directed Richard Jewell (2019).
At age 91, Eastwood made history as the oldest actor to star above the title in a movie with the release of Cry Macho (2021).
Away from the limelight, Eastwood has led an aberrant existence and is described by biographer Patrick McGilligan as a cunning manipulator of the media.
For the first three decades of his celebrity, his personal life was kept top secret, and several of his families were left out of the official narrative.
ROMANCE
He had a longtime relationship with similarly abstruse co-star Locke (who died aged 74 in 2018, though for her entire public life she masqueraded about being younger), and has fathered at least eight children by at least six different women in an unending string of liaisons, many of which overlapped.
He has been married only twice, however, with a mere three of his progeny coming from those unions.
GROWING OLD
Recently, the 95-year-old delivered a heartfelt speech, saying: ‘Growing old can be pretty scary, right? You find yourself witnessing everything around you. Your bones don’t move as easily, your eyes feel weary from the light, and your lungs often crave a break from that exhausting breath.
‘But what’s even scarier and more exhausting is reaching ninety and realizing there’s no one you love nearby, listening with a hint of disinterest to your tales filled with imagined heroics. You know they may not care, but you still take joy, like a grandfather, in sharing what you think matters with your grandkids.
‘It’s frightening to be alone when everyone used to seek you out, and after a lifetime of chasing the light, you end up without a family, living in darkness when you really needed someone to guide you toward the light!
‘So, make it a priority to build a family. Chasing fame is like chasing ashes blown away by the wind; it neither ignites a fire nor stays put.’
Eastwood has real estate holdings in Bel-Air, La Quinta, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cassel (in remote northern California), Idaho’s Sun Valley and Kihei, Hawaii.
