For some casual movie fans, little is known about Sondra Locke beyond her connection to
Clint Eastwood, her long-term boyfriend and frequent collaborator.
She overcame a lot in her career and personal life, but her legacy is forever tied to the
name of her former significant other.
As a young woman, Sondra Locke had dreams of becoming an actor, but her family dissuaded
her.
In her autobiography, The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly, Locke recalled a rift growing
between her and her mother for years, culminating in a fight at 19 years old when her mother
told her to pack her bags and leave if she wasn't up for doing as she was told.
So, Locke took her idea and did just that.
"I have already taken that into consideration, smartie."
Locke would never truly reconcile with her parents, but she had no regrets, explaining
in her memoir -
"Even though it is my nature to feel responsible and guilty, even when I'm not, remarkably
I never felt that way about my decision to walk away from my parents' home."
Sondra Locke met Clint Eastwood in 1975 while shooting The Outlaw Josey Wales and the two
instantly fell in love.
Locke embarked on a 14-year relationship with the man who, as the Los Angeles Times reported
in 1996, she once believed was her "Prince Charming."
She also starred in six films with him along the way.
"Don't I get a courtship?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Well I don't know, show off a little.
Whaddya say, big boy?"
That said, it sounds like Locke's time with "Prince Charming" wasn't exactly a fairy tale.
She claimed Eastwood became possessive, and when she tried to expand her career without
him, he allegedly reacted negatively, telling E in 1996 -
"I worked exclusively with Clint.
He didn't like the idea of me being away from him."
According to The Washington Post, Locke suspected Eastwood had begun tapping her phone conversations,
and this hunch was reportedly confirmed when he eventually admitted to it in a deposition.
In 1990, while she was directing her second feature, and first apart from Eastwood, Impulse,
Locke learned that Eastwood not only changed the locks on their Bel Air home, but had her
belongings packed up and removed from the house.
According to People, Locke said she collapsed when she found out he had done this.
As The Washington Post noted, Eastwood suggested in his deposition that the house was his and
his alone.
During her relationship with Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke was married to her childhood
friend Gordon Anderson, who was openly gay.
When Eastwood entered into the relationship with Locke, he was still married to his first
wife, Maggie Johnson, who he divorced in 1984.
And when Locke and Eastwood got together, he allegedly established a strict regimen
to ensure she didn't get pregnant.
In her book, she wrote about him not liking birth control -
"So he suggested a special clinic at Cedars Hospital where they taught a 'natural' method
of birth control."
The system was based on the fertility calendar to avoid pregnancy.
She recalled -
"The whole process was awkward and entailed taking my temperature every morning and marking
the calendar, etc.
It was demanding and ultimately it had failed twice."
According to People, Locke claimed in her 1989 suit against Eastwood that he told her
to get a tubal ligation and have two abortions, allegations that Eastwood denies.
Already the father of several children, the actor allegedly told Locke he didn't want
any more kids, according to Vanity Fair.
All the while, he was having an affair with Jacelyn Reeves and would father two more children,
including actor Scott Eastwood.
Though she had plenty of personal matters to deal with, Sondra Locke trudged on and
completed Impulse, her second film as director.
She told the Chicago Tribune in 1990 -
"Some people thought I'd fall apart during the production when the problems with Clint
developed.
They expect that sort of thing to exhaust a woman.
It was nice to surprise people."
However, after the messy split with Eastwood, the director and actor found herself in what
appeared to be isolation from the rest of Hollywood.
Her opportunities dried up, as she told The Washington Post in 1997 -
"If you were in Clint Eastwood movies, you were in the Clint Eastwood movie business.
You weren't in the movie business.
You weren't part of Hollywood."
She even lost contact with many of her friends, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.
In her memoir, Locke recalls confronting one-time friend Shriver at a social event, telling
the former first lady of California -
After all this, we can at least be honest.
We are no longer friends and can't act as if we are.
I'm hurt and I can't act as if I'm not."
While battling Clint Eastwood in 1989 in a multi-million dollar palimony suit, Sondra
Locke received an offer of reconciliation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Locke dropped her case when Eastwood offered to
secure her a $1.5-million development deal with Warner Bros. studio.
The outlet also reported that court records stated Eastwood paid her $450,000 and handed
over the title to a home that was worth over half a million dollars.
However, Locke and her team of lawyers believed Eastwood never intended to follow through
on the development deal.
In the '90s, Locke sued Eastwood again, this time for fraud.
Between 1990 and 1993, Locke pitched 30 films to the studio, and each one of them was denied.
According to the Los Angeles Times, one of the rejected titles was called Oh Baby, which
was later renamed Junior and given to Ivan Reitman and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Eastwood admitted that he, not the studio, financed the development deal, though he denied
any intentional wrongdoing.
After her struggles in court ended, Sondra Locke began penning her autobiography, which
was released in 1997.
She told Wand'rin' Star that she pitched the book to the William Morris Agency, who represented
both her and Eastwood.
Not only did they turn Locke down, but they advised her to back off from the book.
The agency threatened to destroy her, to which she replied -
"They have already done that."
As she expected, when the book was released, Locke was met with resistance as most venues
and networks wouldn't bring her on to promote the book.
She explained one example to Wand'rin' Star, saying -
"I was told by my publisher that Oprah Winfrey wanted me to come on her show.
As it was being scheduled, I was suddenly cancelled and Clint was set to appear on the
show instead.
At that time, and even rarely today, Clint had almost never appeared on such a talk show."
It didn't stop there.
Locke told Wand'rin' Star that when The Advocate was preparing an article on her book, she
was bumped for an Eastwood cover story.
She also claimed that some positive reviews for her movie were either edited to remove
any reference to her book or replaced with bad reviews, though she remained undaunted.
"I don't want your sympathy mister.
And I don't weep.
Do you?"
Making a career in Hollywood was a challenge for Sondra Locke.
She had the talent, but it seemed that the system was determined to keep her down.
In her early acting days, the world put her looks first, and her acting chops second.
A review of The Gauntlet in The New York Times, for example, stated -
"Miss Locke is not only pretty, but also occasionally genuinely funny."
Even though she made her Hollywood debut with an Oscar-nominated performance, filmmakers
and casting agents apparently weren't knocking down her door for the chance to work with
her.
Even when she transitioned into directing, the journey didn't get any easier, though
she did stand out more.
According to the Los Angeles Times, with Impulse, Locke was just one of 11 female directors
who released a film in 1990.
She told the Chicago Tribune -
"When the studios find a good script, they naturally want to give it to the top rank
of directors, which is a male club.
Women directors need to get that kind of respect."
In the midst of one of the ugly court battles opposite Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke was
dealt an even worse hand.
According to The New York Times, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late '80s and underwent
a double mastectomy and chemotherapy for treatment.
She seemed to believe that all the battles with Eastwood were not helping her health,
saying -
"I began to feel beaten, and then getting sick crystallized everything.
What was more important for me was to get my career going again than to continue this
hideous battle for more money."
According to Locke, it was partly because of her illness that she accepted the aforementioned
dubious development deal in the first place, giving up her home for a chance to continue
her directing career and move on.
She told the Wand'rin' Star -
"It seemed that he wanted to crush me for no reason other than I had not simply disappeared
when he wanted me to."
On Nov. 3, 2018, the Associated Press reported Locke died at the age of 74 of cardiac arrest
linked to bone and breast cancer.
It seems clear that Sondra Locke never got to live the life or the career that she wanted
or deserved.
Yet, she still managed to build an impressive resume.
Sadly, a large portion of her legacy is overshadowed by Clint Eastwood's presence.
When The Hollywood Reporter originally wrote about Locke after her death, the piece was
framed around her being Eastwood's "embittered ex".
After some pushback, they changed the piece.
As a result of Eastwood's dominant presence, Locke was pushed to the sidelines and interest
in her achievements was either muted or thwarted entirely.
Few publications have managed to capture the impact that Locke had.
This is, after all, a woman who fought publicly against powerful men and a sexist industry
in the '90s, setting the stage for many who would follow in her footsteps in the current
Me Too movement.
As Locke herself said to the Los Angeles Times at the time -
"It was about my fighting for my professional rights.
People cannot get away with whatever they want to, just because they're powerful."
Her lawyer, Peggy Garrity, predicted her client's influence, saying -
"It was about power and the arrogance of power.
I see her as sort of an Everywoman for the '90s."
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