While Clint Eastwood may appear to be a success story to his fans, he's experienced a number of
hardships in his life. Here are the tragic details about one of Hollywood's most enduring icons.
Clint Eastwood was born to his parents,
Clinton and Ruth Eastwood, in 1930 during the Great Depression. Eastwood's family was
financially sound but did have to confront difficulties during that period. Basically,
the Eastwoods had to shift base several times, thanks to Clinton Sr. and his work demands.
This meant that they had to adjust to an uncertain life for a large chunk of the actor's early years.
In fact, Eastwood later claimed to have gone to ten schools as a child, but he didn't complain
too much. Additionally, Clinton Jr. was a shy kid who didn't easily open up with his peers, so he
wasn't at all pleased when he was pressured into being part of a school play. He later recounted
that although the experience freaked him out, the play did help him get over his chronic shyness.
Barely out of high school, a young Clint Eastwood was in for a surprise when he was
drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War. At one point during his time in the Army,
Eastwood was on a plane back to San Francisco with an Air Force pilot friend of his when the
aircraft malfunctioned and ultimately crashed. As Eastwood told The Hollywood Reporter,
he nearly lost his life during the incident. Eastwood later recalled,
"What was going through my mind was just a stark fear, a stark terror, because [in the] first
place, I didn't know anything about aviation at that particular time — I was just hopping a ride."
After they made a water landing, Eastwood and
the others had to swim to safety. It was a traumatic experience overall.
Clint Eastwood wasn't always a star, and when he first started his journey
in the entertainment industry, he had to fight hard to get parts in films. In fact,
his first role wasn't even credited. It was in a movie titled Revenge of the Creature,
in which Eastwood played an unassuming lab technician.
Eastwood took on more minor roles afterward, trying to stay afloat.
At the same time,the actor was juggling several odd jobs to get by and make a
living for himself. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Eastwood recalled,
"I worked at a Texaco station right next to General Service Studios on Santa Monica
Boulevard and I managed an apartment house that I was living in to get the rent knocked down."
On top of all that, he was booted by Universal Studios,
which dropped his contract a year and a half after he started working for them. This was,
of course, a major setback for Eastwood, who was trying his best to get more significant roles.
"I was commonly known for, uh, genre films that I had started out with."
For Clint Eastwood, being a part of Hollywood wasn't easy. His mental health suffered,
and he experienced severe anxiety on set when he first started acting. Eastwood has
a particularly vivid memory of his first-ever role in 1955's Revenge of the Creature.
His role wasn't crucial, but simply getting used to his dialogue and being confident
were Herculean tasks for the actor as he watched the film's director and producer
argue over the line that Eastwood was supposed to utter. Eastwood recalled,
"The director stood there and just chewed out,
put me down something awful. And I was a nervous wreck anyway at the
time. So that was my first experience and probably my last for a couple of months."
This wasn't Eastwood's only brush with anxiety. According to the book Clint:
The Life and Legend by Patrick McGilligan, Eastwood experienced severe anxiety in the
1970s while dealing with a bronchial infection when he was working on the film Joe Kidd.
Things got so serious at one point that Clint felt like "he was dying" during those moments.
Clint Eastwood suffered a major setback when he lost his father to a heart attack in the 1970s.
As per the book Clint: The Life and Legend by Patrick McGilligan,
in July 1970, Clint Sr. had been getting ready for a game of golf but never came downstairs.
Ruth checked on him and found him in his final moments. There was nothing that she
could do to save her dying husband, who was just 64 years old at the time.
This was especially hard news to digest for the Eastwood family,
as Eastwood's grandfather had been around until he was in his nineties. Clint changed
in many ways after his father's death, taking his health a lot more seriously
than he used to and staying dedicated to his nutrition and exercise regimen.
Film producer Fritz Manes said that his father's death was a massive blow to Eastwood,
who couldn't quite wrap his head around the incident. Manes reflected,
"[Clint Eastwood] couldn't understand
this. It was a personal thing to him — something that had been done to him."
Manes added that it took "a long time" for the actor to heal and accept his dad was gone.
As a public figure, Clint Eastwood has definitely not been spared when it comes
to certain controversies. For instance, when he directed the film American Sniper,
he attracted a lot of criticism for what some viewers perceived to be a glorification of
war. Eastwood tried his best to defend his film in interviews,
but his critics weren't necessarily convinced. In one press interview, the director stated:
"[American Sniper] certainly has nothing to do with any [political] parties or anything.
These fellows who are professional soldiers,
Navy personnel or what have you, go in for a certain reason."
According to The Wrap, what was also greatly upsetting for audiences was
witnessing what appeared to be a celebration of the extremist views
of sharpshooter Chris Kyle, who was known for saying things like,
"The enemy are savages and despicably evil."
Kyle was the subject of American Sniper and was portrayed by Bradley Cooper in
the movie. Eastwood insisted that the film's vision wasn't interpreted correctly. He told
The Guardian that he is against war himself and doesn't support violence.
"[War is] one of those things that should be done with a lot of thought, if it needs to be done.
Self-protection is a very important thing for nations, but I just don't like to see it."
Clint Eastwood has a notorious reputation for having engaged in multiple relationships
throughout his life. According to The Independent, in the early 1960s, Eastwood was involved in a
hookup with a stuntwoman, Roxanne Tunis, who later gave birth to their daughter,
Kimber. The actor has fathered a total of eight kids with different women over the years.
As described by The Independent, Eastwood has often seemed incapable of maintaining stable
relationships in his personal life. While he was with actor and director Sondra Locke,
he was also married to his wife, Maggie, whom he'd been with for some 20 years.
And before he broke up with Locke, he began seeing actor Frances Fisher.
The pattern repeated itself when he dated Dina Ruiz while he was
with Fisher. He has also been known to avoid opening up to those close to him,
even some of his oldest buddies. Film producer Lili Zanuck said,
"He is what you project on to him. The man you meet is that screen persona but with
more depth. His whole value system is based on what the individual can do and overcome."
According to a report by Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Clint Eastwood was forced to deal
with a tragic event while filming one of his movies, 1975's The Eiger Sanction.
The crew had an accident while working on the film, and a mountain climber was killed.
Another crew member survived but with serious injuries. It was a tough call to make,
but Eastwood decided to resume filming at that point despite the difficult circumstances.
When The Eiger Sanction was finally released in theaters, it received mixed reviews.
As for the accident itself, here's what happened: Experienced mountain climber David Knowles was
working as a stunt double in the film, and the crew needed a few extra shots for a sequence.
Knowles decided to finish the job with another mountain climber, Mike Hoover.
While the duo succeeded in getting the shots, they weren't prepared for what happened next.
A boulder unexpectedly dislodged and hit them while they were standing on a ledge.
Hoover sustained a fracture, and Knowles died from his injuries.
One of the other climbers described the terrible scene:
"We flew up to that same location and there was the scene that we had been faking for two days.
Dave Knowles hanging dead on the end of the rope. [...] It was unbelievable,
fantasy and reality come head-on."
Eastwood was traumatized when he was told about the incident and almost cancelled the
entire project. However, his team convinced him to finish the movie.
Eastwood hasn't always had the best relationship with his many children. One of his daughters,
Kimber, has mentioned that she felt neglected by her father growing up. As per Patrick McGilligan's
Clint: The Life and Legend, however, Kimber has issued conflicting statements on how she felt
about her father. When she was trying to be a part of the film industry herself, she told her
famous dad about her plans, and he said that he'd think about casting her in a movie in the future.
At one point, Kimber said that her father would meet her whenever he
could and that they shared a strong bond. On many other occasions,
however, Kimber has implied that it was frustrating for her to reach out to him.
In the 1980s, Laurie Murray discovered that Eastwood was her dad. She'd been adopted as
a baby and didn't know about her parents until she hired a professional to do some digging.
After finding out, Murray got in touch with Eastwood,
who was welcoming, introducing her to the media at the 2004 Oscars. However,
until Murray contacted Eastwood, he had no idea about her existence, though Murray's
mom had sent her baby to an adoption center and listed Clint Eastwood as her biological father.
Clint Eastwood knows that being famous is no cakewalk. He has often been
called out publicly for expressing his opinions. According to a Reuters report,
Eastwood was heavily criticized by thousands of fans online who believed that the actor
had officially endorsed then-U.S. president Donald Trump. While it's true that the actor
had previously offered favorable comments on the politician, he never officially endorsed him.
"You know I haven't supported anyone really."
Eastwood was also the subject of a viral meme in 2019.
In the meme, Eastwood was falsely quoted as saying,
"I am not making this endorsement on a whim. I think this man is the man that
can get this country where it needs to be, back in the hands of true Americans. So,
with that said, I am endorsing Mr. Trump for President."
While Eastwood never said this, he did mention in 2016 that he preferred Trump over Hillary
Clinton. He chose to not officially endorse anyone, though. Meanwhile,
in 2020, the actor expressed his support for Democratic hopeful Michael Bloomberg and said,
"The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there."
However, he also said that he supported some of Trump's
actions but didn't approve of his online behavior.
Patrick McGilligan's book, Clint: The Life and Legend, notably painted Eastwood in an
unflattering light, stating, among other things, that Eastwood was perceived to
be a bit of a control freak. According to the Chicago Tribune, the actor was known
for terminating contracts with employees if he felt that they were undermining his authority.
An ex-producer who worked with Eastwood was quoted as saying,
"If they ever called a meeting of all the people that Clint has screwed over,
they'd have to hold it in the L.A. Coliseum."
Eastwood disagrees with this assessment. When he was asked in a CBS interview
whether he sought to be in control all the time, the actor denied it, saying,
"No, because I like the participation of everyone."
"Man's got to know his limitations."
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