Though Clint Eastwood is unquestionably best known to the public as an actor,
the star gets up to quite a few different things when he isn’t gracing screens.
In fact, Clint Eastwood spends more time behind the camera than in front of them these days,
as he’s developed quite a career for himself as a director. Besides directing, Clint Eastwood has
also dabbled in politics and music sporadically, and even owns a few businesses.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Clint Eastwood works these weird jobs when he’s not acting.
Clint Eastwood Always Wanted to Direct Clint Eastwood’s acting career first blossomed
when he was cast to star in the Western television series Rawhide. Subsequently, he found himself
gracing cinema screens after taking on the lead role in the Spaghetti Western trilogy
of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
On this series of films, Clint Eastwood worked with renowned Italian director Sergio Leone. Clint
has said that he learned a lot from working with the director, and incorporated a lot of what he
learned from Sergio into his own filmmaking when he made his debut as a director himself later on.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was released in 1966, and Clint Eastwood went on to make
his debut as a director in 1971. Clint’s first film as a director was Play Misty for Me, which
the actor also starred in. The film played to more of an art crowd than the star’s prior fare,
though it gave him a good deal more credibility with critics at the time. Clint Eastwood has
gone on to director many more features, though he remained better known as a film
star for many years before finally earning the mainstream public’s respect behind the cameras.
Following Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood went on to become a Hollywood superstar thanks to films
like Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry was released a mere few months after Play Misty for Me, and it was
unquestionably the bigger commercial success. The film paid reference to the Zodiac killings,
which were in the news at the time. It featured Clint as the titular cop, who wasn’t above taking
the law into his own hands. If Clint earned the critics’ respect as a filmmaker with Play Misty
for Me, he earned the public’s respect as an action hero with Dirty Harry. Clint Eastwood
had remained one of the biggest stars in Hollywood since,
but he has also branched out into other endeavors when he feels like it.
Clint Has Won Respect as a Director Clint Eastwood didn’t direct Dirty Harry,
but he kept at directing after making his debut and hasn’t stopped to this day. In fact, it’s
more often to see Clint Eastwood’s name during the end credits than it is to
see the actor’s face on film nowadays. The star has made a few returns to the
screen lately with films like The Mule and Cry Macho, both of which he also directed. However,
there have been even more films recently that the star has only worked behind the
scenes on, including the directorial efforts Richard Jewell and The 15:17 to Paris.
Richard Jewell and The 15:17 to Paris represented Clint Eastwood trying something new
after years of directing, and neither film was a big hit with critics or audiences. However,
Clint has long since proved himself as a force to be reckoned with behind the cameras. A few decades
after his directorial debut, Clint finally won everyone’s wholehearted respect as a filmmaker
with 1992’s Unforgiven. The film received a great deal of awards attention and arguably remains
Clint Eastwood’s most positively received effort as a director. However, 2004’s Million Dollar
Baby possibly gives it a run for its money. Both Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby star
Clint Eastwood in the lead, with Morgan Freeman in a supporting role.
Since making his directorial debut, Clint Eastwood has exercised more and more control
behind the camera on his films. The star likes to keep a fast pace while he’s directing,
and has shared that he doesn’t like to do multiple takes. This has allowed Clint to
create a staggering number of films over the course of his career, and it appears that he’s
still going at it into his 90s! Clint has helmed over 30 films as a director, though it’s
unquestionable that the general public still knows him best a film star. Clint’s most recent film,
Cry Macho, drew attention because it featured the actor getting back on a horse for the first time
in many years. Clint hasn’t made an authentic Western since the aforementioned Unforgiven,
though he’s still known best for his iconic Western roles.
Clint Eastwood’s success as both an actor and director makes him a standout amongst film stars.
Only a few other actors have managed to achieve the success in both ventures as Clint has,
and even they haven’t been able to maintain the same staggering level of output as him.
With all of the effort that Clint puts into his filmmaking endeavors, some might wonder
if the star ever has time for anything else. As it turns out, Clint has also worked in music,
politics, and business! If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure
to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like
to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Clint Eastwood Has Worked in Politics Even lesser known than Clint Eastwood’s
work as a director is the acclaimed film star’s work as a politician. Ever since the early days
of Clint’s career, the actor has always had an interest in politics. The star was a supporter
of Ronald Reagan during the former actor’s presidency and ended up following in Ronald’s
footsteps by getting into politics himself. It’s also notable that both Clint Eastwood and Ronald
Reagan starred in films where their main costar was a monkey. Though Clint Eastwood has mainly
held conservative views over the course of his political career, he has sometimes supported
liberal agendas. Currently, the film star identifies politically as a Libertarian.
Though Clint Eastwood was interested in politics from early on, he didn’t officially get into
politics until the late 1980s. This was when he successfully ran for mayor of the area where he
lives, which is known as Carmel-by-the-Sea. Clint served as Carmel’s mayor for a period of two
years, during which time he was said to have done quite a bit of good for the people there.
He made it legal for people to eat ice cream while walking down the street,
which was apparently illegal before. The star also did such things as having public
restrooms constructed at the beach, and adding an increase in the size of the local library.
Clint Eastwood only served as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea for two years,
but that wasn’t the end of the actor’s time on politics. In the 2000s, Clint
got back into politics when he was appointed to the California State Park and Recreation
Commission. In this office, Clint helped fight against a proposed extension of a California
freeway. Though Clint hasn’t officially got back into politics since this venture,
he has been outspoken politically on numerous occasions. Clint was an avid supporter of Mitt
Romney when the conservative politician was running against Barack Obama. During this
time period, Clint made some criticisms about the current president that didn’t
inspire a lot of enthusiasm from many of the actor’s more liberal-leaning fans.
Clint Has Recently Changed His Political Views After numerous years for being known
predominantly as a Republican, Clint Eastwood turned heads during the 2020 election when
he ended up supporting a Democratic candidate in the primaries. Clint’s
choice was Michael Bloomberg, whom he felt would be a better choice for president than
Donald Trump. This came in spite of the fact that Donald Trump ended up being
the official Republic nominee. Clint claimed that Donald’s rampant Twitter use was too much
and that he couldn’t support the current president in his effort to be reelected.
Clint Wanted to Be a Professional Musician Before setting his sights on Hollywood stardom,
Clint Eastwood flirted with the idea of becoming a professional musician.
Though Clint never made it as a singer, he has become a professional musician by way of scoring
numerous of his hit films. Clint almost studied music in college but decided that he wanted to be
an actor instead. Still, Clint has always been interested in music and can even be considered
quite the accomplished jazz musician. Clint’s production company is named Malpaso Productions,
and the scores for Clint’s films are released on the sibling Malpaso Records. Nowadays, Clint
produces the majority of scores for his films, and the album makes great companion pieces for fans.
Clint Eastwood tried to become a singer during his early days, though was told that he didn’t
have the voice for it. During his time on Rawhide, Clint also worked as a touring singer.
However, he eventually agreed that his future was in the film industry. One of Clint’s many
kids is named Kyle, and Kyle has followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a musician
himself. Like his father, Kyle’s preferred style of music is jazz, of which he is a composer. As
a result of Clint’s musical proclivities, the Burbank branch of Warner Bros. Studios named
its scoring stage the Eastwood Scoring Stage during the 1990s.
Though Clint has never been much into drinking, he used to be the owner of a pub.
Clint purchased a pub in the aforementioned Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1971. He sold the pub around
the turn of the millennium and now operates a restaurant in the same area. Clint is also the
owner of Tehame Gold Club, which is evocative of the star’s hitherto unmentioned interest in golf.
On top of all of the other of Clint’s endeavors that we’ve discussed, the actor is also a
licensed pilot that knows how to fly a helicopter.
With all of the other jobs that Clint Eastwood works, it’s a wonder that he finds time to appear
in films! Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Clint Eastwood has been
directing films for five decades and that he is also a restaurant owner and a licensed pilot?
As always, like this video to show your support, subscribe, and hit the notification bell if you’d
like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their
way!