SALLY MORRIS: MAKE HIS DAY.
Today is the birthday of one of America’s most versatile and iconic stars. Today Clint Eastwood turns 90 years old.
Versatile? Well, Eastwood got his first real start in the western television series, Rawhide. Directors had been skeptical of his acting talents, noting for one thing his habit of delivering lines through his clenched teeth. But he made it work for him and it’s a signature quirk. He auditioned for just about anything but was rejected again and again. He got a small part in Revenge of the Creature (a sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon). But he survived and persevered, eventually snagging roles in westerns (The Man With No Name) and war movies. He became known for creating a sort of anti-hero - a “bad guy” who was elevated to hero status.
Clint Eastwood, although a jazz fan, gained some fame in the western musical, Paint Your Wagon, and “I Talk to the Trees” was his best-known ballad from that show. He played other people’s projects such as Maverick, where he was a villain again, the guy you loved to hate.
Over the years, Eastwood piled up experience in television, movies, singing, directing and writing, eventually composing film scores (The Bridges of Madison County). His film projects varied from Dirty Harry to Any Which Way You Can (in which he co-starred with an orangutan) to Where Eagles Dare (in which he co-starred with Richard Burton) . The most recent of his films I’ve seen was Richard Jewell, also one of the more interesting ones of the past several years.
Like the characters he played, Eastwood has an independent spirit which manifests itself in his political interests - sometimes a Democrat, other times a Republican (he gave the keynote speech at the 2016 Republican convention) and he is now officially a Libertarian. He’s also been the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Maybe some degree of activism is in his genes - he is a descendant of William Bradford - yeah, the one who came over on the Mayflower.
He’s won a plethora of artistic movie industry awards - including the Legion of Honor in France, several Academy Awards for directing and acting, as well as “best movie”. As with other areas of his creative life, his movies have had varying critical success and connoisseurs don’t all agree on what they like or don’t like. He directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Bridges of Madison County and Richard Jewell, which gives one the idea of his creative versatility.
At the age of 90, Clint Eastwood is still working on new projects. Maybe it’s his creative drive and urge to try new things that keeps him going.
Here’s a documentary about a movie great who could only have come from America:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc_HD_5hYe8
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