Clint Eastwood is a name that likely needs no introduction. He is one of the longest serving talents in Hollywood who has found major success in both acting and directing. He has four Academy Awards to his name and a further seven nominations.
Initially seen as the next John Wayne, Clint Eastwood soon branched out from Western movies and proved himself in a plethora of genres. In 2024, he has retired after his final movie, Juror #2. So, in honour of his legendary career, here are 6 things you didn’t know about Clint Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood Has a Military Background
Across his storied career, Clint Eastwood has played military men a number of times. Perhaps these roles felt natural to him, as he has his own experience in the army. After graduation from high school, Eastwood had a number of jobs, including a lumberjack, a forest firefighter, and a steelworker. In 1951, during the Korean War, Eastwood was drafted and sent to Fort Ord in California for basic training. However, he was never deployed for combat and spent the remainder of his time in the army as a swimming instructor. During his time off at nights and on the weekends, he supplemented his income working as a bouncer at the NCO club.
He Survived a Harrowing Accident
In the fall of 1951, after enjoying some downtime in Seattle while on leave from the army, Clint Eastwood boarded a plane to head back to Fort Ord. However, on the way back, he fell into some trouble and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing into water. When speaking about his near-death experience with The Mirror, Eastwood said: “Everything went wrong. Radios went out. Oxygen ran out. And finally we ran out of fuel up around Point Reyes, California, and went in the ocean. So we went swimming. It was late October, November. Very cold water. I found out many years later that it was a white shark breeding ground, but I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time or I’d have just died.”
How He Was Cast In This Classic Movie
Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars is arguably the movie that made Clint Eastwood a huge star, and the movie that really kickstarted his superstardom in the Western genre. Following the critical success of the film, two more movies followed in short succession: For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). These three movies would go on to become known as ‘The Dollars Trilogy’ and ‘The Man with No Name Trilogy’. However, Eastwood was not the first choice.
Before Eastwood was cast, James Coburn was actually the first choice. However, he turned down the role as he wanted a salary of $25,000, which was more than the producers could afford. The part was then offered to Charles Bronson but he turned it down and stated that the script was “just about the worst I’d ever seen.” At the time, Eastwood was known for his role in the Western TV series Rawhide, but he hadn’t quite made a stomp with moviegoers yet. So, he agreed to the salary of $15,000 and signed up.
He’s a Keen Practicer of Meditation
Clint Eastwood has worked well into his golden years and is renowned for having a clean bill of health thanks to staying active. As well as taking care of his body, he has always taken care of his mind too. During a 1975 episode of The Merv Griffin Show, Eastwood talked about transcendental meditation, opening up a dialogue about something many believed at the time was only for hippies. He stated how he had been doing it for a couple of years and explained the benefits. When speaking with GQ in 2013, he confirmed that he was still practicing mediation and had been for 40 years. He said: “I believe in whatever self-help you can give yourself, whether you believe in Buddha or whatever. I used to be much more of an agnostic. I’m not really a person of an organized religion. But I’m now much more tolerant of people who are religious, because I can see why they got there. I can sympathize.”
Clint Eastwood Has Turned Down Some Roles That Went On to Become Iconic
Every well-known actor out there has a list of movies that they turned down, sometimes they regret them, and other times they are relieved. Clint Eastwood is no different. When Sean Connery departed his role as James Bond, Eastwood was one of the first actors to be approached, however, he rejected the part, stating that the role should be continued by a British actor. He was then offered the role of Superman by the president of Warner Bros., he turned it down and it went to Christopher Reeves. As well as this, he was offered the lead role in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now, a part that eventually went to Martin Sheen.
He Has a Unique Way of Directing
Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut in 1971 with the thriller, Play Misty for Me. From here, he continued working behind the lens, often directing himself. As he got older, his acting roles became fewer but his time behind the camera increased. He has led many actors to awards recognition and has received heaps of praise for his approach. In terms of his filmmaking approach, many actors have commented on how different it is.
Eastwood is renowned for only letting his actors do one or two takes, which is rather unheard of in Hollywood. For example, Stanley Kubrick famously shot 148 takes for one particular scene in The Shining. Eastwood’s style speeds up the process massively, and as a result, he has been known to wrap filming on a movie in as little as 39 days. At one point in his career, Eastwood was shooting a movie per year, and in 1989, he shot two movies back-to-back, both of which were released in 1990.
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