At 95 years old, Clint Eastwood has had one of the most illustrious careers in Hollywood.
Born in San Francisco on May 31, 1930, Eastwood first served in the army before he ventured into acting. He got his big break in 1959, starring as Rowdy Yates on CBS’ Rawhide and his career took off from there. Throughout his 66-year-long career, Eastwood has starred in classics such as Escape from Alcatraz, Dirty Harry, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Bridges of Madison County and has directed a staggering 40 films, including American Sniper, Heartbreak Ridge, Flags of Our Fathers and more.
Eastwood’s personal life is also remarkable. The actor has been married twice and shares eight children with six women. His son Scott and daughter Francesca have even followed in his acting footsteps, while several of his other kids have made their mark behind the scenes.
As the Hollywood veteran turns 95 today, look back at Clint Eastwood’s life in photos.
Clint Eastwood’s Early Days
Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, moving around the state with his parents and younger sister, Jeanne, before settling in Piedmont.
Clint Eastwood Joins the Army
Ahead of college — and his acting career — Eastwood was drafted into the Army, though didn’t face combat, and instead worked as a swimming instructor at California’s Ft. Ord, according to military.com.
Clint Eastwood Marries Maggie Johnson
In 1953 he married model Maggie Johnson; together, they had children Kyle and Alison. They divorced in 1984, though remained friendly: in 2018, Johnson was at Eastwood’s side for the premiere of The Mule.
Clint Eastwood Enters Hollywood
Eastwood eventually enrolled at Los Angeles City College, and after three semesters, landed a $75-a-week contract with Universal. He hit it big in 1959 when he was cast as Rowdy Yates on the hit CBS series Rawhide.
Clint Eastwood Enters His Leading Man Era
As the series was coming to an end, Italian director Sergio Leone offered him his first Western role, as Joe in A Fistful of Dollars. It was a hit, and was followed by sequels including For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Clint Eastwood Screen Star
Throughout his career, Eastwood shared the screen with other icons of his time, including Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sara.
Clint Eastwood Goes Behind the Camera
After making his directorial debut with the thriller Play Misty for Me, Eastwood went on to direct portions of another 1971 action film, Dirty Harry, in which he also starred. USA Today called it the “most iconic role” of his career.
Clint Eastwood Is Box Office Gold
By 1975, Eastwood — here in 1979’s Escape from Alcatraz — was pulling in $1 million per film and had launched his own production company, Malpaso, according to a PEOPLE profile.
Clint Eastwood’s Hollywood Streak
Film critic Roger Ebert said Eastwood “dominates so completely” in 1985’s Pale Rider, another film he produced, directed and starred in. He also received his first Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or award nomination for the movie.
Clint Eastwood Is Immortalized
The actor looked overjoyed at his 1984 hand and footprint ceremony outside Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood Becomes Mayor
In 1986, Eastwood was elected mayor of his beloved Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, though did not seek re-election after his two-year term.
Clint Eastwood’s Many Accomplishments
Before winning three best director awards at the Golden Globes, Eastwood was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1988. He also has an honorary Oscar and in 2003, received the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ Life Achievement Award.
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Eastwood’s 1992 Western, Unforgiven, earned him his first Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor nominations — and won him the first two. It’s one of the standard-bearers of its type; 33 years after its release, The Ringer declared “the genre hasn’t seen a better movie.”
Clint Eastwood Continues to Dominate
The famously gruff star took a turn for the sentimental alongside Meryl Streep in 1995’s The Bridges of Madison County, which made more than $182 million at the international box office.
Clint Eastwood Remarries
In 1996, Eastwood married Dina Ruiz, with whom he has daughter Morgan. Dina and Morgan, plus Eastwood’s daughter Francesca (from his previous relationship with Frances Fisher) were the stars of the 2012 E! reality series Mrs. Eastwood & Company, which chronicled their lives and Dina’s career. Eastwood and Ruiz divorced in 2014.
Clint Eastwood and His Family
Ruiz, Fisher and several of Eastwood’s children joined him in 2002 for the premiere of Blood Work.
Clint Eastwood Is Unstoppable
In 2003, Eastwood’s Mystic River — costarring Laura Linney, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, among others — racked up numerous honors, including Best Picture and Best Director nods for the star.
Clint Eastwood and ‘Million Dollar Baby’
The 2004 hit Million Dollar Baby, which starred Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, was a massive success for Eastwood, who won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture that year and also earned a Best Actor nomination.
Clint Eastwood and ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’
The moving 2007 war film Letters from Iwo Jima (starring Ken Watanabe, right) earned Eastwood his fourth Best Director Oscar nomination and fifth Golden Globe nomination in the same category.
Clint Eastwood Wins Honors
French President Jacques Chirac awarded Eastwood with the medal of the Legion of Honour in February of 2007. Three years later, President Barack Obama honored the star with the Arts and Humanities award, though Eastwood was unable to attend the ceremony.
Clint Eastwood in ‘Gran Torino’
Eastwood starred in and directed 2008’s Gran Torino, in which he coined the iconic phrase, “Get off my lawn.”
Clint Eastwood and Christina Sandera
Eastwood found love once more in girlfriend Christina Sandera. The private pair were together for a decade before she died of a heart attack on July 18, 2024.
Clint Eastwood’s Hollywood Impact
Eastwood has directed Bradley Cooper in two films: 2018’s The Mule and 2014’s American Sniper, for which they both earned Oscar nominations.
“I love Clint Eastwood and I look up to him so much,” Cooper told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. “And I always had in my mind, ‘Well, he was 41 when he made Play Misty For Me.’ So I always thought when I get around that age then I gotta just [direct].”
Clint Eastwood Directs ‘Sully’
In 2016, Eastwood directed Tom Hanks in the biopic Sully, about “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot Chesley Sullenberger.
“When [Clint]’s in charge he says in a really quiet soft voice, ‘All right, go ahead.’ And instead of shouting ‘cut,’ he says ‘That’s enough of that,’ ” Hanks said of Eastwood’s beind-the-camera style in a 2016 interview with Graham Norton. “It’s intimidating as hell.”
Though Eastwood kept a low profile through the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to work again with 2021’s Cry Macho and appeared at the February 2022 AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach.
Clint Eastwood Today
While Clint Eastwood keeps a low profile these days, the actor/director remains relatively active behind the scenes. In March 2024, Eastwood made a rare public appearance at the Reasons for Hope event presented by the Wildlife Conservation Network, in his hometown of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Above, Eastwood is pictured talking with Dr. Jane Goodall who spoke at the event.
In 2024, he also directed his 40th feature film, Juror #2, starring Nicholas Holt. Zoey Deutch, Toni Collette as well as his daughter, Francesca. According to IMDB, Eastwood will serve as producer on the upcoming The Gauntlet, which appears to be in pre-production.
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