Biography of Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood is an American actor, director, and film producer. A cultural symbol of gritty American masculinity, Eastwood rose to prominence as an actor in the television series Rawhide and Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films of the 1960s: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His status was furthered with iconic roles in the Dirty Harry antihero cop films of the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1973, Eastwood directed his first Western: High Plains Drifter, a film in which he also starred. As a director, he was conscious to avoid many of the directing traps he had resented as an actor, such as reshooting scenes over and over, which has earned him a reputation as especially efficient. His other films as a director include Breezy, The Eiger Sanction, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, Sudden Impact, Pale Rider, The Rookie, Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, True Crime, Space Cowboys, Blood Work, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, J. Edgar, Jersey Boys, American Sniper, Sully, The 15:17 to Paris, The Mule, and Richard Jewell.

Eastwood has won the Academy Award for Best Director twice, once in 1993 for Unforgiven, and once in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. Additionally, he was nominated for Best Director for his work on Mystic River. He has been praised by critics for his ability to deliver a strong dramatic punch from light material, and for the pacing of his movies, which critics have hailed as true to life. Eastwood is said to have at least eight children, some of whom have collaborated with him on his films.