Clint Eastwood Biography Page 3
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Clint Eastwood in The Man with No Name Trilogy
Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry Movies
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Although Eastwood had little practical reason to be high spirited at this time, fate was about to step in and reward him for his long struggle and constant disappointments. In fact, if it hadn't been for a simple luncheon date, Eastwood might never have become the star he is today. Good fortune finally tapped him one day when he was having lunch with Sonia Chernus, an employee of CBS Television's story department. Eastwood caught the eye of CBS executive Robert Sparks, who was looking for someone to cast in one of the two lead roles for an upcoming western series called Rawhide. Sparks approached Eastwood and asked whether he was an actor. Clint replied in the affirmative and gave Sparks a brief rundown of his acting career, making sure he particularly overemphasized his contribution to Ambush at Cimmarron Pass. This nearly backfired on Clint when Sparks and Rawhide producer Charles Marquis Warren asked to see a print of the film. Convinced they would find it a disaster, Eastwood gave up and went home in despair, certain he was out of the running.
Much to Clint's surprise, Warren phoned him later to tell him they wanted him for the role of Rowdy Yates, the second lead in Rawhide. Eastwood was set to co-star with Eric Fleming, as a kind of father-son cattle-driving team. Clint was ecstatic. He signed a contract and filmed ten of the thirteen episodes the network had agreed to air. His salary went up to what he felt was an astronomical plateau. However, his luck was short-lived. CBS was having second thoughts about running the show, owing to suspicions that the glut of TV westerns and the decline in popularity of hour-long programming would make the series unprofitable.
Eastwood would later describe this period as the lowest point in his career. He recalled, "Here was my career, lying in the basement of CBS, because the word was out that hour-long shows were out. So I decided to go up and visit my parents. . . . On the way I got a telegram saying that the series had been sold after all, and to be ready to work on such and such a day. Mag and I did a little champagne trick and yelled a lot: I shouted a lot of profane things out the window."
Rawhide premiered on January 9, 1959. Its initial ratings were far from spectacular but were good enough for CBS to keep it on the air. By its second season, the series was a major hit and proved to be immensely profitable not only for CBS, but for Eastwood as well. The basic story line of the series involved the adventures of a group of cowboys on a seemingly endless cattle drive. In essence, the show was inspired by Howard Hawks's 1948 western classic Red River. Fleming and Eastwood portrayed the John Wayne and Montgomery Clift roles respectively. By all standards, it was a superior series. Eastwood was not given the most fascinating character in the world to work with, but he did try to innovate various idiosyncrasies to make Rowdy Yates a little more interesting.
In addition to benefiting from the show in terms of salary, Eastwood learned a tremendous amount about filmmaking techniques through watching such directors as Ted Post work on the series. Eastwood claims that working on Rawhide was one of the most valuable acting assignments he's ever taken, and he credits this experience with expanding his acting technique. "Having the security of being in a series week in, week out gives you great flexibility; you can experiment with yourself, try a different scene different ways. If you make a mistake one week, you can look at it and say, 'Well, I won't do that again/ and you're still on the air next week."
Rawhide brought Eastwood great exposure to American audiences, but he still strove to make a mark for himself in the world of feature films. At every turn he was rejected by the CBS brass, which maintained that his contract didn't allow him to star in anything but Raiohide. The normally calm Eastwood lost his temper publicly for the first time and told Hollywood Reporter, "I haven't been allowed to accept a single feature or TV guesting offer since I started the series. Maybe they figure me as the sheepish guy I portray in the series, but even a worm has to turn sometime. Believe me, I'm not bluffing-I'm prepared to go on suspension, which means I can't work here, but I've got offers from London and Rome that will bring me more money in a year than this series has given me in three." CBS relented, and Eastwood won his case.
In early 1964, Eastwood found himself on a shooting hiatus from Rawhide. His agent called to let him know that there was an offer to do a western in Spain titled The Magnificent Stranger. Eastwood was unimpressed, particularly when he learned that the film was to be financed by a German-Italian-Spanish production company with an Italian director, Sergio Leone. Eastwood was certain that no European studio could make a successful, realistic American western. Yet when he read the script, he was impressed. He recognized the story as a remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Yojimbo. Eastwood had known that a few years before, a remake of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai had resulted in The Magnificent Seven, a notable western that helped launch such future superstars as Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn. Eastwood felt that in the right hands, lightning might strike twice.
Clint Eastwood found bigger roles with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) in 1964, soon followed it with For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966), where Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach tricked each other mercilessly in their pursuit of $200,000 in gold, buried, as it happens, in a Confederate graveyard. All three films were hits, particularly the third, and Eastwood became an instant international star, redefining the traditional image of the American cowboy. The Dollar westerns were made on an extremely low budget. Indeed, Clint, who received $15,000 for A Fistful Of Dollars, had had to share not just a room but a bed with Wallach. In Where Eagles Dare (1968) he had second billing to Richard Burton but was paid $800,000. Paint Your Wagon (1969) was a musical Western. Kelly's Heroes (1970) combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor. Eastwood directed and starred in the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), and starred as a semi-villain in the Don Siegel film The Beguiled (1971), one of his few box-office flops. But it was his role that year as the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that gave Eastwood one of his most memorable roles. Here Eastwood made his debut as Inspector Harry Callahan, a San Francisco cop who'll do pretty much anything to bring criminals to justice, constantly battling against bureaucratic jobsworths and a liberal morality that, to him, seems out-of-control. His present case is that of a sniper, who having murdered to prove his seriousness, kidnaps a young girl and demands a huge ransom from the City.
He continued with cop and Western roles, including sequels to Dirty Harry: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) was an important contribution to the western genre, along with his own High Plains Drifter (1973). In 1974, Eastwood teamed with a young actor named Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, a heist yarn similar to The Sting. The movie was written and directed by Michael Cimino who would later win an Oscar for directing The Deer Hunter. As the late '70s approached, he found more solid work in comedies such as Every Which Way But Loose (1978).
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