Is this man the last of the Hollywood Greats?
June 5th 2010 08:55
Is Clint the last of the true Hollywood greats?
Managed to catch the last 40 minutes of a doco on Clint Eastwood the other night as he steered us through his upbringing, early career decisions and finally his filmographry.
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema.
Like most superstars, Eastwood's success can be attributed to equal parts good fortune, tenacity, and talent.
Eastwood may have been too young to fight in World War II, but he managed to miss out on action in Korea too when on leave as a GI his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and Clint swam three miles to shore.
He later was made boot camp swimming instructor and missed out on combat action in Korea.
Encouraged to try acting by two of his Army buddies, David Janssen and Martin Milner, he landed a contract at Universal Studios in 1954, earning $75 a week playing bit parts in B-grade movies - the rest (as they say) is pretty much history.
He directed 10 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, and himself (in Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)). Hackman, Penn, Robbins, Freeman and Swank won Oscars for their performances in one of Eastwood's movies - but those with much more knowledge on the subject will, I'm sure wax lyrical about his career achievements - which are still mounting up even as he approaches 80 next year.
With the possible exception of Mickey Rooney (can someone tell me if he is still with us?) - I would suggest that Clint is close to being the last of the great Hollywood legends.
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Comment by Jason King
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Comment by Anonymous
Eastwood obviously boss. great man in earth.
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Comment by Anonymous
To enjoy him is very much related to his charismatic " I don´t care if You like me" and "I care if You do not feel well" to the ethic values hidden behind a stubborn, grim and frustrated hero.
He is definitly great in what he represents...
Comment by Anonymous
Leonardo will probably direct and probably has the stuff too. There are others out there who might turn to the other side of the camera at some point: Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kevin Spacey (who does theatre these days). Many others. Depp, anyone? But he is anti-Hollywood.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Even in his earlier movies (he was often joked about for having so few lines to learn) he managed to cultivate a wide fan base of both males and females.
In his more recent movies such as Gran Torino he brings real depth to his characters that make the movies so memorable. And that's without even mentioning his directional talent.
I hope the doco is replayed and I get to see it second time around.