Clinton Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an actor, film director, producer and composer. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959-1966). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns during the 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Play Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. In all Eastwood has won five Academy Awards, including the Irving G. Thalberg Award. In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations, and Changeling (2008). He has received considerable critical praise in France, and he has been awarded two of France's highest honors: in 1994 he became a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 2007 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur. Eastwood has received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts, among numerous other awards. Since 1967, Eastwood has run his own production company, Malpaso, which has produced all except four of his American films. He also served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986 to 1988.