Clint Eastwood is the exact person most people think of when they consider Western movies.
He has been starring in movies since the 1950s and has never left Hollywood.
Although you may not see him acting in as many movies anymore, you probably still see his name scroll by in the credits of recent movies and wonder what the 91-year-old man is doing on set.
Clint Eastwood may have a powerful and undeniable legacy, but he still needs to appear on set for the projects that claim to have him as a member of the production team.
Is Clint Eastwood Still Alive?
Yes, Clint Eastwood is still alive and is currently 91 years old. He was born in San Francisco on May 31st of 1930.
After graduating from Oakland Technical High School, he went on to work multiple odd jobs while trying to find his place.
In the early 1950s, Eastwood worked as a truck driver, logger, hay baler, and even furnace tender in a steel plant.
Like many other young American men at the time, Clint Eastwood was drafted and sent to Fort Ord in California where he taught swimming lessons.
He spent three years in the military before being discharged, working at a gas station and attending Los Angeles City College before hitting the big stage.
In 1953, Clint Eastwood married Maggie Johnson, a popular model from Los Angeles.
Shortly after getting married, they had their first children, a son named Kyle and a daughter named Alison.
Although he was still married to Johnson at the time, Eastwood went on to have another daughter with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis in 1964.
Johnson and Eastwood eventually got divorced in 1984.
By 1955, Clint Eastwood had passed his screen test with Universal Studios.
At the time, Universal Studios was finding massive success in the horror film genre and had signed Eastwood to a 40-week contract for the monster movies Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula.
Despite the money he had already made, he was still digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to make ends meet for him and his family.
Eastwood wouldn’t be able to make acting his full-time career until 1958 when he got the role of Rowdy Yates on the Western show Rawhide.
Since his early days with Universal, Clint Eastwood has been an active worker in Hollywood.
He has spread his businesses all over the United States.
His Time As An Actor
During his time as an actor, Clint Eastwood has taken on more than 70 different roles in his career that has been going since the 1950s.
Eastwood started at Universal with the movies Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, and Francis in the Navy.
After his time with Universal, Eastwood went on to appear in the televised versions of the stories from Reader’s Digest.
Eastwood played the role of Lieutenant Wilson in the episode Cochise, Greatest of the Apaches.
In 1958, Clint Eastwood starred alongside Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau in Lafayette Escadrille.
Eastwood took on the side role of George Moseley.
By 1962, Eastwood had made his way to popular family TV show Mr. Ed on the episode Clint Eastwood Meets Mr. Ed.
A couple of years later, Clint Eastwood would play Joe in A Fistful of Dollars.
This movie was the start of what would later be known as spaghetti westerns.
Spaghetti westerns get their name from the fact that they were shot in Italy because it was cheaper to rent filming locations.
By 1965, Clint Eastwood’s time with Rawhide would end after eight seasons of the show.
Eastwood appeared in all 217 episodes of the series.
In the same year, Eastwood starred in For a Few Dollars More, which was the sequel to A Fistful of Dollars.
In 1966, Eastwood starred in one of his most famous movies The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
This movie is often seen as one of the best Western films of all time and stars Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef.
Despite the majority of Clint Eastwood’s filmography coming from his work in the 1960s and 1970s, Clint Eastwood is still acting to this day.
At 90 years old, Clint Eastwood played the lead role of Mike Milo in the movie Cry Macho.
Becoming A Director
After a couple decades of working in the film industry, Clint Eastwood felt that he was ready to play an even larger role in the filmmaking process.
By 1971, Eastwood had gone from actor to director.
The first movie that Eastwood ever directed was the psychological thriller, Play Misty for Me, where Eastwood played the role of Dave, a disc jockey with an obsessive fan who takes things too far.
In the same year, he directed one of the scenes in Dirty Harry.
By 1973, Clint Eastwood was making a habit of directing the movies that he starred in.
He was the director and lead actor for High Plains Drifter.
The first movie that he directed but didn’t star in was Breezy, which starred William Holden and Kay Lenz instead.
Two years later, Clint Eastwood would direct and star in The Eiger Sanction, which follows the story of a classical art professor and collector who lives a secret double life as a professional assassin.
In 1976, Clint Eastwood was Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales and directed the movie as well.
The movie was based on the book Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter.
During the movie, he got to work with Sondra Locke, with whom he later had a son and daughter.
In 1982, Clint Eastwood directed Honkytonk Man, in which he starred with his son, Kyle Eastwood, as a nephew and uncle who traveled around the country playing music.
The movie also starred John McIntire as Grandpa.
Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner all appeared alongside Eastwood for his 2000 thriller Space Cowboys.
Only a couple of years later, Eastwood would direct another thriller called Blood Work.
Some of Eastwood’s most recent directing work has included the biographical film Richard Jewell (about the man accused of bombing the Olympic games in Atlanta in 1996), thriller The Mule, and American Sniper.
Working As A Composer
Clint Eastwood began composing music in 1999.
His first job as a composer was Diana Krall’s music video for her song Why Should I Care.
Eastwood also directed the music video and found that he liked composing music just as much as he liked acting and directing the projects he was a part of.
While Eastwood may not have been on the screen as much in the early 2000s, he was everywhere behind the scenes.
For his 2003 film Mystic River, he directed Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins while also composing music for the film.
The following year, Clint Eastwood showed everyone that he was capable of even more multitasking by directing, composing, and starring in Million Dollar Baby.
Despite being 74 years old at this point, Eastwood was still able to manage his behind-the-scenes duties and a cast that consisted of Morgan Freeman, Hillary Swank, Anthony Mackie, and Jay Baruchel.
In 2006, Clint Eastwood composed the music for the World War II drama, Flags of Our Fathers.
Based on the book by James Bradley, the film follows the lives of six soldiers who are fighting in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
The following year, Clint Eastwood took a step back from directing and acting to work on the music for Grace Is Gone, which starred John Cusack, Shélan O’Keefe, and Gracie Bednarczyk.
This was the first time that Clint Eastwood was solely a composer for a film.
By 2008, Eastwood was already directing and composing for the 2008 movie Changeling, which starred Angela Jolie, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, and Gattlin Griffith.
That same year, Eastwood composed the music for another music video, Gran Torino by Jamie Cullum.
Clint Eastwood’s most recent musical composition work was for his 2011 movie J. Edgar, which he also directed.
In 2012, Eastwood would be able to focus more on his acting with his only behind-the-scenes role being a producer for Trouble with the Curve, a baseball film in which he starred with Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman.
Rebuilding Mission Ranch
With all the money and success that Clint Eastwood had found from so early on, he had plenty of money to invest into different projects as he saw fit.
One of Eastwood’s most notable hobbies is his love of real estate.
Eastwood, like many other actors, has multiple, luxurious homes around the country.
The property that he is best known for is Mission Ranch, a massive historical property that includes a hotel, a restaurant, and Eastwood’s own personal farmhouse.
Clint Eastwood first found Mission Ranch while he was stationed at Fort Ord, which was near the small, coastal town of Carmel.
Eastwood fell in love with Mission Ranch the moment he walked into the restaurant for a couple of drinks.
He quickly made a habit of visiting the California town and soon adopted it as his hometown away from home.
However, Eastwood would become too busy to visit as his career started to take off, causing him to miss how the town had aged.
By the time Eastwood was able to return to Carmel and Mission Ranch, decades had past and the town was no longer the friendly town it used to be.
Most of the historical buildings located at Mission Ranch had peeling wallpaper, broken windows, and some windows had been painted black decades before.
Clint Eastwood couldn’t stand to see what his favorite town had become and began investing in the town immediately.
His first goal was to restore the town’s best tourist attraction, Mission Ranch.
Mission Ranch consists of multiple cottages, a banquet hall that is locally known as the Party Barn, a restaurant, and a six-bedroom farmhouse that was originally built in the 1850s.
Eastwood hired a local home restoration company to restore Mission Ranch and turn it back into the luxurious hotel it once was.
Becoming Mayor Of Carmel
When Clint Eastwood had originally returned to Carmel, he was devastated by the shambles that Carmel had been left in.
On January 30th of 1986, Carmel’s newspaper announced that Clint Eastwood would be running for Mayor of Carmel.
Clint Eastwood ran for office because he believed that the small town’s council was holding back the rest of the town, trying to keep the town exactly as it was.
Even Eastwood knew that the town needed to grow and change if they wanted to keep the community alive.
Before Eastwood took office, he attempted to clean up Carmel by adding a small building to help the local area.
However, his plans were immediately turned down because the council didn’t want to make that big of a change to the town.
Eastwood went down to city hall frequently to get the council to see how his ideas could change the town from being seen as seedy or grimy to relaxing and thriving.
Many local business owners believed that Eastwood had the right idea, so they all became quite close.
To promote his campaign, all Eastwood did was hand out buttons and bumper stickers.
The citizens of Carmel believed in the vision that Eastwood had for the town, allowing him to gain 72.5% of all the votes.
Unlike many mayors before him, Clint Eastwood wasn’t interested in building a political career from his time as the town’s mayor.
He was solely interested in the well-being of his beloved town.
As mayor, he looked to bring more business to the town to generate more community wealth and supply the area with higher-quality jobs.
He was able to build beach walkways, build a tourist parking lot, and get a children’s library built that was 25 years in the making.
His Most Recent Lawsuit
What has taken up much of Clint Eastwood’s time recently has been a lawsuit between him and a Lithuanian company that claimed that he supported their line of CBD gummies.
In 2020, Eastwood and the company Garrapata filed two lawsuits against three different CBD manufacturers and marketers that claimed that Eastwood endorsed their product.
Eastwood and Garrapata also sued 10 online retailers who used meta tags including his name to appear higher on search results.
These companies used multiple ads to entice potential consumers.
The first of these ads was one in which the company claimed that Clint Eastwood had an interview on a show that didn’t exist.
They used photos from an interview Eastwood did on the Today show, manipulating the photos to make it appear as another similar show.
In the same article as Eastwood’s fake interview, the marketers put the links to their products.
However, Clint Eastwood was quick to alert the court that he had never given any such interview, nor had he even discussed CBD in an interview before.
The companies never appeared for their first hearing in March, which dragged out the court process.
Judge R. Gary Klausner, the District Court Judge for the Central District of California awarded Eastwood and Garrapata $6 million in damages, an additional $95,000 in attorneys’ fees, and a permanent injunction that blocked the companies from ever using his likeness again.
For Clint Eastwood, the court case wasn’t about the money.
He was concerned for the people who were being scammed by online scammers who were using his name and face to trick people.
The only part of Eastwood’s case that didn’t get approved by the judge was his claims of defamation from the companies.
However, the judge didn’t believe that Eastwood was defamed.
Clint Eastwood’s Wild Life
Despite Clint Eastwood’s advanced age, he is still alive and well.
Although we may not have seen him on the silver screen in a while, he remains an active member of the Hollywood movie industry.
Born in 1930, Eastwood has led an exciting life that was filled with oddball opportunities and fruitful dreams come true.
Clint Eastwood may be most recognizable for his time as an actor, but he has also proven himself to be just as excellent a director and a moving composer.
After finding more success and fortune than nearly anyone else in Hollywood, Clint Eastwood decided to spend some of his time in the small, peaceful, coastal town of Carmel that he helped restore.
He was just as big a hero to the citizens of Carmel as he ever was on the big screen.
Although the Western movie legend may be in his 90s, Clint Eastwood shows no sign of slowing down.
With his latest movie Cry Macho, Eastwood has proven that he won’t stop acting until the day he dies.
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michel says
I love this man he is such a kind hearted man thanks for the story.
Tex. from Chester. UK. says
GOD BLESS CLINT.
Laura says
Clint Eastwood has always been my favorite actor, and I admire him for all the other work he has done in his life. he is an absolutely incredible man! thank you for the article.♥️
Joseph George says
Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite actors I love his movies I really admire him
Douglas Rosenthal January 21,2022. says
Clint Eastwood is one of the most versatile actors of his time.
A man of many talents that most of us never knew he had.
I’ve admired him for many years, and some say i might resemble him.
I say that that’s a great compliment, although ,I would have a big pair of shoes to fill.
I could get “lucky punk”,to quote a famous phrase of his.
The things he has done in his life, are the same things that I would have done if i were in the same situation as him.
Lilith says
Narcissistic, much?
F says
I love his . movie
Ruth shelpidi says
I enjoyed East wood movies very much here in Nigeria. Thank you cllint
Sacha says
Thank you for this great article on Clint Eastwood. As a big film fan from the UK, and growing up watching his movies as a youngster, this is one man I would love to meet and shake his hand and just say thank you. He may be old now but his movies never get old for me. Legend and inspiration.
Catalina Cavillie says
I am very happy that he is still with us. I met him years ago he is a wonderful man. I wish he the best of life and health and want him around for a long time
God bless
Catalina Cavillie Tuscany Italy
Yves Pressoir says
The one and only!
Tex. from Chester. UK. says
GOD BLESS CLINT.
Joel Roberts says
I grew up watching Mr. Eastwood with my father when he started out in Western movies. Mr. Eastwood made a lot of my life decisions possible, as I never in my life had seen a movie he was in that I didn’t watch. I’m a little belated that they only mentioned the music for Gran Torino as that too was one of the all time greats.
God bless you sir. I pray you live to be well into your 100s.
Thank you for making a difference in my life and goals.
Respectfully
Joel
Anonymous says
This man is a living legend, I love him, best actor, such a caring person 🥰
Jackie beckwith says
Blessings Mr. Clint Eastwood. 🥰
randy says
One of the most iconic actors throughout the decades! Awesome actor and producer of many great award winning pictures. Thx Clint for all you’ve done in film and to our communities like.caremal.
R.Head says
“SALUTE”
Theo says
Brilliant actor Hollywood Wil never find a passionate and dedicated man like Mr Clint Eastwood ever again