American Rebel (50 page)

Blood Work
2002. A Malpaso Production. Producer: Clint Eastwood. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Brian Helgeland, from the novel by Michael Connelly. With Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston, Wanda De Jesus, Tina Lifford, Paul Rodriguez, Dylan Walsh.

Million Dollar Baby
2004. A Malpaso/Albert S. Ruddy/Epsilon Motion Pictures Production. Distributed by Warner Bros. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco, Tom Rosenberg, Albert S. Ruddy. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Paul Haggis, from stories by F.X. Toole
(Rope Burns)
. With Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker, Brian F. O’Byrne, Anthony Mackie, Margo Martindale, Riki Lindhome, Michael Peña.

Gran Torino
2008. A Malpaso Production. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Bill Gerber, Robert Lorenz. Distributed by Matten Productions in association with Double Nickel Entertainment, Gerber Pictures, Malpaso Productions, Media Magik Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, Warner Bros. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Nick Schenk, from a story by Nick Schenk and Dave Johannson. With Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker, Brian Howe, John Carroll Lynch, William Hill, Brooke Chia Thao, Chee Thao, Choua Kue.

          As Director Only

Breezy
1973. Released by Universal. Producer: Robert Daley. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Jo Heims. With William Holden, Kay Lenz, Roger C. Carmel, Mari Dusay, Joan Hotchkis, Jamie Smith-Jackson, Norman Bartold, Lynn Borden, Shelley Morrison, Dennis Olivieri, Eugene Peterson.

Bird
1988. A Malpaso Production. Released by Warner Bros. Producer: Clint Eastwood. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Joel Oliansky. With Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright, Keith David, Michael McGuire, James Handy, Damon Whitaker, Moran Nagler, Arlen Dean Snyder.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
1997. A Malpaso Production. Released by Warner Bros. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Arnold Stiefel. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: John Lee Hancock, based on the novel by John Berendt. With Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Alison Eastwood, Irma P. Hall, Paul Hipp, Dorothy Loudon, Anne Haney, Kim Hunter, Geoffrey
Lewis, Richard Herd, Leon Rippy, Bob Gunton, Michael O’Hagan, Gary Anthony Williams.

Mystic River
2003. A Malpaso Production in association with NPV Entertainment. Released by Warner Bros. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Judie G. Hoyt. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Brian Helgeland, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. With Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Kevin Chapman, Tom Guiry, Emmy Rossum.

Flags of Our Fathers
2006. A Malpaso Production in association with Warner Bros., Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG. Producer: Clint Eastwood. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: William Broyles Jr., Paul Haggis. Story: James Bradley, Ron Powers. With Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, John Benjamin Hickey, John Slattery, Barry Pepper, Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick, Neal McDonough, Melanie Lynskey, Thomas McCarthy, Chris Bauer, Judith Ivey, Myra Turley, Joseph Cross, Benjamin Walker, Scott Eastwood, Harve Presnell, George Hearn, Alessandro Mastrobuono, Stark Sands, George Grizzard, Len Cariou, Christopher Curry, Bubba Lewis, Beth Grant, Connie Ray, Ann Dowd, Mary Beth Peil, David Patrick Kelly, Gordon Clapp.

Letters from Iwo Jima
2006. A Malpaso Production in association with Warner Bros., Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Tim Moore, Steven Spielberg. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Iris Yamashita. Story: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis. With Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Yuki Matsuzaki, Takashi Yamaguchi, Eijiro Ozaki, Nae, Nobumasa Sakagami, Luke Eberl, Sonny Saito, Steve Santa Sekiyoshi, Hio Abe, Toshiya Agata, Yoshi Ishii, Toshi Toda, Ken Kensei, Ikuma Ando, Akiko Shima, Masashi Nagadoi, Mark Moses, Roxanne Hart, Yoshio Iizuka, Mitsu, Takuji Kuramoto, Koji Wada.

Changeling
2008. A Malpaso Production in association with Imagine Entertainment. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Robert Lorenz. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: J. Michael Straczynski. With Angelina Jolie, Gattlin Griffith, Michelle Gunn, Jan Devereaux, Michael Kelly, Erica Grant, Antonia Bennett, Kerri Randles, Frank Wood, Morgan Eastwood, Madison Hodges, John Malkovich, Colm Feore, Devon Conti, J.P. Bumstead.

The Human Factor
2009. A Malpaso Production. Producer: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Robert Lorenz, Lori McCreary, Mace Neufeld. Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Anthony Peckham, from the book
Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
by John Carlin. With Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman.

          
As Producer Only

The Stars Fell on Henrietta
1995. A Malpaso Production. Released by Warner Bros. Producer: Clint Eastwood, David Valdes. Director: James Keach. Screenplay: Philip Railsback. With Robert Duvall, Aidan Quinn, Frances Fisher, Brian Dennehy.

Allen in Movieland
1955. A one-time special to promote Steve Allen’s upcoming role as Benny Goodman in Valentine Davies’s 1956
The Benny Goodman Story
. In the TV show, Clint plays an orderly. His character has no name, and he has no lines.

Highway Patrol
1956. One episode, called “Motorcycle A.”

Death Valley Days
1956. Hosted by Ronald Reagan. Clint appears briefly in six episodes.

West Point Story
1957. Clint appears in one episode of this series, “The West Point Story.”

Navy Log
1958. Clint appears in one episode, called “The Lonely Watch,” as Burns.

Maverick
1959. Clint appears in one episode of this James Garner series, “Duel at Sundown,” as Red Hardigan.

Rawhide
1959–65. Clint appeared in all 217 episodes as Rowdy Yates.

Mr. Ed
1962. Clint plays himself in one episode, “Clint Eastwood Meets Mr. Ed.”

Amazing Stories
1985. Clint directed one episode, “Vanessa in the Garden.” Steven Spielberg was executive producer and writer of this episode. An Amblin Entertainment Production for television. With Sondra Locke, Harvey Keitel, Beau Bridges.

The Blues
2003. Clint directed one episode, “Piano Blues,” of Martin Scorsese’s (and several other producers’) multipart TV documentary about the blues.

      Albums

1963  
Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites

      
Singles

1961  “Unknown Girl”

1962  “Rowdy”

1962  “For You, For Me, For Evermore”

1980  “Bar Room Buddies” (with Merle Haggard),
Bronco Billy
soundtrack

1980  “Beers to You” (with Ray Charles)

1981  “Cowboy in a Three Piece Suit”

1984  “Make My Day” (with T. G. Sheppard),
Slow Burn
album

2009  “Gran Torino” (as Walt Kowalski, with Jamie Cullum)

Clint also composed the score to James C. Strouse’s
Grace Is Gone
(2007) and original piano compositions for
In the Line of Fire
.

(Boldface denotes wins)

1992—Best Picture
—
Unforgiven

1992—Best Director
—
Unforgiven

1992—Best Actor in a Leading Role—
Unforgiven

1995—Irving G. Thalberg Lifetime Memorial Award

2003—Best Picture—
Mystic River

2003—Best Director—
Mystic River

2004—Best Picture—
Million Dollar Baby

2004—Best Director—
Million Dollar Baby

2004—Best Actor in a Leading Role—
Million Dollar Baby

2006—Best Picture—
Letters from Iwo Jima

2006—Best Director—
Letters from Iwo Jima

Kennedy Center Honors, 2000.

Honorary degree from University of the Pacific, 2006.

Nomination for a Grammy Award, Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media, for
Million Dollar Baby
, 2006.

Humanitarian Award, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) Award for
Flags of Our Fathers
and
Letters from Iwo Jima
, 2006.

California Hall of Fame (located at the California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts), inducted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2006.

Légion d’honneur (the highest civilian distinction), France, 2007.

Jack Valenti honorary degree from University of Southern California, 2007.

Honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music at Monterey Jazz Festival, 2007.

Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, for
Gran Torino
, 2008.

T
his biography continues my revisionist study of what is America’s greatest and most original form of expression, the Hollywood motion picture, a nickel-and-dime novelty form of entertainment that became a billion-dollar industry even as it pushed its way into the pantheon of twentieth-century art. I study the lives of those in film I find most interesting, influential, and fundamentally responsible for defining the medium in which they have excelled. In doing so, I am reminded of Molly Haskell’s belief, which is also my own, that there are many, many ways to talk about the cinema.

As a boomer, I grew up engulfed in the postwar media revolution that began with movies, black and white television, and, of course, rock and roll. I was a street kid from New York City, part of the working-middle-class mix in the West Bronx, and easily the most accessible forms of entertainment for my friends and me were TV, music on the radio, and 45s. Everyone my age was electronically weaned on
Superman, Howdy Doody, Andy’s Gang
, the greatest, purest, most genteel cowboy figure of them all,
The Lone Ranger
, and singing the songs we heard on AM on street corners or learning a few chords on a guitar or how to bang the bongos like Marlon Brando. And, of course, our parents had Sinatra; we had Elvis.

If I came early to movies as entertainment, I came relatively late to movies as art, for two reasons: you had to pay to get into movie theaters, and I rarely had enough extra money for that; and on those Saturday mornings when I did have that spare quarter, it was just too hard to physically go to the Loew’s Paradise or the RKO Fordham for the cartoon or sci-fi/horror marathons. The elderly, overweight, furious matrons used to drive kids crazy—they’d make us sit on the side, which meant watching the movie off the distorted edge of the screen, and then kicked us out exactly at three o’clock, to make way for the adults. At least in those days TV and the radio were free.

I remember the first film I ever saw—while I was still a toddler my parents took me to see Fred Zinnemann’s
High Noon
(they didn’t believe in babysitters). But only in college did I find the full emotional depth of that movie, and movies in general. It happened with two encounters that awakened my senses, changed my thinking, and ultimately altered the direction of my life.

As a drama major at the High School of Performing Arts, I was a little teenage Method actor in blue jeans devoted to “the theater.” I knew very little of it—I didn’t see my first live, on-Broadway show until I was a senior—and just talking about wanting to be on television or in the movies was almost enough to get you expelled for a “lack of serious commitment to your art.” To the PA faculty, whom I loved dearly (and still do), and to whom I entrusted so much of my adolescent development, movies were about fake fame and corrupting money. No one ever discussed Alfred Hitchcock, for example, whom I already believed was the greatest director in the world. Instead, we were instructed in the art of sense memory, part of the “method” of acting that Stanislavsky had given the world. Sense memory? What was there to recall at the age of twelve?

A few years later, after a successful run as an actor on the stage and television, I attended City College (the City University of New York) for undergraduate studies. While there I participated in the usual run of student productions—Sophocles, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Miller, Williams. One semester I happened to take a film elective taught by Herman J. Weinberg, who had written a book about the film director Josef von Sternberg, whom I had never heard of. The title of Weinberg’s course was “Sternberg and Dietrich.” Each week we saw one of the legendary collaborations between the director and the star, and I looked forward to that class more than any other. In the darkness of that auditorium at City College on Convent Avenue, I first saw the full power of the magic flickering lamp.

For the first time, film was more to me than a surface experience. I was fascinated by Sternberg’s “presence” in every film, even though he never appeared on-screen in any of them; seeing all eight films together, displaying the arc of Sternberg’s and Dietrich’s careers, energized me.

In 1969, a year after I graduated from CCNY, I went off to do a season of summer stock and fell in love with a beautiful young actress.
When we returned to New York City, we moved together into a small apartment in the Village so she could continue her college studies.

She was a student at the then-quite-radical NYU School of the Arts theater division and obligated to take an evening film survey course being taught by the relatively young and still mostly unknown Andrew Sarris. She came home quite animated one night after class and told me that if I really wanted to be an actor, I ought to go hear this man talk about movies. Somewhat skeptical, as I was about everything in those days (including love), I agreed to attend one class, more as a way of appeasing her than out of any real desire to hear someone else lecture to me on film, a subject about which I now believed I knew everything there was to know. But that Tuesday night, in a small classroom on Eleventh Street near Second Avenue, packed with students, a blackboard, a projector, and a pull-down screen, my head was completely turned around as Sarris spoke with great passion about his already controversial new critical methodology of film, the auteur theory.