Clint Eastwood #1

One of Otto and our son Scott’s favorite actors was born May 31, 1930 
in San Francisco, California but ironically he has earned more money 
by his work being behind the camera as a director than in his 
countless starring roles that we know and enjoy.  Clinton Eastwood, 
Jr. , actually his real name, has a net worth of over $375 million 
dollars, easily making him one of the riches celebrities in Hollywood.

Baby Clint weighed so much when he was born, 11 pounds 6 ounces to be 
exact that the nurses nicknamed him Sampson.  Clint describes his time 
in traditional school as mostly boring but he did show interest in 
music and mechanics.  His dad was a manufacturing executive for 
Georgia-Pacific Corporation and his mom was a housewife who later 
became an IBM computer operator.

Clint was actually expelled from school but was eventually allowed to 
return and finish.  After high school he attended Seattle University 
where he studied until he was drafted during the Korean War into the 
US Army and eventually served as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.

It is a matter of record that he survived a plane crash into the ocean 
when the Douglas AD Bomber he was aboard gave out of fuel; he and the 
pilot used a life raft and swam to safety.  They learned later that 
they entered a white shark breeding ground but thankfully they both 
made it out alive and unharmed.

Eastwood became a contract player at Universal Pictures but after 
several small roles he was fired because they said his Adam’s apple 
was too prominent and that he talked much too slow.  Ironically Burt 
Reynolds was sacked the same day, they claimed that Burt could not 
act.  Over the years the friends reminisced about walking out into the 
parking lot of the studio and discussing where they would go from 
there.  Reynolds frequently remarked during interviews that he could 
and did learn to act but unfortunately Clint could not do a thing 
about his prominent Adam’s apple.

The incident did not stop Eastwood; he acted alongside such notable 
movie stars as James Garner and Richard Boon in small roles in movies 
but his big break came when he was chosen to star in the hour- long 
western on CBS television as Rowdy Yates in “Rawhide.”  He was not 
especially fond of the part because he was thirty years old playing a 
character who was supposedly much younger and the filming was done in 
the hot summer of Arizona but once the series became a hit, he decided 
to stay for the ride.


Then came what is sometimes referred to as spaghetti westerns that 
helped make Eastwood famous, “A Fistful of Dollars” then “For a Few 
Dollars More” followed by “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” continue to 
be favorite of movie watchers and caused Eastwood to be called the 
king of western films.

And yes, Clint still owns the famous poncho, but more details in the 
next column.

 

Brenda S. Brown 

 

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