Clint Eastwood's Failures That Got Swept Under The Rug
At 94, Clint Eastwood is still active behind the camera and still winning praises from later generations of filmmakers... even though his spartan directing style and personal conduct has ruffled a few feathers over the years.
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00:00At 94, Clint Eastwood is still active behind the camera and still winning praises from later generations of filmmakers,
00:07even though his spartan directing style and personal conduct has ruffled a few feathers over the years.
00:12You don't even know the camera's rolling, and you just hear over your shoulder,
00:19Alright, go ahead.
00:21From blink-and-you'll-miss-it bit parts to distinguished filmmaker, Clint Eastwood has come a long way in show business.
00:27Fans still delight in his iconic turn as the man with no name, and he's one of very few actors to achieve renowned success as a mainstream director.
00:35Of course, no artistic career that long is devoid of setbacks, as Eastwood's early life and career saw him struggle for a direction to go in,
00:43and an opportunity to break through in the industry.
00:45If you ask Eastwood, his early childhood drove him to develop a strong work ethic due to the rough conditions his family endured during the Great Depression.
00:54If you ask his biographer or embittered former lovers, this is either a slight or great exaggeration to better serve his public persona.
01:01Either way, his family moved around throughout the Depression years before settling in Piedmont, California in 1940.
01:08According to Clint, the life and legend, childhood classmates recalled Eastwood as a good-natured member, but not a leader of a pack of boys.
01:15He dabbled in athletics and got on well with the ladies, but Eastwood was an indifferent student, a mildly rebellious sort.
01:22He got into enough mischief that Piedmont High asked him to leave.
01:26He transferred to Oakland Tech, where he continued to cut class and enjoy his youth.
01:30Eastwood's laziness and delinquency held him back in high school until he was 19.
01:35His graduating class was 1948-49, but it's a very real possibility that Eastwood never managed to graduate at all.
01:42His grades never improved, and friends interviewed by his biographer expressed doubt that he finished high school.
01:48Eastwood's biggest claims to fame as an actor are his turns in Rawhide, The Dollars Trilogy, and as Dirty Harry.
01:54Go ahead, make my day.
01:57But, like many in Hollywood, he got his first break in the horror genre.
02:01Eastwood's first appearance before moviegoers was as an uncredited lab technician in the Universal Thriller sequel, Revenge of the Creature.
02:09It was one day of work, and the most lines he'd get to say during his contract with Universal.
02:13Eastwood was part of Universal's Stars of Tomorrow program, and he retained fond memories and connections from his days there.
02:19But the bit parts he was given did little to showcase his talents, and higher-ups at Universal may not have been the biggest fans of their Star of Tomorrow.
02:27Burt Reynolds, who was also at Universal at the time, recalled that executives objected to Eastwood's chipped tooth, slow drawl, and prominent Adam's apple.
02:35They were both fired in 1955, with Reynolds blaming Eastwood's physical traits for the studio's decision.
02:41Eastwood's biographer has argued that the real reason for his dismissal was budgetary cutbacks.
02:47But Eastwood himself believed it was due to personal dislike on the part of one particular executive, head of casting Robert Palmer.
02:54Years later, Eastwood pointedly refused to hire Palmer.
02:57Coming off his early days at Universal, just when his prospects in Hollywood seemed dim, Eastwood landed his first major role in a movie.
03:04Appropriately, given the direction his career would shortly take, it was in a Western ambush at Cimarron Pass.
03:10Though it was a step up from the bit parts he had played, Eastwood didn't enjoy the film.
03:14When he went to see it in a neighbourhood theatre, he was crushed by its poor quality, at least in his eyes.
03:20As he later told an interviewer,
03:21It was so bad. I just kept sinking lower and lower in my seat.
03:25I said to my wife, I'm going to quit. I'm really going to quit. I gotta go back to school. I gotta start doing something with my life.
03:31Eastwood did go back to school of a sort. He auditioned for acting workshops, which he got into and never followed up on.
03:37He also switched agents to Bill Shiffrin, the man who helped Eastwood get the lead in Rawhide.