After 39 years in the film industry, Clint Eastwood attended the Oscars as a first-time nominee in 1992. Aged 62, he took home awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Unforgiven ,a film that returned him to his cowboy roots and cemented his place as a star, producer and director in some of the most iconic films in cinema. In public, he has achieved success upon success, proving himself as an individualist and finding success with his own production company. But away from the cameras, Clint Eastwood’s personal life has been messy and complicated. Twice married, he has been involved with countless women, fathering eight children by six different mothers. Many of these relationships were kept out of the media for decades until he was sued for palimony and the resulting court case revealed his notoriously private life. At this low point, he developed and produced Unforgiven, which finally achieved the recognition from the Academy that eluded him, despite his repeated commercial successes as a filmmaker. We hear from friends and colleagues who know him. Clint’s first leading lady in A Fistful of Dollars, Marianne Koch, describes the shy, mumbling young actor who was unimpressive on set but electric on screen. Cinematographer David Worth, who worked with Clint Eastwood on Bronco Billy, recounts the blissful early days of his relationship with Sondra Locke and then saw it unravel. And we hear about his musicality from friend and musician Joe Gransden, sharing a bond over a love of jazz. A very public gesture was made in 2019, when Clint appeared on the red carpet for the first time with all eight of his children. In his 90s, he has found peace in his private life and continues to work, producing a new film every year and cementing a cinematic legacy of extraordinary breadth and charisma.
