Few Hollywood figures carry the weight of Clint Eastwood. He was a matinee idol in his youth, a star of Italian westerns, and an Oscar-winning director. Yet despite being one of the most prolific men in Hollywood, his life behind the scenes was far more dramatic. Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke endured what has been described as one of the worst breakups in Hollywood history.
When Locke discovered a dirty little secret Eastwood was hiding, she sued him. She received a settlement, but Eastwood was still hiding an even crueler betrayal. Born in San Francisco in 1931, Eastwood’s childhood stories often revolve around the hardships of the Great Depression. His former partner, however, told a different story.
Sondra Locke, Eastwood’s longtime companion, scoffed when she heard Clint’s tales of suffering during the Depression. According to Locke, some of Eastwood’s childhood experiences included living on the wealthy side of town, having a swimming pool, and belonging to a country club. Even though he remains a major public figure today, much of Clint Eastwood’s story remains a mystery. Because of his famous reserve, Eastwood prefers to keep his turbulent personal life private.
This may be why it is still not known for certain whether he graduated from high school. All his friends from that time say he was too busy enjoying himself to finish his studies. For people with Clint Eastwood’s looks, things often go their way. When Universal Pictures came to Fort Ord to shoot one day, a photographer spotted Eastwood wandering around.
He thought this man should be in front of the camera. So, he introduced Eastwood to director Arthur Lubin. Lubin saw no reason to refuse. Most actors have to fight fiercely to get a foothold, but Eastwood was minding his own business when a major director came to him and arranged an audition.
Arthur Lubin thought he saw star quality in young Clint Eastwood, but that illusion dissipated once he saw him act. Eastwood’s first audition was less than ideal. The best Lubin could offer was advice to try some acting lessons. Nevertheless, despite Eastwood’s lack of talent, Lubin got him a contract with Universal paying one hundred dollars a week.
One day, Clint Eastwood was just an ordinary hard-working employee. The next, a Hollywood director plucked him from obscurity and gave him a contract. Perhaps he truly had something special. Eastwood’s first real screen test was for a film called Six Bridges to Cross.
The director thought he was a failed actor and rejected him for all roles. After that, Eastwood tried for roles in Brigadoon, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, The Seven Year Itch, and a range of other films. Eastwood’s first major role with Universal Pictures was playing a scarecrow in an annual musical the studio put on for employees’ children. If Clint learned one lesson in life, it was this: keep your eyes on the shore and just keep swimming.
That is what he did, and it began to pay off. To his credit, Eastwood realized he was not good at acting and worked hard to improve. He still felt self-conscious in front of the camera, but as he received more acting lessons, his performance slowly got better. His first breakthrough came when he realized he could portray anger better than most.
In an improvisational scene with a young acting student, Clint’s anger was so convincing it made her cry. Sometimes it only takes one role to change an actor’s life forever. For Clint Eastwood, that role was Rowdy Yates in the television western Rawhide. Those simple cowboys were not exactly Dirty Harry, but the role brought Eastwood into millions of homes, not to mention the substantial paycheck that came with it.
Eastwood was living every young actor’s dream, but he soon realized fame had a dark side. At this stage of his career, Eastwood gained a reputation for being lazy on set. He rarely showed up on time, and the crew soon learned they had to schedule his scenes later in the day, or they would be waiting around doing nothing until he arrived. Clint Eastwood cheated on his first wife throughout their marriage, and eventually stopped trying to hide it.
Everyone on set saw him taking women to his trailer, then coming out lazy, tired, and unwilling to work. It did not take a genius to connect the dots. Many of these women were fleeting affairs, but one relationship was more intense than the rest. Roxanne Tunis was a stunt actress who worked on Rawhide.
Perhaps she had something special, because their relationship quickly turned into a long love story that lasted years. Their illicit relationship became an open secret on set, making it very difficult to hide the coming scandal. In 1964, Roxanne Tunis gave birth to a daughter named Kimber. Meanwhile, Eastwood was growing increasingly unhappy in Rawhide.
His colleagues were receiving film offers, and then he heard about a strange western being filmed in the Spanish countryside. An unknown Italian director named Sergio Leone was at the helm, and he had offered the lead role to Eric Fleming, Eastwood’s co-star. Fleming laughed at the offer. Clint Eastwood received $15,000 for 11 weeks of work on the film.
Leone eventually titled it A Fistful of Dollars. Eastwood also got a Mercedes-Benz as a bonus. Most actors would have been embarrassed by the film, but Eastwood managed to play the rebellious hero he had always wanted to portray. He enjoyed making the films, though it is doubtful he ever imagined what the role would become.
Although it took a few years for the films to become popular in America, the three westerns Eastwood made with Leone became among the most famous in history. By the end of the 1960s, Eastwood finally had a role that overshadowed his Rowdy Yates character. The Dirty Harry films followed quickly, and Clint Eastwood was no longer just a handsome cowboy from Rawhide. He had become Clint Eastwood.
Maggie Johnson endured a lot during her marriage to Clint Eastwood, but he seemed to change after making the westerns. The couple separated for a time, but now they wanted to give their marriage another chance. They even decided to start a family. Their first child, Kyle Eastwood, was born in 1968, a full 15 years after their wedding.
Their daughter Alison followed in 1972. Even in 1971, with one child and another on the way, Eastwood gave an interview in which he claimed his marriage was somewhat open. One might assume he meant, “I’m still married, but that doesn’t stop me from sleeping with whoever I want. ” Maggie continued to tolerate his womanizing, perhaps because she assumed her husband’s mistresses were no more than harmless entertainment.
But he soon began a relationship that was different from any before. Around the time Alison was born, Eastwood met the woman who would change his life forever: a young actress named Sondra Locke. It is difficult to date the start of their relationship precisely, but by 1975, the two were living together. Eastwood told Locke his relationship with his wife was completely over, and she believed him.
The early days of Eastwood and Locke’s relationship were full of passion. Locke recalled those years in her memoir. Clint seemed amazed by his need for her, even admitting he had never been faithful to one woman before because he had never been in love. First, Locke moved into the Sherman Oaks house Eastwood had bought with his wife.
They were still a couple, in case you forgot. Maggie had long since moved to their property in Pebble Beach, but Locke could never feel comfortable in that house. From her point of view, the house would always belong to Maggie. They moved, but the ghost of Eastwood’s wife still haunted them.
Maggie Johnson quickly realized Sondra Locke was different from her husband’s other mistresses, and she did not hide her dislike for her. Johnson set strict rules about how often Locke could see their children and completely banned her from setting foot on the Pebble Beach property. In 1978, Maggie Johnson filed for legal separation after 25 years of marriage. With all of Eastwood’s many affairs, she could always tell herself she was still the first woman in his life.
With Locke, it was clear that was no longer the case. The divorce took years to become official, and Johnson received a settlement reportedly between 25 and 30 million dollars. Sondra Locke had a husband the entire time she lived with Eastwood, but their marriage was not traditional. Her husband, Gordon Anderson, was a gay man who had been her closest friend since childhood.
The two were very close, but they knew it would raise eyebrows if they started living together. So, they did the simple thing: they married and pretended to be like any other husband and wife. Eastwood knew about their arrangement and even bought a house in West Hollywood for Anderson to live in. He and Locke claimed they did not need a piece of paper to prove their commitment to each other.
Looking back, that may have been the first warning sign. Even Eastwood’s friends noticed he was infatuated with Locke. His old friend Fritz Manes claimed he was completely faithful to her at least from 1976 to 1980. But complete faithfulness meant something different to Clint Eastwood than it does to the rest of us.
Locke was still his heart and soul, but he maintained several side relationships during that time. Fritz Manes stood by Eastwood throughout his career and produced many of his friend’s films. Then one day, Eastwood threw decades of friendship out the window in the worst possible way. While working with him on Heartbreak Ridge, Manes received a phone call from Eastwood’s secretary.
Eastwood did not even have the courage to fire his friend face to face. The first crack in Eastwood and Locke’s relationship appeared after Maggie Johnson filed for divorce. Eastwood wanted to marry, but Locke did not want to divorce Anderson. Locke was in love, but she was not stupid.
Clint Eastwood was a hard man to commit to. She did not want to rush into a marriage that would end in disaster. She endured his mistreatment for years, but in 1989, she finally had enough. She ended their relationship, and since they had never married, that should have been the end of it.
But things quickly became much more complicated. Sondra Locke was balancing her troubled relationship with her own career. In addition to her successful acting career, she was also one of the few female directors in Hollywood. After her split from Eastwood, she went to shoot her second film, Impulse.
However, she returned home after a day of shooting to find that Eastwood had changed the locks on the house and moved all her belongings to a storage unit. Locke abandoned her friendly approach and decided to attack fiercely. She filed a lawsuit against Eastwood claiming palimony. She wanted revenge against Eastwood, but she likely did not realize what it would take.
She faced the indignity of Eastwood describing her as nothing more than a temporary housemate, and therefore unqualified for support. The case lasted more than a year, during which time Sondra Locke received devastating news. She had breast cancer. She underwent treatment quickly, which simply drained her will to fight.
She agreed to a settlement that included a lump sum, monthly payments, and a directing contract at Warner Bros. Locke had been through real hell, but at least she got something. Or so she thought. The deal turned out to be a sham, and many speculated it was offered as a formality and that Eastwood caused it to fall apart behind the scenes.
Eastwood met Frances Fisher, the next woman in his life, in 1988. Yes, before his split from Locke. They first met on the set of Eastwood’s comedy Pink Cadillac. They began a simple, non-exclusive relationship before making it official in 1990, almost exactly when Eastwood settled with Locke.
Fisher later said, “I simply felt it was the end, the great love. ” She did not know that every woman he met probably felt the same way. She soon discovered, like the others, that Clint Eastwood was not quite the charming prince. Eastwood and Fisher had one child together, Francesca.
Her birth was the first time Eastwood attended the birth of one of his children. It is truly a miracle that Eastwood and Fisher lasted together for five years. Frances Fisher had not even left Eastwood’s house before he had already started dating Dina Ruiz, a news anchor 35 years his junior. In classic Clint fashion, he began taking Ruiz to public events even before announcing his split from Fisher, the mother of his youngest child.
Eastwood and Ruiz married in 1996. They stayed together for nearly 20 years. And of course, the marriage did not last. So, how in the world did this man manage all of that while directing dozens of successful films, winning four Academy Awards, receiving 11 nominations, and being elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea?
Well, that is a secret that has not yet come to light.