After a career spanning seven decades, it would seem that Clint Eastwood has retired from movies – both in front and behind the camera.
Legendary American actor / director Clint Eastwood turned 96 last weekend (31 May), and we may have confirmation that the Hollywood star has retired for good.
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In a newly unearthed interview with French outlet France 3, Eastwood’s son, musician and composer Kyle Eastwood, reveals that his father has officially and quietly retired.
“I have a lot of good memories of working with him. Now he’s retired, he’s 95 years old,” said Kyle Eastwood, prior to his father’s birthday. “But I’ve been very lucky to be able to work with him on a lot of films. It was a great experience for me."
Clint Eastwood started on the big screen in the mid 1950s and made a name for himself in the '60s in the Western genre, with a trio of films directed by Sergio Leone – A Fistful Of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) - also known as the “Dollars Trilogy”.
Over the course of a career spanning seven decades, Eastwood continued to impress in classics like Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988) - all in which he played renegade cop Harry Callahan.
Other memorable on screen performances include films like The Beguiled, Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, Escape From Alcatraz, Pale Rider, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino.
Clint Eastwood’s directorial work started in 1971 with Play Misty For Me. He continued to direct throughout his career, with titles like Bird, The Rookie, Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, the Flags Of Our Fathers / Letters From Iwo Jima diptych, Invictus, American Sniper, Sully and Richard Jewell.
This impressive filmography – more than 70 on-screen credits and 40 directed features - has earned Eastwood four Academy Awards (including Best Director for both Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby), four Golden Globes, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He also has been honoured many times, with an Honorary César in 1998, an Honorary Golden Lion in 2000, and an Honorary Palme d’Or in 2008.
It’s worth noting that Eastwood directed five actors to Oscar glory: Gene Hackman (Unforgiven), Sean Penn, Tim Robbins (both Mystic River), Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman (both Million Dollar Baby).
If Clint has indeed retired, 2024’s courtroom drama Juror #2 was his final directorial effort. On the acting side, his on-camera swansong is 2021’s Cry Macho – which he also directed.
