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Clint Eastwood has a milestone birthday today; ninety-five years old! Jeez! I really can't believe it! But give me another ten years and I'll be there as well!
The American actor and film director lives vividly in my memory as Rowdy Yates in the Western television series, Rawhide, which premiered on January 9, 1959.
Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide
Of course, to say nothing of his role as the "Man with No Name" in the Sergio Leone Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s, which include A Fistful of Dollars (1964), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Hang 'Em High (1968).
"I wanted to play it with an economy of words and create this whole feeling through attitude and movement. It was just the kind of character I had envisioned for a long time, keep to the mystery and allude to what happened in the past. It came about after the frustration of doing Rawhide for so long. I felt the less he said, the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience."
— Eastwood, on playing the Man with No Name character
Eastwood branched out to co-star in a musical, Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood and Lee Marvin play gold miners who buy a Mormon settler's less favored wife (Jean Seberg)
at an auction. The film was not a critical or commercial success, but was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Paint Your Wagon movie poster
Play Misty for Me, was the film that gave Eastwood the artistic control he desired, and his debut as a director in 1971. The script was about a jazz disc jockey named Dave (Eastwood), who has a casual affair with Evelyn (Jessica Walter), a listener who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night, asking him to play her favorite song – Misty by Erroll Garner. When Dave ends their relationship, the unhinged Evelyn becomes a murderous stalker. Filming commenced in Monterey in September 1970 and included footage of that year's Monterey Jazz Festival.
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Parade Magazine ~ '60s Film Legend Celebrates Milestone Birthday
People Magazine ~ Clint Eastwood at 95
YouTube links:
For A Few Dollars More (complete film)
A Fistful of Dollars (complete film)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (complete film)
Hang 'Em High (complete film)
Erroll Garner ~ Misty
Erroll Garner ~ Misty (live)
Play Misty for Me ~
photo by Michael Kovac
“There’s no reason why a man can’t get better with age”
