“We always did fast draws together”: how Clint Eastwood found a friend in Elvis Presley
It’s never difficult for two icons to find each other, drawn by some invisible magnetic force that non-famous people simply cannot see. And in the case of musical legend Elvis Presley and acting titan Clint Eastwood, the pair found each other on one unlikely project and struck up a quick friendship.
Despite finding fame in two different fields, Presley began his acting career in 1956 with the Robert Webb film Love Me Tender, based on his song of the same name. Presley had expressed interest in trying acting before finding success as a singer and quickly merged both career paths, acting in over thirty feature films. During his stint in Hollywood, the pair crossed paths while Eastwood was filming Rawhide and Presley was working his way through a streak of 1960s rom-coms.
Rawhide was famously the project that launched Eastwood’s career, with the actor going on to play the iconic role of The Man with No Name in the infamous Dollars Trilogy created by the father of the spaghetti western, Sergio Leone. Eastwood became synonymous with the golden era of heightened masculinity, with the actor also playing Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry series, known for his rough around the edges characters and eternal sense of bravado.
While Eastwood and Presley were at the height of their acting career, the two became friends, with Eastwood saying, “I was always wearing a gun. Presley loved to do fast draws and stuff, so we always did fast draws together. I liked him. He seemed like a good guy. Had a lot of guys hanging around, big entourage. I get a kick out of my wife, who is quite a few years younger. She’ll say, ‘Did you know Elvis Presley?’ I’ll say, ‘Sure’. ‘James Dean?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Bobby Darin?’ ‘Yeah’ She’ll look at some old picture of me and say, ‘What a babe!’ We were all hanging around at the same time, in the 1950s. We were all here in town, and all struggling in various things. I was doing Rawhide. There was a camaraderie among the younger group.”
Hollywood is famously a rather exclusive club, so it isn’t surprising that the pair shared social circles and could bond over their craft.
The image of Presley and Eastwood practising their draws together is quite something, and perhaps if this had been more well-known, they might’ve been cast in a project together. However, Presley later starred in two westerns, Flaming Star and Charro!, which was perhaps due to Eastwood’s influence and legacy within that genre.
Eastwood has recently made what is speculated to be his final directorial project, Juror #2. The legal thriller stars Nicholas Hoult as a juror on a high-profile murder case who grapples with an internal dilemma. The film is very much inspired by The Verdict and 12 Angry Young Men, revitalising a genre of film that hasn’t made its way onto modern screens in a while, which is only a testament to the power of Eastwood.
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