The movie that made Clint Eastwood want to be an actor
The enduring icon, Clint Eastwood, is one of the final remaining bridges to Hollywood’s golden era. He set out in the 1950s but attained a comfortable stride in the ’60s as an alternative to John Wayne as one of America’s quintessential gun-toting stars. From his tough-guy roots in the TV series Rawhide to his international acclaim in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, Eastwood crafted a legendary persona.
Throughout his illustrious six-decade career, Eastwood expanded his repertoire to include production and direction, garnering accolades including four Academy Awards and four Golden Globes for his work behind the camera. Even at the age of 92, the legend remains active in the industry, with his most recent directorial effort, Cry Macho, hitting screens in 2021.
Since his 1960s heyday as the squinting ranger with stubble fit for match-striking, Eastwood has taken on a vast range of successful projects both as an actor and filmmaker. His highlight moments include 1992’s Unforgiven, for which he won the ‘Best Director’ Oscar; 2003’s Mystic River, which won two of its six Oscar nominations; and 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, which won four Oscars, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
These heady days of glory didn’t come without a few ups and downs, however. In fact, following his disastrous early acting role in the 1958 western movie Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Eastwood considered throwing in the towel before he’d even started. “It was probably the worst film ever made,” Eastwood told The Hollywood Reporter, “but I had the second lead in it, and an actor named Scott Brady was the lead. And the film was made in eight days. So it was really el speedo grande.”
“And I saw [the movie]. I went to see it. It was playing a second feature in North Hollywood. I went to see it, and I saw that film, and I said I’m through. I’ve got to go back to school. I’ve got to do something else. I’ve got to get a job of other sorts.”
During this nadir, it would have helped Eastwood to remind himself of why he chose an acting career in the first place. In a past interview with Robert Ebert, Eastwood remembered how, from the age of five, he would accompany his father to the cinema to watch war movies. He recalled being particularly inspired by the Golden Age actor Gary Cooper and his 1941 World War I classic Sergeant York.
“I remember once while I was doing Rawhide long ago, I went next door and met Gary Cooper, and I thought, ‘God!’ I remember growing up and my dad taking me to Sergeant York and all those great pictures,” Eastwood said, discussing his early infatuation with cinema. “And then all of a sudden, one day you wake up, and younger actors are looking up to you, and all I can remember is being five years old and going to films.”
Following his mortifying Ambush at Cimarron premiere, Eastwood bounced back with a lucky break in Rawhide. “I accidentally [ran] into somebody out at CBS on Beverly Boulevard,” Eastwood recalled. This chance meeting led to Eastwood’s first well-written and widely acclaimed acting role. The rest is history.
Watch the official trailer for Howard Hawks’s wartime direction, Sergeant York, below. The biopic follows the life of Alvin C. York, one of the USA’s most decorated soldiers of World War I. Released in the early 1940s, films as such were instrumental in encouraging young men to join the fight against the Axis alliance in World War II.
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