Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco with an English, Scottish and Dutch ancestry. He began his career with some B-grade films such as Francis in the Navy, and Revenge of the Creature. The world knows him as an icon, and a living legend who started his career as an actor but later on reached great heights of popularity and sweet success. He appeared for the first time as a star in a feature film called Ambush at Cimmaron Park.



In 1959, he became a household name with the television series Rawhide. With the release of the film The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, where Eastwood played the role of a hunter, he actually came up with a new image. By this time, people had already started recognizing him as an international star though still with the same tough look.

In the year, 1971, Siegel came up with his production Company, Malpaso. This incident became a turning point in the life of Eastwood. The first ever movie where the audience saw their superstar in the most promising role was Dirty Harry, which also became a huge box office hit and was also critically acclaimed. The thriller Play Misty for Me, which was released in 1971, also gave him a chance to show off his talents and mesmerize the audience with his directorial abilities while starring in the same film too. High Plains Drifter and Outlaw Josey Wales are the two allegorical Westerns by Eastwood. His collaboration with Siegel ended with the movie Escape from Alcatraz.

The decade of the 1980s did not witness much of Clint Eastwood though Pale Rider in 1985 paid homage to the Western Film Classic and became a part of the Cannes Film Festival.

After 1990, people once again witnessed the most promising and critically acclaimed box office hit, Unforgiven. The movie had other stalwarts like Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris. It was a landmark in Clint Eastwood's career, which bagged him the Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture. The film was nominated for 9 Oscars.

In 2000, Clint Eastwood worked in films like Blood Work and directed some all-time hits like Mystic River, Flags of Our Father and Letter from Iwo and Jima.

His originality and uniqueness can also be garnered from the fact that he is the only one who has been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Director for the same film (Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby). Clint Eastwood won the Golden Globe award for Best Director Motion Picture in 1989 for Bird and Academy award for Unforgiven (Best Director) in 1992. In the history of Hollywood along with Francis Ford Coppola and Milos Forman, Eastwood also directed two Best Picture winners.

In 2007, Eastwood became the first recipient of the Jack Humanitarian award. Apart from the Academy and Golden Globe awards, he has also achieved Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement award in 2003 as well as the Hank award by the Henri Mancini Institute. With a career spanning four decades, he has touched all the forms of filmmaking. Clint Eastwood is the ultimate Cowboy hero who actually reinvented the form in his own unique style. An amazing actor, he even tried his hands in direction with some remarkable movies like Play Misty for Me, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. Evolving from an actor to a producer in his most prolific and versatile way was Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood has starred in about 25 films, appeared in 57, directed 25 and produced 20. He is not only an icon and a living legend but also an institution by himself. It seems that there is no end to the creativity of this tight-lipped and low-key person. Currently he is busy directing The Changeling, a period thriller by Universal Pictures expected to release in 2008.