80/80- The comeback kid

By the middle of the 1980's Clint Eastwood's films had begun to wobble - The Dead Pool had finally turned fans off Dirty Harry, Pink Cadillac and The Rookie were simply dreadful. And to add insult Clint's brilliant, White Hunter, Black Heart had failed at the box-office. The Unforgiven would regenerate a career that many thought was over. Indeed in many ways his latter career has surpassed that of his early years.

The Oscar success came during a troubled period for Clint - younger stars were topping the box office and his image had been tarnished by his highly publicised split with Sondra Locke. But Clint, true artist that he is, threw himself into his work.

He followed Unforgiven with the equally successful In the Line of Fire and that was followed by the remarkable A Perfect World. It was clear that Clint had developed into a top knotch director and in recent years he hasn't put a foot wrong.