John Wayne became a screen legend as the man of action; Jimmy Stewart became one as the man of conscience too paralyzed to act; Clint Eastwood did it as the man of action pricked by conscience. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) made him an international star. Thematically, the good, the bad and the difference made him a movie icon.
Having spent 60 years as an actor and 40 as a director, on Memorial Day Mr. Eastwood celebrates his 80th birthday. Over a career where his co-stars have included Ginger Rogers, Tyne Daly, Meryl Streep and Hilary Swank (oh yeah, and Eli Wallach , Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, too!) the guy Life magazine called "Squint" Eastwood quietly disproved the conventional wisdom that there are no second acts in American lives.
By Flickgrrl's count, thus far professionally Mr. E -- Flickgrrl cannot call him Clint, although he has asked her to -- has enjoyed four unusually rich acts.
Act I: As the situational ethicist of spaghetti Westerns such as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) where The Man With No Name (whose name was actually Joe) blazed a radically middle path between two warring clans. FULL STORY
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