Entertainment Movies Historical Movies Clint Eastwood's Life in Photos The esteemed actor and director's career has spanned more than 60 years By Kate Hogan Kate Hogan Kate Hogan is Director of Digital Specials and Features at PEOPLE, as well as the editor of Stories to Make You Smile. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2008. People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 31, 2022 10:00AM EDT 01 of 25 John Kobal Foundation/Getty Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, moving around the state with his parents and younger sister, Jeanne, before settling in Piedmont. 02 of 25 US Army Ahead of college — and his acting career — Eastwood was drafted into the Army, though didn't face combat, and instead worked as a swimming instructor at California's Ft. Ord, according to military.com. 03 of 25 Archive Photos/Getty In 1953 he married model Maggie Johnson; together, they had children Kylie and Alison. They divorced in 1984, though remain friendly: in 2018, Johnson was at Eastwood's side for the premiere of The Mule. 04 of 25 Silver Screen Collection/Getty Eastwood eventually enrolled at Los Angeles City College, but after three semesters, landed a $75-a-week contract with Universal. But he really hit it big in 1959 when he was cast as Rowdy Yates on the hit CBS series Rawhide. 05 of 25 Silver Screen Collection/Getty As the series was coming to an end, Italian director Sergio Leone offered him his first Western role (shot, ironically, in Spain): as Joe in A Fistful of Dollars. It was a hit, and was followed by sequels including For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 06 of 25 Universal Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Throughout his career, Eastwood shared the screen with other icons of his time, including Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sara. 07 of 25 Warner Brothers/Getty After making his directorial debut with the thriller Play Misty for Me, Eastwood went on to direct portions of another 1971 action film, Dirty Harry, in which he also starred. USA Today called it the "most iconic role" of his career. 08 of 25 Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty By 1975, Eastwood — here in 1979's Escape from Alcatraz — was pulling in $1 million per film and had launched his own production company, Malpaso, according to a PEOPLE profile. 09 of 25 Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Film critic Roger Ebert said Eastwood "dominates so completely" in 1985's Pale Rider, another film he produced, directed and starred in. He also received his first Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or award nomination for the movie. 10 of 25 Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty The actor couldn't have smiled more at his 1984 hand and footprint ceremony outside Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. 11 of 25 Bettmann In 1986, Eastwood was elected mayor of his beloved Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, though did not seek re-election after his two-year term. 12 of 25 Reed Saxon/AP Before winning three best director awards at the Golden Globes, Eastwood was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1988. He also has an honorary Oscar and in 2003, received the Screen Actors Guild Awards' Life Achievement Award. 13 of 25 Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Eastwood's 1992 Western, Unforgiven, earned him his first Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor nominations — and won him the first two. Still a beloved film today, 25 years after its release, The Ringer declared "the genre hasn't seen a better movie." 14 of 25 Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty The famously gruff star took a turn for the sentimental alongside Meryl Streep in 1995's The Bridges of Madison County, which made more than $182 million at the international box office. 15 of 25 J. Vespa/WireImage In 1996, Eastwood married Dina Ruiz, with whom he has daughter Morgan. Dina and Morgan, plus Eastwood's daughter Francesca (from his previous relationship with Frances Fisher), were the stars of the 2012 E! reality series Mrs. Eastwood & Company, which chronicled their lives and Dina's career. Eastwood and Ruiz divorced in 2014. 16 of 25 Chris Weeks/WireImage Ruiz, Fisher and several of Eastwood's children joined him in 2002 for the premiere of Blood Work. 17 of 25 BENAINOUS/CATARINA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty In 2003, Eastwood's Mystic River — costarring Laura Linney, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, among others — racked up numerous honors, including Best Picture and Best Director nods for the star. 18 of 25 Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic The 2004 hit Million Dollar Baby, which starred Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, was a one-in-a-million success for Eastwood, who won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture that year and also earned a Best Actor nomination. 19 of 25 Merie W. Wallace/Warner Bros. The moving 2007 war film Letters from Iwo Jima (starring Ken Watanabe, right) earned Eastwood his fourth, and most recent, Best Director Oscar nomination and fifth Golden Globe nomination in the same category. 20 of 25 REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE/AFP via Getty French President Jacques Chirac awarded Eastwood with the medal of the Legion of Honour in February of 2007. Three years later, President Barack Obama honored the star with the Arts and Humanities award, though Eastwood was unable to attend the ceremony. 21 of 25 Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Eastwood starred in and directed 2008's Gran Torino, in which he coined the iconic phrase, "Get off my lawn." 22 of 25 Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic Since 2014, Eastwood has been dating Christina Sandera. 23 of 25 Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic Eastwood has directed Bradley Cooper in two films: 2018's The Mule and 2014's American Sniper, for which they both earned Oscar nominations. "I love Clint Eastwood and I look up to him so much," Cooper told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. "And I always had in my mind, 'Well, he was 41 when he made Play Misty For Me.' So I always thought when I get around that age then I gotta just [direct]." 24 of 25 Emma McIntyre/Getty The actor was joined by daughter Francesca and son Scott, from his previous relationship with Jacelyn Reeves, at the 2016 premiere of Sully. 25 of 25 Vivien Killilea/Getty In 2016, Eastwood directed Tom Hanks in the biopic Sully, about "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot Chesley Sullenberger. "When [Clint]'s in charge he says in a really quiet soft voice, 'all right, go ahead.' And instead of shouting 'cut,' he says 'that's enough of that,' " Hanks said of Eastwood's beind-the-camera style in a 2016 interview with Graham Norton. "It's intimidating as hell." Though Eastwood kept a low profile through the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to work again with 2021's Cry Macho and appeared at the February 2022 AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Close