Personal life of Clint Eastwood

This article is part of a series on Clint Eastwood

The personal life of Clint Eastwood:

Relationships

Eastwood has been described as a "serial womanizer".[1][2] According to biographers Patrick McGilligan and Marc Eliot, Eastwood had affairs with, among other notable women, actresses including Catherine Deneuve,[3][4] Jill Banner,[5] Inger Stevens,[6] Jamie Rose,[7] Jean Seberg,[8] and Jo Ann Harris,[9] as well as competitive swimmer Anita Lhoest[3] and story analyst Megan Rose.[10][11]

Eastwood, aged 23, married Maggie Johnson on December 19, 1953, six months after they met on a blind date.[12] However, the marriage would not prove smooth, with Eastwood commenting that he had married too early.[13] A decade later, during a trial separation from Johnson, an affair Eastwood had with dancer Roxanne Tunis produced his first child, Kimber Eastwood (born Kimber Tunis; June 17, 1964),[14][15] whose existence was kept secret from the public until July 1989, when the National Enquirer revealed her identity.[16] After a reconciliation, he and Johnson had two children together: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972); he was absent from both births.[17] Johnson filed for legal separation in 1978 after another long period of estrangement, but did not officially divorce Eastwood until May 1984,[18][19] receiving a reported cash settlement of $25 million.[20]

Eastwood's relationship with actress Sondra Locke began in the fall of 1975 while filming The Outlaw Josey Wales. They lived together for nearly fourteen years, although Locke remained legally married to her openly gay husband, Gordon Anderson.[21][22] Eastwood befriended Locke's husband and purchased a house on Crescent Heights Boulevard in West Hollywood for Anderson and his male companion.[15] In the late 1970s, Locke underwent two abortions and a tubal ligation,[23] later stating it was a "mutual decision" to have the procedures.[24] Eastwood and Locke went on to star in five more films together: The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. On April 10, 1989, while Locke was away directing the film Impulse, Eastwood had the locks changed on their Bel-Air home and ordered her possessions to be boxed and put in storage.[25] Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood, and later sued him a second time for fraud, alleging that a directing pact he set up for her at Warner Bros. in exchange for dropping the first lawsuit was a sham.[26][27] In September 1996, minutes before a jury was to render a verdict in Locke's favor, Eastwood agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount.[28] In her autobiography, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly,[29] Locke described Eastwood as "a monster who thought nothing of destroying anything inconvenient to him."[30]

Although Eastwood and Locke had thus settled their dispute, the superior court at the outset of the trial had sua sponte issued an order barring public access to all proceedings that did not take place in the presence of the jury.[31] Three news media organizations objected to that order as an infringement of their rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and took the issue up on appeal to the Supreme Court of California, which led to a published opinion in their favor in 1999.[31] The state supreme court acknowledged in a footnote that the underlying case had settled but maintained that it still had jurisdiction because the First Amendment issue "presents an important question affecting the public interest."[31]

During the last three years of his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood secretly fathered two children with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves:[2] a son Scott Eastwood (born Scott Clinton Reeves; March 21, 1986)[32] and daughter Kathryn Eastwood (born Kathryn Reeves; February 2, 1988).[19] According to biographer McGilligan, "[H]e and Reeves had got together at the premiere of Pale Rider, they had slept together on impulse, she had got pregnant, and since she made no great demands on Clint, he later repeated the experience."[33] The birth certificates for both children stated "Father declined."[34] The affair was first reported in the Star tabloid in 1990,[35] [36] but went unmentioned by mainstream news sources for more than a decade,[37] until Eastwood presented their children to the public in 2002. Kathryn served as Miss Golden Globe at the 2005 ceremony where she presented Eastwood with an award for Million Dollar Baby.[38]

In 1990, Eastwood moved in with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac in late 1988.[39] They co-starred in Unforgiven, and had a daughter, Francesca Eastwood (born Francesca Fisher-Eastwood; August 7, 1993).[40] Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in early 1995,[41] but remain friends and later worked together in True Crime.

Eastwood with wife Dina in 2007

Eastwood subsequently started dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993.[40] They married on March 31, 1996, when Eastwood surprised her with a private ceremony at a home on the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas.[42] The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (born December 12, 1996).[43]

In August 2013, Dina Eastwood announced that she and her husband had been living separately for an undisclosed length of time.[44] On October 23, 2013, Eastwood's wife filed for divorce after she withdrew her request of a separation citing irreconcilable differences. She asked for full physical custody of their 16-year-old daughter, Morgan, as well as spousal support.[45] By this time, Eastwood, 83, was having a relationship with Erica Tomlinson-Fisher, 41.[46]

Music

Eastwood, an audiophile, has had a strong passion for music all his life, particularly jazz and country and western music.[47] He dabbled in music early on, and in late 1959 he produced the album Cowboy Favorites, which was released on the Cameo label.[47] The album included some classics such as Bob Wills's San Antonio Rose and Cole Porter's Don't Fence Me In. Despite his attempts to plug the album by going on a tour, it never reached the Billboard Hot 100.[47] In 1963, Cameo producer Kal Mann told him that "he would never make it big as a singer".[48] Nevertheless, during the off season of filming Rawhide, Eastwood and Brinegar—sometimes joined by Sheb Wooley—toured rodeos, state fairs, and festivals. In 1962, their act, entitled Amusement Business Cavalcade of Fairs, earned them as much as $15,000 a performance.[48] Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers. This deal was unchanged when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to private investors. Malpaso has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. It also released the album of a 1996 jazz concert he hosted, titled Eastwood after Hours—Live at Carnegie Hall. Eastwood owns an extensive collection of LPs, which he plays on a Rockport turntable. Eastwood co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, which was recorded by Diana Krall.[49] His interest in music was passed on to his son Kyle, now a jazz musician.

Leisure

The Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel, once owned by Eastwood

Eastwood, a lifelong non-smoker, has been conscious of his health and fitness since he was a teenager, and practices healthful eating habits. As a young man making a name for himself during the production of Rawhide, Eastwood would be featured in magazines and journals, which often documented his health-conscious lifestyle. In the August 1959 edition of TV Guide, for example, Eastwood was photographed doing push-ups. He gave tips on fitness and nutrition, telling people to eat plenty of fruit and raw vegetables, to take vitamins, and to avoid sugar-loaded beverages, excessive alcohol, and overloading on carbohydrates.[50]

On July 21, 1970, Eastwood's father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 64.[51] The death, described by Fritz Manes as "the only bad thing that ever happened to him in his life", came as a shock to Eastwood, as his grandfather had lived to be 92. It had a profound impact on Eastwood's life; from then on he became more productive, working with a greater sense of urgency and with more speed and efficiency on set.[52] Although Eastwood had always been a health and fitness enthusiast, he became more so after his father's death. He abstained from hard liquor, adopted a more rigorous health regime, and sought to stay fit.[52] However, he still favored cold beer and opened a pub called the Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1971.[53] Eastwood eventually sold the pub and now owns the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, also located in Carmel-by-the-Sea.[54]

In 1975, Eastwood publicly proclaimed his participation in Transcendental Meditation when he appeared on The Merv Griffin Show with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation.[55] He has meditated every morning for years.[56] Eastwood is an experienced pilot, and sometimes flies his own helicopter to the studio to avoid traffic.[57][58]

Eastwood owns the Tehàma Golf Club, located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and is an investor in the Pebble Beach Golf Links.[59] He plays golf, including at tournaments sponsoring charitable causes.[60]

References

  1. Day, Elizabeth (November 2, 2008). "Gentle Man Clint". The Guardian (London). Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Amara, Pavan; Sundberg, Charlotte (May 30, 2010). "Eastwood at 80". independent.co.uk (The Independent). Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  3. 3.0 3.1 McGilligan, p. 121
  4. Eliot, p.80
  5. McGilligan, p. 118
  6. McGilligan, p. 225
  7. McGilligan, p. 364
  8. McGilligan, p. 175
  9. McGilligan, p. 188
  10. Eliot, p. 211
  11. McGilligan, p. 396
  12. Munn, p. 19
  13. Schickel, p. 64
  14. McGilligan, p. 139
  15. 15.0 15.1 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Young, Josh (May 4, 1997). The Independent.
  16. McGilligan, p. 455
  17. McGilligan, p. 484
  18. Eliot, p. 176
  19. 19.0 19.1 Eliot, p. 6
  20. McGilligan, p. 348
  21. "Locke Married?". The Palm Beach Post. May 9, 1989. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  22. Staff (undated). "Locke Biography". annoline.com. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  23. "Sondra Locke Suing Clint Eastwood". Lewiston Journal. Associated Press. April 28, 1989. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  24. Eliot, p. 193
  25. McGilligan, p. 441
  26. O'Neill, Ann W. (September 18, 1996). "Sondra Locke Suing Clint Eastwood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  27. O'Neill, Ann W. (September 29, 1996). "Locke Feels Vindicated After Lawsuit". Los Angeles Times retrieved September 11, 2013.
  28. "Eastwood Settles with Sondra Locke". Philadelphia Inquirer. September 25, 1996. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  29. "Book Review: Book Review: 'The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly', by Sondra Locke". Entertainment Weekly.
  30. Locke, Sondra (1997). The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: a Hollywood Journey. Morrow. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-688-15462-2.
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.4th 1178, 86 Cal. Rptr. 2d 778, 980 P.2d 337 (1999).
  32. Eliot, p. 226
  33. McGilligan, p. 500
  34. Eliot, p. 252
  35. Viens, Stephen (February 27, 1990). "Clint Eastwood's Secret 4-Year Love Comes Out of Hiding". Star (magazine).
  36. McGilligan, p. 370
  37. The Reeves children are not included in the count, for instance, at Helligar, Jeremy (January 13, 1997). "Passages". People. Retrieved 2014-03-25. News anchor Dina Ruiz, 31, more than made husband Clint Eastwood's day when she gave birth to the couple's first child, an 8-lb. 4-oz. girl named Morgan, on Dec. 12 in Los Angeles. This is the 66-year-old actor-director's fifth child....
  38. "HFPA – Miss/Mr. Golden Globe". Goldenglobes.org. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
  39. McGilligan, p. 434
  40. 40.0 40.1 Eliot, p. 289
  41. McGilligan, p. 501
  42. "Clint's wife expecting". Toronto Star. Reuters. September 6, 1996. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  43. McGilligan, p. 328
  44. Takeda, Allison (August 29, 2013). "Clint Eastwood, Wife Dina Eastwood Separate After Nearly 17 Years of Marriage". Us Weekly. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  45. "Clint Eastwood: Wife of actor-director files for divorce". Washington Times. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  46. Jones, Oliver (September 9, 2013). "Clint Eastwood & Dina Eastwood's Marriage Drama". People. Retrieved 2013-11-10.
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 McGilligan, p.114
  48. 48.0 48.1 McGilligan, p.115
  49. "Krall, Eastwood Team For 'crime'". Billboard (AllBusiness.com). March 11, 1999. Archived from the original on December 11, 2010.
  50. McGilligan, p.108
  51. McGilligan, p.192
  52. 52.0 52.1 McGilligan, p.193
  53. McGilligan, p.204
  54. "Welcome to Mission Ranch". Missionranchcarmel.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  55. Oates (1976), p.17
  56. Corliss, Richard (August 10, 1992). "The Last Roundup". Time.
  57. Schickel, p.25
  58. Eliot, p.131
  59. Weiss, Kenneth R. (June 14, 2007). "California rejects Clint Eastwood's Monterey golf course". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  60. "Clint Eastwood "Makes Their Day"". The Stroke Association. March 18, 2002. Retrieved April 29, 2010.