Vintage photos of a young Clint Eastwood in the 1960s and 1970s

Clint Eastwood, in full Clinton Eastwood, Jr., (born May 31, 1930, San Francisco, California, U.S.), American motion-picture actor who rose to prominence as one of the most popular Hollywood stars of the 1960s. Emerge and move forward. Prolific and respected director-producer. His roles and charisma made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity

During the Great Depression, Eastwood moved several times with his family before finally settling in Piedmont, California in 1940.

He was recruited during the Korean War and stationed in California. After being discharged from the army in 1953, Eastwood moved to Hollywood.

After a screen test with Universal in 1954 he received a 40-week contract, but, after a renewal and a series of parts in films such as Tarantula (1955) and Revenge of the Creature (1955), his option was removed. .

He appeared in several TV series before getting his big break in 1959 starring as Rowdy Yates in the popular TV western Rawhide (1959–65).

Eastwood achieved international stardom during the same period when he played The Man with No Name, a laconic, fearless gunslinger whose fanaticism hides his brutality.

These three Italian Westerns (popularly known as "Spaghetti Westerns") directed by Sergio Leone are: Per un pugno di Dollari (1964; A Fistful of Dollars), Per qualche Dollari in piu (1965; For a Few Dollars More), and Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (1966; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).

The three films were released in the United States in 1967 and were immediate commercial successes, establishing Eastwood as a box-office star.

For Eastwood's first American Western, Hang 'Em High (1968) – an expert imitation of Ted Post's Leone formula, enlivened by a superior group of character actors – he formed his own production company, Malpaso.

He also worked with Don Siegel on the popular police story Coogan's Bluff (1968); It was Seagal who taught him everything he needed to know about directing, which Eastwood often acknowledged.

He also worked with Siegel in the western Two Mules for Sister Sarah (1970), the psychological Civil War drama The Beguiled (1971), and the prison-break film Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

Their most famous collaboration was Dirty Harry (1971), in which Eastwood first played the brutally effective police Inspector Harry Callahan.

The film proved to be one of Eastwood's most successful films, spawning four sequels and establishing the no-nonsense character Dirty Harry as a cinema icon – known for saying phrases like "Go ahead, make my day". .