American Rebel Page 34

  Clint getting a Seattle girl pregnant: “Clint handed the money over to the woman and left for L.A.” McGilligan, Life and Legend, 54. McGilligan cites as his source a story that appeared in the Valley Daily News in July 1993. Eastwood has never confirmed this story.

  Chapter Three

  “I had a premonition …”: Quoted in Dick Kleiner column, Margaret Herrick Library.

  Lubin taken to meet Clint: Clint Eastwood interview by Arthur Knight, Playboy, February 1974 (Clint would do a second interview for the magazine in March 1997, conducted by Bernard Weinraub); Crawdaddy, April 1978.

  “I thought I was …”: Knight interview, Playboy.

  Mamie Van Doren: “[Clint] was always straight and direct—he always knew the most straight and direct path to my dressing room,” said Van Doren, quoted in “Chatter,” People, May 26, 1986.

  “the first year of marriage …”: Quoted in Clinch, Eastwood, 29.

  “He is very much …”: Maggie Eastwood, quoted in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,” Screen Stars, July 1971.

  “They made a lot of cheapies …”: Quoted in Ann Guerin, Show, February 1970.

  “Don’t worry …”: Burt Reynolds, quoted in Eliot, Burt!, 42.

  “the lousiest western …” Quoted in Carrie Rickey, Fame, November 1988.

  Chapter Four

  “I was set to direct …”: Quoted in Bridget Byrne, “Eastwood’s Round ‘Em Up, Move ‘Em Out Film Making Style,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, June 24, 1973.

  “fairly open relationship …”: Interview by Arthur Knight, Playboy, February 1974.

  Leonard reportedly kept two sets of books: See McGilligan, Life and Legend, 105. McGilligan cites “unnamed sources.”

  PR tour of Japan: Clint told Japanese reporters, whenever asked, that Maggie did not want to come. But, in an interview with Photoplay magazine in 1961 entitled “Clint Eastwood: Hollywood Loner,” he is quoted as saying, “I just didn’t want her along. I felt like going myself.”

  Maggie never said anything and never complained: Tunis never publicly discussed her relationship with Clint, but Clint talked about the uniqueness of his marriage, both in Playboy in 1974 and in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,” Screen Stars, July 1971. About his quite-rare interview with the Eastwoods, Chadwick stated, “The only way Clint and Maggie Eastwood have managed to keep their marriage alive all these years is by having kept their distance from each other most of the time. They have stayed together by staying apart.” Maggie is quoted as saying, “Clint is definitely a loner … he holds so much back.” And Clint said this: “We’re not advocates of the total togetherness theory.”

  “I knew I wasn’t …”: Interview by Bernard Weinraub, Playboy, March 1997.

  “Sergio Leone had only …”: Ibid.

  Chapter Five

  “What struck me …”: Sergio Leone, quoted in Duncan, Icons, 26. Unattributed.

  British critic and film historian Christopher Frayling: See The BFI [British Film Institute] Companion to the Western (Deutsch, 1988). Frayling says Leone traced his plot back to Hammett. In Spaghetti Westerns (1988) Frayling quotes Leone saying, “Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was inspired by an American novel of the serie-noire [sic] so I was really taking the story back home again.”

  “We were shooting some vast cattle scenes …”: Quoted in Patrick McGilligan, Focus on Film 25 (Summer–Fall 1976).

  “Finally, I asked Eric Fleming …”: Interview by Bernard Weinraub, Playboy, March 1997.

  “An American would be afraid …”: Ibid. Clint’s reference to a “tie-up” refers to the Hays Code prohibition against showing explicit scenes of murder: “Murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that would discourage imitations in real life, and brutal killings could not be shown in detail. ‘Revenge in modern times’ was not to be justified.” A tie-up would be an explicit depiction of a murder. “Revenge in modern times” means that biblical depictions were acceptable.

  “Every time they wanted a format …”: Quoted in Dick Lochte, Los Angeles Free Press, April 20, 1973.

  “Why should I be pleased …”: Interview by Hal Humphrey, Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1965.

  Chapter Six

  “I came back …”: Quoted in Thompson, Billion Dollar Man, 67.

  “The stories … didn’t mean …”: Quoted in Tim Cahill, Rolling Stone, July 4, 1983.

  passionate affair with Catherine Deneuve: McGilligan, Life and Legend, 151.

  “If it goes on …”: Ibid., 152. McGilligan’s source is unclear.

  “This will be …”: Clint, quoted by Wallach in The Good, the Bad, and Me.

  critics wasted no time: Bosley Crowther had written about the trilogy before their American release, in a “think piece” for the New York Times in November 1966, where he was more positive about A Fistful of Dollars. His enthusiasm waned somewhat when the advance word among critics was negative. Crowther, fearful of going against the tide and of losing his own relevancy, toned down his opinion for his official daily review. Judith Crist actually said the film “lacked the pleasures of the perfectly awful movie.”

  “When [Leone] talked to me about doing …”: Quoted in Thompson, Billion Dollar Man.

  “‘The burn, the gouge, …’ ”: New York Times, January 25, 1968.

  “remains basically hostile …”: Andrew Sarris, “The Spaghetti Westerns,” Village Voice, September 19 and 26, 1968.

  “I own some property …”: Interview by Arthur Knight, Playboy, February 1974.

  Chapter Seven

  “I think I learned more about direction …”: Quoted in Duncan, Icons, 134.

  “She [Golonka] began to like him …”: Ted Post, quoted in McGilligan, Life and Legend, 162; no attribution is given.

  “I had signed with Universal …”: Introduction to Siegel, Siegel Film, ix.

  “one of the two or three …”: Ibid.

  “I learned a lot …”: Quoted in McGilligan, Focus on Film 25, summer-fall 1976.

  “I thought we did very well”: Siegel, Siegel Film, 304.

  “He and his buddies were like …”: Jill Banner, quoted in Earl Leaf, “The Way They Were,” Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, circa 1972.

  Burton’s smoking habits: Burton discussed his lifelong cigarette addiction and his drinking with Ambrose Heron on British TV in 1977. (Details not available.)

  “Clint and Richard …”: Ingrid Pitt, interview by Rusty White, Einsiders.com, June 1, 2002.

  “The script was given to me …”: Quoted in Kaminsky, Clint Eastwood, chap. 7.

  When Doubles Dare: This joke has many reported sources, including Bragg, Burton, 196.

  “We don’t believe …” and “By [the time …]”: Maggie Eastwood and Clint Eastwood, respectively, quoted in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,” Screen Stars, July 1971.

  the two immediately began an on-set affair: The Eastwood-Seberg affair has numerous sources, most thoroughly McGilligan, Richards, and Schickel.

  Seberg’s heart was broken: Richards, Played Out, quotes several of Seberg’s friends on her great disappointment after the relationship ended. In a French newspaper interview (quoted by Richards) Seberg referred to her affair with a man “who was the absolute opposite” of her husband, “an outdoor type.” She said, “It’s always a bit of a shock to discover that people aren’t sincere.” Schickel, Eastwood, speculated that Seberg’s emotional and professional career declined as much because of her failed romance with Eastwood as her troubles with the FBI.

  charitable reviews: Paint Your Wagon is “a big, bawdy rip-roaring Western musical of the gold rush in California,” said the New York Daily News. It “will have an uphill fight to be a blockbusting box-office hit,” said Variety. “Thought overproduced and sometimes a little weird, the movie is pretty interesting,” said Women’s Wear Daily. “Amiable,” said Vincent Canby in the New York Times; “[s]toic and handsome,” Charles Champlin said of Clint in the Los Angeles Times. Among the film’s harshest cri
tics was Pauline Kael, who wrote in The New Yorker that Clint “hardly seems to be in the movie. He’s controlled in such an uninteresting way; it’s not an actor’s control, which enables one to release something—it’s the kind of control that keeps one from releasing anything … [the film] has finally broken the back of the American movie industry.”

  Chapter Eight

  “I feel Don Siegel is …”: Quoted in Kaminsky, Clint Eastwood.

  “There was no question …”: Siegel, Siegel Film, 365.

  “I think [the Leone films] changed …”: Quoted in Frayling, Clint Eastwood, 61–67.

  “I worked on Kelly’s Heroes …”: Rickles, Rickles’ Book, 141–42.

  “It was [originally] …”: Quoted in Michael Henry, “Entretien avec Clint Eastwood,” Positif 287 (January 1985).

  “Why should I open …”: Quoted in McGilligan, Life and Legend, 185.

  “as another spaghetti …”: James Bacon, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, October 14, 1971.

  “Eastwood films …”: Siegel, Siegel Film, 356.

  “Don Siegel told me …”: Quoted in Kaminsky, Clint Eastwood. “[The studio] …”: Quoted in Judy Fayard, “Just About Everybody,” Personalities. (Further source information for Personalities is unknown.)

  Chapter Nine

  “After 17 years …”: Quoted in Rex Reed, “Calendar,” Los Angeles Times, April 1971, 50, 62.

  “My father died …”: Quoted in Cal Fussman, Esquire, January 2009.

  “It was just an ideal …”: Quoted in “Clint Eastwood,” The Directors: Master Collection, AFI (American Film Institute).

  “I started getting interested in directing …”: Ibid.

  “I was lying in bed …”: Quoted in Peter Biskind, Premiere, April 1993.

  “a good-luck charm …”: Siegel, Siegel Film, 494.

  “I was absolutely …”: Quoted in James Bacon, “Entertainment,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 15, 1972. The footnote is also based on this source.

  “There’s only one problem …”: John Cassavetes, quoted in Duncan, Icons, 82. Clint repeats the story in the AFI Directors series.

  “I’ve traveled all over …”: Quoted in Tom Cavanaugh, Mainliner, September 1971.

  “desultory romance,”: Biskind, Easy Riders, 234.

  “In Hollywood, …”: Ibid.

  “There are a million …”: Quoted in Tim Chadwick, “We Don’t Believe in Togetherness,” Screen Stars, July 1971.

  “Clint lives a double life …”: Earl Leaf, “The Way They Were,” Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, circa 1972.

  “Harry’s pursuit of Scorpio …”: Knapp, Directed, 43. Knapp elaborates on the doppelgänger aspect this way: “Harry embarks on a desperate crusade to rid San Francisco of a mad killer, only to discover that he is alienated from himself and the people he has ostensibly sworn to protect” (37).

  “I was the one who hired …”: Quoted in Patrick McGilligan, Focus on Film 25 (Summer–Fall 1976).

  “exhausting and detrimental”: Quoted in Joyce Haber, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1972.

  “Directing is hard work …”: Quoted by the Associated Press, August 15, 1972.

  The decision to toss the badge: Siegel, Siegel Film, 366, 375.

  “The film … made the basic contest …”: Pauline Kael’s review of Dirty Harry appeared in the January 1, 1972, issue of The New Yorker.

  Chapter Ten

  “We live in …”: Quoted in Cal Fussman, Esquire, January 2009.

  “looking more like …”: Richard Thompson and Tim Hunter, “Clint Eastwood, Auteur,” Film Comment 14, no. 1 (January–February 1978).

  “This was a small film …”: Quoted in Patrick McGilligan, Focus on Film 25 (Summer–Fall 1976).

  “People who go to the movies …”: Quoted in Clinch, Eastwood, 66.

  “Lenny Hirshan took a script …”: Interview by Charlie Rose, PBS, October 8, 2003.

  “I must confess …”: Clint, in an article billed as self-penned, Action, March 4, 1973.

  His disappointment and anger: This episode is discussed in McGilligan, Life and Legend, and Bach, Final Cut. Clint’s swearing he would never work for UA again is from Bach.

  Chapter Eleven

  “I went into …”: Sondra Locke, quoted in Marcia Borie, Hollywood Reporter, July 2, 1976.

  “It was a very difficult …”: Quoted in Michael Henry, “Entretien avec Clint Eastwood,” Positif 287 (January 1985).

  “the only time [Clint] ever …”: James Bacon, “Clint’s Cliff Hanger,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, October 22, 1974.

  Hog’s Breath Inn: Some of the details in the description are from Phyllis Jervey, “Hog’s Breath Inn Opens Without Fanfare,” Pine Cone [Carmel-by-the-Sea], date undetermined, circa 1970s.

  “There’s nothing I can do about it.”: Maggie Eastwood, quoted in Peter J. Oppenheimer, “Action Hero Clint Eastwood: I’m Just Doing What I Dreamed of as a Kid,” Family Weekly, December 29, 1974.

  “romantic Casanova …”: Paul Lippman, quoted in Thompson, Billion Dollar Man, 89; unattributed. Clint’s response is also from Lippman, also unat-tributed.

  “‘So what have you been …’ ”: Locke, Very Ugly, 138.

  “the worst thing that …”: Philip Kaufman, quoted in McGilligan, Life and Legend, 261.

  “What Kael says …”: Dr. Ronald Lowell, quoted in Mary Murphy, “Clint and Kael,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1976.

  “I don’t have any new …”: Quoted in Catherine Nixon Cooke, “The Mysterious Clint Eastwood,” Coronet (February 1975).

  Chapter Twelve

  “People thought …”: Quoted in Larry Cole, “Clint’s Not Cute When He’s Angry,” Village Voice, May 24, 1976.

  The reason was simple…: Said James Fargo, “He wasn’t even in San Francisco, basically because he was having the affair with Sondra.” Quoted in McGilligan, Life and Legend, 275–76; the attribution is unclear.

  Clint had inserted it: “[The script] was in very good shape. There was a minor amount of rewriting, a lot of deletions. I did it myself,” Clint said, in an interview by Richard Thompson and Tim Hunter, “Clint Eastwood, Auteur,” Film Comment 14, no. 1 (January–February 1978).

  People magazine “scooped”: People, February 13, 1978.

  “In today’s climate …”: Richard Schickel, Time, January 9, 1978.

  “In a modern society …”: William Hare, Hollywood Studio (February 1978).

  “The script … had been around …”: Quoted in Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1981.

  “it would be theirs forever …”: McGilligan, Life and Legend, 303.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I’ve been advised …”: Quoted in Iain Blair, Film and Video 14, no. 3 (March 1977).

  “I don’t know”: See “Clint Eastwood Talks About Clint Eastwood as He Stars in Escape from Alcatraz Film,” unidentified interview, probably from Universal Pictures, circa 1979, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “During [1978] Clint began …”: Locke, Very Ugly, 162–63.

  “When I was sent the script …”: Quoted in Michael Henry, “Entretien avec Clint Eastwood,” Positif 287 (January 1985).

  Chapter Fourteen

  “In the westerns …”: Inside the Actors Studio, October 5, 2003.

  “Eastwood is living proof …”: Norman Mailer, in Parade, October 23, 1983.

  “Clint Eastwood brought in …”: Robert Daley, quoted in Army Archerd, Variety, November 12, 1979.

  “We’ve done okay …”: Quoted in Variety, July 28, 1980.

  “reports are circulating …”: Us, October 14, 1980.

  “We meet as often as we can …”: Henry Wynberg, quoted in Ansi Vallens, “Playboy Who Won Liz Taylor on Rebound Finds New Love—Eastwood’s Wife,” Us, October 21, 1980.

  “Rarely did Clint acknowledge …”: Locke, Very Ugly, 186.

  “It was like an homage …”: Quoted in AFI Directors series.

  “Naturally, I talked about it …”: Locke, Very Ugly, 184.


  “When you point …”: Inside the Actors Studio, October 5, 2003.

  “It was just a whimsical thing …”: AFI Directors series.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Not until Tightrope …”: Bingham, Acting Male, 186.

  Megan Rose: Details of her affair with Clint are from interviews she gave McGilligan, as reported in Life and Legend, and by several friends who know them both.

  Edwards had asked her …: The details of this story are from Locke, Very Ugly, 189–90.

  “Before I knew it …”: Sondra Locke, quoted in Reynolds, My Life, 3.

  Locke as a director: “I began to explore the idea of turning to directing and mentioned it to Clint. ‘That’d be a great idea,’ he quickly responded.” Locke, Very Ugly, 191.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I’ve always considered …”: Quoted in Newsweek, July 22, 1985.

  “Maybe there were …”: Quoted in John Vinocur, “Clint Eastwood, Seriously,” New York Times Magazine, February 24, 1985.

  “The Eastwood persona …”: Ibid.

  “Clint Eastwood is an artist …”: Ibid.

  “I enjoyed going there …”: Inside the Actors Studio, October 5, 2003.

  “Clint Eastwood, depuis …”: From an article in French by Philippe Labro; the magazine it appeared in is unsourced.

  “I don’t need …”: Quoted in Pine Cone (weekly newspaper of Carmel), February 5, 1986.

  beat-up yellow Volkswagen convertible: Associated Press, April 9, 1986.

  “Heartbreak Ridge [is about] …”: Quoted in Milan Pavlovič, “Kein Popcorn-Film [Not a Popcorn Movie],” Steadycam 10 (Fall 1988).

  “I had known Fritz …”: Locke, Very Ugly, 214–15.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I went to a jazz concert …”: Inside the Actors Studio, October 5, 2003.