Our Dad Clint

Time was, recalling the 1970s, the holiday season just didn't seem festive without a cinematic Christmas present from Clint Eastwood. "Dirty Harry" and the first two sequels, "Magnum Force" and "The Enforcer," came to theaters in December of 1971, '73, and '76, respectively. December of 1977 saw "The Gauntlet." "Every Which Way But Loose" was released in December 1978, its sequel, "Any Which Way You Can," December of 1980.

Well, it's a few decades later, and Clint Eastwood is in his late 80s, but he's coming through this December as the director, producer, and star of "The Mule." Neil Schenk, who won a National Board of Review award for his screenplay for Eastwood's "Gran Torino," based his script for "The Mule" on a June 2014 story in The New York Times titled "The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule," by Sam Dolnick. Dolnick's account was the true story of a World War II veteran who, in his 80s, was recruited as a drug courier by a cartel headquartered in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. He transported cocaine to Detroit, Michigan, and cash back to Mexico in his Lincoln pickup.

Eastwood's character, Earl Stone (pictured above), is based on Detroit-raised Leonard Sharp, who saw action in Italy during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal. He later pursued a livelihood as a florist and horticulturist, achieving world renown for hybridizing colorful new breeds of flowers, particularly daylily species. His most popular creation was the Brookwood Ojo Poco, a two-and-a-half-inch, apricot-colored flower with a red bull's eye at the center that he introduced in 1994 (pictured below).

Daylily enthusiasts arrived by busloads to visit Sharp's flower farm near his birthplace of Michigan City, Indiana, where he lived for decades. Boasting that he had been invited to the White House where he planted flowers in the Rose Garden for President George H.W. Bush, he even had a daylily scientifically named for him.

When Sharp became dispirited over financial concerns with his flower business, he was approached on his farm by Mexican laborers who solicited him into transporting narcotics for the Sinaloa Drug Cartel. In his truck, he carried 230 to 660 pounds of cocaine at a time from the southern United States border to Detroit. He also transported proceeds from the drug sales, sometimes in excess of $2 million, from Michigan to Arizona. Sharp's success in eluding the law for over a decade made him an urban legend among drug traffickers and earned him the nickname "El Tata" ("The Grandpa").

In 2011, the Michigan state police, working with the DEA, arrested Leonard Sharp while in possession of 200 pounds of cocaine. Speaking at his sentencing hearing, he told the judge, "I'm really heartbroken I did what I did, but it's done." Hoping to avoid jail time, Sharp proposed paying the $500,000 penalty by growing Hawaiian papayas, telling the court,"It's so sweet and delicious." The judge declined the offer, sentencing Sharp to three years in prison. He was released in 2015 after serving one year because of declining health. Leonard Sharp (pictured below) died in December 2016, age 92.

In a 63-year career (so far), Clint Eastwood has appeared in over 60 motion pictures. He was in 216 episodes of the western series "Rawhide" as trail ramrod Rowdy Yates. He directed 37 feature films, was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and won four Oscars: Best Picture and Best Director for 1992's "Unforgiven," Best Picture and Best Director for 2004's "Million Dollar Baby."

At birth, Clinton Eastwood Jr.'s weight of 11 lb. 6 oz. earned him
the nickname "Samson" by the nurses. These pictures show Clint
with his father, Clinton Eastwood Sr., and his mother, Ruth.

Clint Eastwood's father, Clinton Eastwood Sr., worked as a salesman and in a variety of jobs along the West Coast during the 1930s. By the time Clint was 10, the family, including younger sister Jeanne, resided in Piedmont, California, a suburban town surrounded by Oakland. Despite Eastwood's hints of enduring the Great Depression in interviews, the parents lived in a well-to-do part of town, had a swimming pool, belonged to the country club, and each drove a car of their own. Clint's father died of a heart attack in July 1970. Ruth Eastwood eventually remarried and passed away at age 97 in 2006.

Devoted son Clint Eastwood escorts his mother, Ruth, along with
his current lady friend, actress Frances Fisher, to the 65th Academy
Awards in 1993. Eastwood would take home Oscars for Best Picture
and Best Director of "Unforgiven." Costar Gene Hackman won Best
Supporting Actor, and the film garnered an award for Best Editing.

Clint Eastwood is a 12th generation descendant of William Bradford, an English separatist who emigrated to the Plymouth Colony in North America aboard the Mayflower in 1620.

A signer of the Mayflower Compact, William
Bradford served intermittently for 30 years
as the governor of Plymouth Colony.

Other descendants of William Bradford are French chef Julia Child, Christopher Reeve, Sally Field, John Lithgow, and the acting Baldwin brothers. Speaking of descendants, the progeny of Clint Eastwood is the topic of interest in the Moviehouse this time. Eastwood has had casual and serious and a couple of times even legal relationships with a number of women, fathering at least eight children. Whether the outcome of marriage or not, all the offspring have taken the name Eastwood, although in some instances, Clint declined to sign the birth certificates.

In the summer of 1953, Clint Eastwood met Margaret "Maggie" Johnson, a secretary for an auto parts supplier. They became engaged in October, but that same summer, Eastwood had a relationship in Seattle with a young woman that resulted in the birth of a girl, whom the mother gave up for adoption.

Johnson apparently tolerated an open marriage with the young actor. Eastwood had a bit part as a ranch hand in the 1956 western "Star in the Dust," starring Mamie Van Doren, a blonde bombshell cast in the mold of platinum-haired Marilyn Monroe, who claimed they had an affair.

Rodeo champion-turned-actor Ben Johnson shows
buxom Mamie Van Doren the ropes for her role in
the 1958 rodeo romance "Born Reckless."

During his marriage to Maggie, Clint started a 14-year affair with a dancer and stuntwoman named Roxanne Tunis while shooting the second season of "Rawhide." Married but separated, Tunis was a regular stunt performer on the western series. She appeared as an extra in the Eastwood pictures "Hang 'Em High" and "Every Which Way But Loose," as well as the Eastwood-directed "Breezy," starring William Holden and Kay Lenz.

On June 17, 1964, Tunis gave birth to daughter Kimber Eastwood (pictured above in her jammies), Clint's first legal child. Kimber became an in-demand makeup artist, working on over 460 episodes of "Wheel of Fortune," and recently ventured into producing. In 1997's "Absolute Power," directed by and starring her father, with Gene Hackman and Ed Harris, Kimber played a White House tour guide. Kimber's existence was kept secret from the public until her identity was revealed in a July 1989 National Enquirer. She is the mother of Clint's grandchildren Clinton IV, born in 2011, and Penelope, born in 2018.

Loosely based on the life of "The Singing Brakeman"
Jimmie Rodgers, "Honkytonk Man" casts Clint Eastwood
as itinerant singer Red Stovall and son Kyle Eastwood
as his nephew, Whit Wagoneer.

Kyle Eastwood was born to Maggie and Clint on May 19, 1968. Kyle made his first screen appearance as Josey's son in 1976's "The Outlaw Josey Wales," directed by and starring Clint. Six years later, Kyle portrayed Clint's nephew in "Honkytonk Man." He also had a bit part as an orphan in 1980's "Bronco Billy." Now an established jazz musician, accomplished on fretted and fretless electric bass guitar and double bass, Kyle has appeared as a band member in his father's films "The Rookie," "The Bridges of Madison County," and "J. Edgar."

There's no mistaking that Eastwood grin on son Kyle.

In addition to recording eight solo albums, Kyle Eastwood has contributed to the scores of nine of his father's movies: "The Rookie," "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Changeling," "Gran Torino," "Invictus," and "J. Edgar." On March 28, 1994, Kyle and wife Cynthia gave Clint his first grandchild, Graylen Eastwood.

Clint and Maggie's daughter Alison Eastwood was born May 22, 1972. After uncredited appearances in "Bronco Billy" (alongside brother Kyle) and "Any Which Way You Can," she had an important role as the endangered daughter of a troubled New Orleans cop (Clint Eastwood) investigating a series of prostitute murders in the sexually charged 1984 thriller "Tightrope."

Father and daughter share an intense moment in "Tightrope."

After a role as an art student in "Absolute Power," Alison was cast as Southern belle Mandy Nicholls opposite John Cusack's Kelso (pictured below) in the 1997 screen adaptation of John Berendt's nonfiction best seller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Kevin Spacey.

Alison has worked as a runway and magazine model in Paris, appearing in many European fashion magazines, as well as Vogue in the U.S. She has her own clothing line called Eastwood Ranch Apparel. As for no clothing, she posed nude for Playboy magazine in February 2003.

It looks like she's got the Eastwood squint down; her eyes
are up there. "I did it because...I am 30, I am in great shape,"
Alison said of her decision to pose naked, "I feel like it's the
prime of my life...I really felt it was going to be a great help.
Which it has been...to my clothing line."

Married since 2013 to chainsaw carving sculptor Stacy Poitras, Alison Eastwood made her directing debut with 2007's "Rails & Ties," featuring Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden. In 2017, she produced and directed "Battlecreek," starring Bill Skarsgård.

In 1975, again while still married to Maggie, Clint Eastwood began another 14-year affair, this time with Sondra Locke, an actress 14 years his junior who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in 1968's "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter." At first, Eastwood's infatuation with her was described by one producer as "absolute, total blind love."

Unfortunately, the relationship ended in an unpleasant quagmire. Locke had two abortions after Eastwood asserted that parenthood would not fit their lifestyle. Ironically, during the last three years of their affair, Clint father yet another woman's two children. Locke filed a palimony suit against the actor, which was dropped after Eastwood agreed to arrange a film development and directing deal for Locke at Warner Bros. She subsequently sued Clint for fraud, alleging the deal with Warner Bros. was a sham. Before the jury could render a verdict, she settled with Eastwood out of court for an undisclosed amount of money.

On the marriage front, Maggie Eastwood filed for legal separation from Clint in 1978. In May 1984, she finally filed for divorce, which was finalized in November of that year.

The above-mentioned paramour Eastwood dallied with while having a relationship with Sondra Locke was a flight attendant named Jacelyn Reeves. On March 21, 1986, Reeves gave birth to Scott Eastwood. Scott started his acting career using his mother's name to avoid talk of nepotism. As Scott Reeves, he made his movie debut as Private Roberto Lundsford in his dad's 2006 film "Flags of Our Fathers," followed in 2008 by his role as Trey, American Hmong girl Sue Lor's date, in "Gran Torino." The next year, as Scott Eastwood, he was directed by his father in "Invictus" as a member of the South African rugby union team the Springboks. In 2012's "Trouble with the Curve," Scott portrayed Billy Clark, a minor league ballplayer discovered by Clint Eastwood's character, an aging baseball scout. In a 2015 interview, Scott said, "I've auditioned for pretty much every one of my father's movies," mentioning that he was rejected for a part in 2014's "American Sniper," directed by Clint.

There's no mistaking that Scott Eastwood is his father's son.

Some of Scott Eastwood's other film roles include the antagonistic Deputy Carl Hartman in "Texas Chainsaw 3D," Sergeant Miles in "Fury," Lieutenant "GQ" Edwards in "Suicide Squad," and Little Nobody, the righthand man of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), in the eighth picture in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise, "The Fate of the Furious." He was also in the surfing-related movies "Chasing Mavericks," "The Perfect Wave," and "Dawn Patrol."

"To be honest, my dad didn't care if I was a plumber or an actor," Scott once remarked. "He just said, 'Whatever you do, do it well, be humble, work hard and be a man.'" He admitted, "I got into this business because I like acting and I want to make movies. I would be happy living the rest of my life never famous...I  show up, I hit my mark, and I say my lines."

Scott and his pop adorn the September 2016
issue of Esquire magazine.

Kathryn Eastwood was born to Jaclyn Reeves February 2, 1988. Beyond appearances in a number of short films, she played the girlfriend of The Four Seasons cofounder Tommy DeVito in 2014's "Jersey Boys," directed by Clint Eastwood. She was credited as Kathryn Ann Reeves but later took the name Eastwood.

In 2005, Kathryn Eastwood, escorted by her father, was Miss
Golden Globe at the 62nd annual Golden Globe Awards.

In 1990, Clint Eastwood started a relationship with actress Frances Farmer, best known as Kate Winslet's mother in James Cameron's "Titanic." She also had a major supporting role opposite Eastwood in "Unforgiven." Francesca Eastwood, born August 7, 1993, is the daughter of Frances and Clint.

Francesca Eastwood made her screen debut as a toddler in 1995's "The Stars Fell on Henrietta," co-produced by Clint Eastwood and starring Robert Duvall, Aidan Quinn, Frances Fisher, and Brian Dennehy. She was billed as Francesca Ruth Eastwood. In 1999, credited as Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, she played Clint's daughter in "True Crime," the cast of which included Frances Fisher and Eastwood's wife (as of 1996) Dina. Like her half-sister Kathryn, Francesca was a Miss Golden Globe, in 2013. She had a small role as a waitress in "Jersey Boys." Along with parts in a number of motion pictures and TV movies, she had a recurring role in the short-lived 2015 series "Heroes Reborn" as Molly Walker, whose super power is the ability to locate anyone in the world.

Francesca Eastwood is featured as Molly Walker in a promotional
photograph for "Heroes Reborn."

On September 16, 2018, Clint Eastwood became a grandfather again when Francesca gave birth to Titan Wraith Eastwood. The father is actor Alexander Wraith.

Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in early 1995, but even before Frances moved out of Clint's home, he was already dating Dina Ruiz, a TV news anchor he had met in an April 1993 interview. They were married March 31, 1996, prompting Eastwood to say, "I'm proud to make this lady my wife. She's the one I've been waiting for." The couple had one daughter, Morgan Eastwood, born December 12, 1996.

Proud papa Clint Eastwood poses with daughters Francesca,
Morgan, Alison, and Kimber.

Morgan had bit parts in two pictures directed by her father, playing Little Girl in Truck in "Million Dollar Baby" and Girl on Tricycle in "Changeling." For 10 episodes of a single season on the E! channel in 2012, Morgan, along with mom Dina and half-sister Francesca, starred in a reality TV series called "Mrs. Eastwood & Company."

On October 13, 2013, Mrs. Eastwood filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. She asked for full custody of their then-16-year-old daughter and for spousal support. The divorce was finalized December 22, 2014.


Postscript: You Can't Keep a Good Man Down

While married to Maggie, Clint Eastwood brazenly indulged in what biographer Patrick McGilligan termed "habitual womanizing." New York magazine restaurant critic Gael Greene started an affair with the actor when she was assigned to interview him on the set of 1970's "Two Mules for Sister Sara." His dalliance with French model Cathy Reghin around the same time was a rare extramarital relationship that attracted media attention in real time.

Neither model Cathy Reghin nor Clint Eastwood
seem bothered by paparazzi.

In his book Clint: The Life and Legend, Patrick McGilligan mentioned Eastwood's many affairs during his marriage, including flings with costars Inger Stevens (from "Hang 'Em High"), Jean Seberg (of "Paint Your Wagon"), and Jo Ann Harris (from "The Beguiled") and actresses Catherine Deneuve and Susan Saint James. When Maggie Eastwood reached out for a reconciliation with Clint, expressing her desire to start a family, he settled down long enough to father Kyle and Alison.

When the early 1980s rolled around, Eastwood returned to his "habitual womanizing," becoming involved with, among others, actress Jamie Rose, who had a small role in "Tightrope" but is best known for her portrayal of Vickie Gioberti on the prime time soap opera "Falcon Crest" and for her starring role in the short-lived 1985 cop series "Lady Blue."

On the heels of his sordid breakup with Sondra Locke, Eastwood dated Barbra Streisand, Carmel mayor Jean Grace, and model Barbara Minty, third wife and widow of Steve McQueen.

At the 87th Academy Awards in 2015, 84-year-old Clint Eastwood and restaurant hostess Christina Sandera, 33 years his junior, publicly acknowledged their relationship.

Conquests have come and gone, but what remains constant is
the progeny of Clint Eastwood, pictured here with sons Kyle and
Scott and daughters Kimber and Alison.