Clint Eastwood: 90 Spring and over fifty films to his credit

Legend of spaghetti westerns and American cinema, Clint Eastwood celebrates his 90th birthday on Sunday but, true to his badass image, the actor-director does not seem ready to put his camera in the closet.

The Oscar-winning star, who has chained nine films over the past ten years, does not talk about retirement and does not like birthdays anyway.

“We’re just going to do something with the family, very, very calm, very cozy”, his son Scott Eastwood, 34, told television. “We’re going to slip a cake, of course. He’s probably not going to like it.”

Born in 1930, Clint Eastwood has more than fifty films to his credit and began his long career with small roles in the 1950s before becoming famous.

His success has never wavered since: last November, he was still pacing the red carpet of his long legs for his controversial biopic “The Richard Jewell Case”.

The feature was widely received by critics, and was mostly criticized for portraying an unscrupulous journalist exchanging sexual favors in exchange for information. Clint Eastwood, an old addict to controversy, stood straight in his cowboy boots.

In the 1960s, the trilogy of the westerns of Sergio Leone who had made him known worldwide had already been criticized for his gratuitous violence. A few years later, Eastwood was accused of fascism for his role as a police-vigilante in “Inspector Harry”, then go to war for “American Sniper” in 2014.

He did not receive only blows, far from it: Oscars of the best director and the best film for “Ruthless” in 1993, he reissued the double for “Million Dollar Baby” in 2005.

He will also receive a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his entire busy career, not without flops sometimes massacred by critics.

“I like to think that it slips on him … He was twisted quite frequently all along”, says Tim Gray, vice president of the specialty magazine Variety. “I think he will continue to work as long as he can. He seems to be pushed by his creative impulse”, he told AFP.

“I like to do that”

Polite but reputed not very inclined to personal secrets or socialites, Clint Eastwood did mention future projects but nothing was planned before the Covid-19 pandemic caused the closure of Hollywood studios last March.

At the start of the year, the director had assured in an interview with the British channel ITV that he continued to flourish in his profession. “I like doing that, it’s nice to be able to have a job that pays”, he had launched.

“I like being in movies, I like making movies and I started to make them because one day I thought that I was going to see myself on the screen and tell myself that is enough Eastwood, you should do something else “.

In other interviews, the artist said he did not understand why personalities like Billy Wilder and Frank Capra ended their careers prematurely. He had expressed his desire to work as long as he found interesting projects.

Eastwood had announced that he was retiring as an actor after his role in “Gran Torino” in 2008. However, he reappeared in front of the camera four years later to “A new chance”, then again in 2018 for “The mule”.

“It is quite unpredictable”says Tim Gray, who feels like “now he does what he wants to do”.

Former mayor of the small town of Carmel, California, Clint Eastwood remains politically engaged. He had thus supported the billionaire Michael Bloomberg, unsuccessful candidate for the democratic nomination for the presidential election of 2020.

Father of eight children and several times grandfather, the actor should be well surrounded Sunday even if it is an offer that he might have preferred to refuse.

“He probably would like us to pretend that nothing was wrong. He hates his birthday”, assured his daughter Alison to Closer magazine.

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