Debbie Reynolds

American actress and singer Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) is best-remembered opposite Gene Kelly in the classic musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). Her career spanned almost 70 years. She starred in more than forty films and was Oscar-nominated for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Reynolds was also a film historian and a noted collector of film memorabilia, and she was Carrie Fisher's mother.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/21.


West German postcard by ISV, no. B 27. Publicity still for Bundle of Joy (Norman Taurog, 1956).


French postcard by M.D., Paris, no. 114.

Most Promising Newcomer

Debbie Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, in 1932. She was the second child of Maxine N. (Harmon) and Raymond Francis Reynolds, a carpenter who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1939, her family moved to Burbank, California. Debbie played the French horn in high school and was a member of the Burbank Youth Symphony.

She planned to go teaching physical education, but the day after she won the 1948 Miss Burbank contest at age 16 impersonating Betty Hutton, Warner Bros. offered her a screen test. Although she wanted to be in show business, the Reynolds family church, the Nazarene, forbade acting. However, Reynolds' father saw her talent and gave his support, seeing it as a means of paying her college costs. In 1950, she graduated from Burbank High School.

Warner Bros gave her a new first name and her first roles in films. When Warner Bros. stopped producing musicals in 1950, she moved to MGM. Her breakout role was Helen Kane in the musical Three Little Words (Richard Thorpe, 1950), about the successful Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Reynolds was nominated for the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Her song 'Aba Daba Honeymoon', featured in the film Two Weeks with Love (Roy Rowland, 1950) and sung as a duet with co-star Carleton Carpenter, was the first soundtrack recording to become a top-of-the-chart gold record. It reached number three on the Billboard charts. Her performance in the film greatly impressed the studio, which then gave her a co-starring role in what became her highest-profile film.

At age 19, Debbie Reynolds played her first co-starring role as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952). The musical offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Reynolds portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to 'talkies'. Reynolds wasn't a dancer until she was selected to be Gene Kelly's partner in this musical. Not yet twenty, she was a quick study. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalogue of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs - 'You Were Meant for Me', 'You Are My Lucky Star', 'The Broadway Melody', and of course the title song - the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made."

By the mid-1950s, Debbie Reynolds was a major star and it seemed like she had been around forever. Most of her early film work was in MGM musicals, as perky, wholesome young women, such as I Love Melvin (Don Weis, 1953) with Donald O'Connor, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (Don Weis, 1953) with Bobby Van and Bob Fosse, and Give a Girl a Break (Stanley Donen, 1953) starring Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. She continued to use her dancing skills with stage work.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 714. Photo: H.P.S.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 50. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Greetings Series, no. A. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Greetings series. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

To be with Carrie

Debbie Reynolds' other notable successes include the comedy Susan Slept Here (Frank Tashlin, 1954) starring Dick Powell, Bundle of Joy (Norman Taurog, 1956) for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, The Catered Affair (Richard Brooks, 1956) as the daughter of Bette Davis and Tammy and the Bachelor (Joseph Pevney, 1957) with Leslie Nielsen. Her recording of the Jay Livingston / Ray Evans title song from Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), became a number-one hit for Reynolds in August 1957. In 1959, she starred in the comedy The Mating Game (George Marshall, 1959) with Tony Randall and released her first pop music album, titled 'Debbie'.

She was one of 14 top-billed names in the Western epic How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, 1963). The family saga covered several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of railroads. She was 31 when she gave an Academy Award-nominated performance as Margaret 'Molly' Brown, who survived the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Charles Walters, 1964). In 1969, Reynolds starred in a self-titled television program, The Debbie Reynolds Show, earning her a Golden Globe nomination. She also appeared in the Horror film What's the Matter with Helen? (Curtis Harrington, 1971) with Shelley Winters. She also produced the film. Reynolds played the title role in the Hanna-Barbera animated musical Charlotte's Web (Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto, 1973), in which she originated the song 'Mother Earth and Father Time'.

Reynolds continued to perform successfully on stage, television and film. She made her Broadway debut in 1973 in the revival of 'Irene'. Although the reviews for the show itself were mixed, hers were all raves and she wound up with a Tony Award nomination the following year for Best Actress in a Musical. The production ultimately ran for some 20 months. In 1976, she appeared in a one-woman, short-run (10 days - 14 performances) review named 'Debbie!' at the Minskoff Theatre. Her only other Broadway appearance came when she succeeded Lauren Bacall in 'Woman of the Year' in 1983. Reynolds received a Golden Globe nomination for Mother (Albert Brooks, 1996) as the mother of Albert Brooks. In the following years, she appeared in the comedies In & Out (Frank Oz, 1997) with Kevin Kline and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998), starring Johnny Depp.

Her three marriages ended in divorce. In 1959, she survived losing her first husband, musician and actor Eddie Fisher (1955-1959) to her best friend Elizabeth Taylor following the tragic death of Taylor's husband, Michael Todd. News crews were camped out around the clock on Reynolds' front lawn. To ingratiate herself to reporters (and engender public sympathy for her role as the 'wronged wife') Reynolds would regularly grant interviews in front of the house. She often did them with diaper pins on her blouse and her two toddler-aged children, the future producer Todd Fisher and actress Carrie Fisher, in her arms. Her second husband, shoe magnate Harry Karl (1960-1973), gambled away his fortune as well as hers. With her children and Karl's children, she had to keep working and turn to the stage. She had her own casino in Las Vegas with a home for her collection of Hollywood memorabilia until its closure in 1997. Nearly all the money she made was spent toward her goal of creating a Hollywood museum. Her collection numbered more than 3000 costumes and 46,000 square feet worth of props and equipment.

Her third husband was Richard Hamlett (1984-1996). She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6654 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California in 1997. On television, she played, among others, Bobby Adler, Grace's mother in the sitcom Will & Grace. Reynolds was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role. She reconciled with old nemesis Elizabeth Taylor to work on the made-for-TV movie These Old Broads (2001), written by Debbie's daughter, Carrie Fisher, with Taylor, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins. When they began working on These Old Broads together, Taylor told Debbie, "I owe you a lot". Debbie said, "I just got a lump in my throat when she said that". Her final film was the biopic Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) starring Michael Douglas as Liberace. She was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2014 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2016. A day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher (1956-2016), the 84-year-old Reynolds was rushed to a hospital with a suspected stroke and passed away. Her son, Todd Fisher, said the stress of his sister's death had been too much for her and in her last words, she had said she wanted to be with her daughter. Carrie was cremated and then buried with her mother at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Actress and producer Billie Lourd is Debbie Reynold's granddaughter.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 203. Photo: M.G.M.


Vintage postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4664. Sent by mail in 1961. Photo: MGM / Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CAL., no. CL Personality 42, SC18555. Photo: Mike Roberts.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Clint Eastwood

American film actor and director Clint Eastwood (1930) rose to fame as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Later in the US, he played hard-edge police inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films, which elevated him to superstar status, and he directed and produced such award-winning masterpieces as Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).


American postcard by the American Postcard Co. Inc., no. TV22, 1984. Photo: Viacom International Inc. Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (1959–1966).


British postcard by Boomerang Media in The Greatest series. Photo: Pierluigi Praturion / Rex Features. Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 1970).


British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. P 8286. Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971).


French postcard, no. Réf. 950. Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood, 1983).


Chinese postcard. Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008).

Towering height and slender frame

Clinton ‘Clint’ Eastwood, Jr. was born in San Francisco, California in 1930. His parents were Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (Runner) Eastwood, a factory worker. Clint has a younger sister, Jeanne. Because of his father's difficulty in finding steady work during the depression, Eastwood moved with his family from one Northern California town to another, attending some eight elementary schools in the process.

Later he had odd jobs as a fire-fighter and lumberjack in Oregon, as well as a steelworker in Seattle. In 1951, Eastwood was drafted into the US Army, where he was a swimming instructor during the Korean War. He briefly attended Los Angeles City College but dropped out to pursue acting. Eastwood married Maggie Johnson in 1953, six months after they met on a blind date. However, their matrimony would not prove altogether smooth, with Eastwood believing that he had married too early.

In 1954, the good-looking Eastwood with his towering height and slender frame got a contract at Universal. At first, he was criticised for his stiff manner, his squint, and for hissing his lines through his teeth. His first acting role was an uncredited bit part as a laboratory assistant in the Sci-Fi Horror film Revenge of the Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955). Over the next three years, he played more bit parts in such films as Lady Godiva of Coventry (Arthur Lubin, 1955), Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955), and the war drama Away All Boats (Joseph Pevney, 1956) with George Nader and Lex Barker.

His first bigger roles were in the B-Western Ambush at Cimarron Pass (Jodie Copelan, 1958), and the war film Lafayette Escadrille (William A. Wellman, 1958), starring Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau. In 1959, he became a TV star as Rowdy Yates in the Western series Rawhide (1959–1966). Although Rawhide never won an Emmy, it was a ratings success for several years.

During a trial separation from Maggie Johnson, an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis produced Eastwood’s first child, Kimber Tunis (1964). An intensely private person, Clint Eastwood was rarely featured in the tabloid press. However, he had more affairs, e.g. with actresses Catherine Deneuve, Inger Stevens and Jean Seberg. After a reconciliation, he had two children with Johnson: Kyle Eastwood (1968) and Alison Eastwood (1972), though he was not present at either birth. Johnson filed for legal separation in 1978, but the pair officially divorced in 1984.


British postcard by D. Constance Ltd, London, no. 106. Photo: Reisfeld / Ufa. Publicity still for the TV series Rawhide (1959–1966).


Vintage postcard by C-Star, no. SP236. Clint Eastwood in the TV series Rawhide (1959-1966).


Vintage postcard. Clint Eastwood in the TV series Rawhide (1959-1966).


Vintage postcard. Clint Eastwood in Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964).


British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC2041. Photo: Vaselli. Clint Eastwood in Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964).

The Man With No Name Trilogy

In late 1963, Clint Eastwood's Rawhide co-star Eric Fleming rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made Western. Eastwood, who in turn saw the film as an opportunity to escape from his Rawhide image, signed the contract. The Western was called Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), to be directed in a remote region of Spain by the then relatively unknown Sergio Leone. A Fistful of Dollars, also with Gian Maria Volonté and Marianne Koch, was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961).

Eastwood played a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town, torn apart by two feuding families. Hiring himself out as a mercenary, the lone drifter plays one side against the other until nothing remains of either side. Eastwood started to develop a minimalist acting style and created the character's distinctive visual style. Although a non-smoker, Leone insisted Eastwood smoke cigars as an essential ingredient of the ‘mask’ he was attempting to create for the loner character.

Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) was the first instalment of the Dollars trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the US, coined another term for it: the Man With No Name trilogy. ‘The second part was Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965), a richer, more mythologised film that focused on two ruthless bounty hunters (Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) who form a tenuous partnership to hunt down a wanted bandit (Gian Maria Volontè). Both films were a huge success in Italy. They both contain all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone.

Eastwood also appeared in a segment of Dino De Laurentiis’ five-part anthology production Le Streghe/The Witches (Vittorio De Sica a.o., 1967). But his performance opposite De Laurentiis' wife Silvana Mangano did not please the critics. Eastwood then played in the third and best Dollars film, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Again he played the mysterious Man with No Name, wearing the same trademark poncho (reportedly without ever having washed it). Lee Van Cleef returned as a ruthless fortune seeker, with Eli Wallach portrayed the cunning Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. Yuri German at AllMovie: "Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive 'spaghetti western,' rivaled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)."

The Dollars trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967, when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, followed by For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December. Eastwood redubbed his own dialogue for the American releases. All the films were commercially successful, particularly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which turned Eastwood into a major film star. All three films received bad reviews, and marked the beginning of a battle for Eastwood to win American film critics' respect. According to IMDb, Sergio Leone asked Eastwood, Wallach and Van Cleef to appear again in C'era una volta il West/Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), but they all declined when they heard that their characters were going to be killed off in the first five minutes.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


Vintage postcard, no. 2175. Image: Italian lobby card (locandina) by Izaro Films. Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in più/For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965).


Italian postcard by Cineteca di Bologna, 2007. Photo: Angelo Novi. Clint Eastwood on the set of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966).


French postcard by Ébullitions, no. 44. Clint Eastwood in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966).


Romanian postcard by Colectia Cinefilului Acin.

Coogan's Bluff

Stardom brought more roles for Clint Eastwood. He signed to star in the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High (Ted Post, 1968), playing a man who takes up a Marshal's badge and seeks revenge as a lawman after being lynched by vigilantes and left for dead.

Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy, accountant and Eastwood advisor Irving Leonard helped establish Eastwood's own production company, Malpaso Productions, named after Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists. Hang 'Em High was widely praised by critics, and when it opened in July 1968, it had an unprecedented opening weekend in United Artists' history.

His following film was Coogan's Bluff (Don Siegel, 1968), about an Arizona deputy sheriff tracking a wanted psychopathic criminal (Don Stroud) through the streets of New York City. Don Siegel was a Universal contract director who later became Eastwood's close friend, forming a partnership that would last more than ten years and produce five films. Coogan’s Bluff was controversial for its portrayal of violence, Eastwood's role creating the prototype for the macho cop of the Dirty Harry film series. Coogan's Bluff also became the first collaboration with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later compose the jazzy score to several Eastwood films in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Dirty Harry films.

Eastwood played the right-hand man of squad's commander Richard Burton in the war epic Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the alpine mountains. Eastwood then branched out to star in the only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969).

Then, Eastwood starred in the Western Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Sigel, 1970), with Shirley MacLaine, and as one of a group of Americans who steal a fortune in gold from the Nazis, in the World War II film Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 1970)). Kelly's Heroes was the last film in which Eastwood appeared, that was not produced by his own Malpaso Productions.


Spanish postcard by Royal Books, Barcelona, 1993. Clint Eastwood in Hang 'Em High (Ted Post, 1968). The Spanish title is Cometierron dos erreros.


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 136-069. Photo: The Ludlow Collection. Clint Eastwood in Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Siegel, 1970).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 136-180. Photo: The Ludlow Collection. Clint Eastwood in Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Siegel, 1970).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 136-119. Photo: The Ludlow Collection. Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971).


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 136-012. Photo: The Ludlow Collection. Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976).

Dirty Harry

Clint Eastwood’s next film, The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1970), was a tale of a wounded Union soldier, held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girl's school. Upon release the film received major recognition in France but in the US it was a box office flop. Eastwood's career reached a turning point with Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971), The film centres around a hard-edged San Francisco police inspector named Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means. Dirty Harry achieved huge success after its release in December 1971. It was Siegel's highest-grossing film to date and the start of a series of films featuring the character Harry Callahan.

He next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972). In 1973, Eastwood directed his first Western, High Plains Drifter, in which he starred alongside Verna Bloom. The revisionist film received a mixed reception, but was a major box office success. Eastwood next turned his attention towards Breezy (Clint Eastwood, 1973), a film about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. During casting for the film Eastwood met actress Sondra Locke, who would become an important figure in his life.

He reprised his role as Detective Harry Callahan in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973). This sequel to Dirty Harry was about a group of rogue young officers (including David Soul and Robert Urich) in the San Francisco Police Force who systematically exterminate the city's worst criminals. Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 1974). Eastwood's acting was noted by critics, but was overshadowed by Bridges who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His next film The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood, 1975), based on Trevanian's spy novel, was a commercial and critical failure. His next film The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976) was widely acclaimed, with many critics and viewers seeing Eastwood's role as an iconic one that related to America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War. The third Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer (James Fargo, 1976) had Harry partnered with a new female officer (Tyne Daly) to face a San Francisco Bay terrorist organisation. The film, culminating in a shootout on Alcatraz island, was a major commercial success grossing $100 million worldwide.

In 1977, he directed and starred in The Gauntlet opposite Sondra Locke. Eastwood portrays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix, to testify against the mafia. In 1978 Eastwood starred with Locke and an orang-utan called Clyde in Every Which Way but Loose. Panned by critics, the film proved a surprising success and became the second-highest grossing film of 1978. Eastwood then starred in the thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the last of his films to be directed by Don Siegel. The film was a major success, and marked the beginning of a critically acclaimed period for Eastwood. Eastwood's relationship with Sondra Locke had begun in 1975 during production of The Outlaw Josey Wales. They lived together for almost fourteen years, during which Locke remained married (in name only) to her gay husband, Gordon Anderson. Eastwood befriended Locke's husband and purchased a house in Crescent Heights for Anderson and his male lover.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


French postcard by Travelling Editions, Paris, no. CP 9. Clint Eastwood and John Saxon in Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972).


Belgian postcard by Raider Bounty / Joepie. Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 285.

Go Ahead, Make My Day

In 1980, Clint Eastwood’s nonstop success was broken by Bronco Billy, which he directed and played the lead role in. The film was liked by critics, but a rare commercial disappointment in Eastwood's career. Later that year, he starred in Any Which Way You Can (Buddy Van Horn, 1980), which ranked among the top five highest-grossing films of the year. In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred in Honkytonk Man, as a struggling Western singer who, accompanied by his young nephew (played by real-life son Kyle) goes to Nashville, Tennessee. In the same year Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox (1982) alongside Freddie Jones.

Then, Eastwood directed and starred in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), the darkest and most violent of the series. 'Go ahead, make my day', uttered by Eastwood in the film, became one of cinema's immortal lines. Sudden Impact was the last film which he starred in with Locke. The film was the most commercially successful of the Dirty Harry films, earning $70 million and it received very positive reviews. In the provocative thriller Tightrope (Richard Tuggle, 1984), Eastwood starred opposite Geneviève Bujold. His real-life daughter Alison, then eleven, also appeared in the film. It was another critical and commercial hit. Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (Richard Benjamin, 1984) alongside Burt Reynolds.

Eastwood revisited the Western genre when he directed and starred in Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985), based on the classic Western Shane (George Stevens, 1953). It became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date, and was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best Western to appear for a considerable period. He co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, 1986), about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. Then followed the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988), with Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, and a young Jim Carrey. It is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series.

Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, he directed Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. Eastman himself is a prolific jazz pianist who occasionally shows up to play piano at his Carmel, CA restaurant, The Hog's Breath Inn. He received two Golden Globes for Bird, but the film was a commercial failure. Jim Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (Buddy Van Horn, 1989) alongside Bernadette Peters.

In 1989, while his partner Sondra Locke was away directing the film Impulse (1990), Eastwood had the locks changed on their Bel-Air home and ordered her possessions to be boxed and put in storage. During the last three years of his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood fathered two children in secrecy with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves, Scott Reeves (1986), and Kathryn Reeves (1988). Eastwood finally presented both children to the public in 2002.


French postcard by Editions cinema, no. 212. Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973).


Vintage photo. Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43078. Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose (James Fargo, 1978).


West German postcard by G. Barth, Frankfurt, no. GB 44.

Unforgiven

In 1990, Clint Eastwood began living with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac in 1988. They had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (1993). Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in early 1995. Eastwood directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an adaptation of Peter Viertel's roman à clef, about John Huston and the making of the classic film The African Queen (1951).

Later in 1990, he directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie, a buddy cop action film. Eastwood revisited the Western genre in the self-directed film Unforgiven (1992), in which he played an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success; and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood.

Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 1993) co-starring John Malkovich. The film was among the top 10 box office performers that year, earning a reported $200 million. Later that year, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World (1993).

At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal, and in 1995, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards. Opposite Meryl Streep he starred in the romantic picture The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995), another commercial and critical success. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. In early 1995, Eastwood began dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993. They married in 1996. The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (1996).

In 1997, Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power, alongside Gene Hackman. Later that year, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. He directed and starred in True Crime (1999), as a journalist and recovering alcoholic, who has to cover the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington). The next year, he directed and starred in Space Cowboys (2000) alongside Tommy Lee Jones as veteran ex-test pilots sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite.


Dutch collector card. Clint Eastwood in Tightrope (Richard Tuggle, Clint Eastwood, 1984).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron in the Signes du zodiaque series, no. 10 - Gemeaux (Gemini). Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985).


British postcard, no. FA 221. Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, 1986).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. 5. Photo: Collection de l'ecole de Cinema Camiris. Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, 1986).


French promotion card for Les soirées des enfants de cinéma, 2014. Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang and Ahney Her in Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008).

Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent chasing a sadistic killer (Jeff Daniels) in the thriller Blood Work (2002). He directed and scored the crime drama Mystic River (2003), dealing with themes of murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse. The film starred Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins and won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins – with Eastwood garnering nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. The following year Eastwood found further critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, (2004). He played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with female boxer (Hilary Swank). The film won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman).

At age 74, Eastwood became the oldest of eighteen directors to have directed two or more Best Picture winners. In 2006, he directed two films about World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima. The first, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi and featured the film debut of Eastwood's son Scott. This was followed by Letters from Iwo Jima, which dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote home to family members. Eastwood next directed Changeling (2008), based on a true story set in the late 1920s. Angelina Jolie stars as a woman reunited with her missing son only to realise he is an impostor.

Eastwood ended a four-year self-imposed acting hiatus by appearing in Gran Torino (2008), which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million in theatres worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far. Eastwood's 30th directorial outing came with Invictus, a film based on the story of the South African team at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. In 2010, Eastwood directed the drama Hereafter, with Matt Damon as a psychic, and in 2011, J. Edgar, a biopic of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. Eastwood starred in the baseball drama Trouble with the Curve (Robert Lorenz, 2012), as a veteran baseball scout who travels with his daughter for a final scouting trip. Director Lorenz worked with Eastwood as an assistant director on several films.

Eastwood next directed Jersey Boys (2014), a musical biography based on the Tony Award-winning musical, and American Sniper (2014), a film adaptation of Chris Kyle's eponymous memoir. American Sniper grossed more than $350 million domestically and over $547 million globally, making it one of Eastwood's biggest films commercially. His next film, Sully (2016), starred Tom Hanks as Chesley Sullenberger, who successfully landed the US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in an emergency landing, keeping all passengers on board alive. It became another commercial success for Eastwood, grossing over $238 million worldwide. He directed the biographical thriller The 15:17 to Paris (2018), which saw previously non-professional actors Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos playing themselves as they stop the 2015 Thalys train attack. The film received a generally negative reception from critics, who were largely critical of the acting by the three leads. Eastwood next starred in and directed The Mule (2018). He played Earl Stone, an elderly drug smuggler based on Leo Sharp, Eastwood's first acting role since Trouble with the Curve in 2012. Eastwood's most recent films were Richard Jewell (2019) and the Neo-Western drama Cry Macho (2020). Juror No. 2, from a screenplay by Jonathan Abrams, is expected to be Eastwood's final film as director and producer. It will star Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and Kiefer Sutherland.

Clint Eastwood is also politically active and served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986 to 1988. Shawn Dwyer at TCM: “Although a registered Republican since the early-1950s, Eastwood's politics, like the man himself, were that of a true iconoclast. Over the years he had voted for candidates from both parties and publicly denounced the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. And while he had initially wished President Barack Obama well during the start of his first term in office, Eastwood, became a vocal booster for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, dissatisfied with what he viewed as Obama's inability to govern.” But the cinema is Clint Eastwood’s major career. He has contributed to over 50 films as actor, director, producer, and composer. According to the box office-revenue tracking website, Box Office Mojo, films featuring Eastwood have grossed a total of more than US $1.68 billion domestically, with an average of $37 million per film.


German postcard. Photo: Constantin / Paul March.


British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd, London, no. BW 878. Photo: The Hulton Deutsch Collection.


American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. P. 289. Photo: Terry O'Neill. Caption: Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood, 1972.


American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no. Z323. Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Caption: Clint Eastwood, Burbank, California, 1980.

Sources: Shawn Dwyer (TCM - page now defunct), Yuri German (AllMovie), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Les Misérables (2012)

Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012) is a well-executed, powerful film musical. The screenplay by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer, is based on the stage musical of the same name by Schönberg, Boublil, and Jean-Marc Natel, which in turn is based on the epic novel 'Les Misérables' (1862) by Victor Hugo. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: Freedom is Mine. From the Academy Award-winning director of 'The King's Speech'. The Musical Phenomenon.


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Russell Crowe as Javert in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: I am the Law. From the Academy Award-winning director of 'The King's Speech'. The Musical Phenomenon.

A decision that changes their lives forever

In 1815, French prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) was released from the Bagne of Toulon after a nineteen-year sentence for stealing bread to feed his sister's child. His paroled status prevents him from finding work or accommodation, but he is sheltered by the kindly Bishop of Digne.

Valjean attempts to steal his silverware and is captured, but the bishop, in radical grace, claims he gave him the silver and tells him to use it to begin an honest life. Moved, Valjean breaks his parole and assumes a new identity, intending to redeem others.

For decades he is hunted by the ruthless and persistent Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). Then the fugitive promises dying prostitute Fantine (Anne Hathaway) to take care of her little daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried). The decision changes their lives forever.

Set in post-revolutionary France, the story resolves to the background of the June Rebellion of 1832. In his huge epic novel of 1500 pages, Victor Hugo's 'Les Misérables' featured many characters and covered many decades and several grand themes. It's impossible to cram this all into a 2.5-hour film. 'Les Mis' has been filmed several times and the latest BBC series from 2018 was a 6-hour in-depth version. But this 2012 adaptation is the first film version of the immensely popular Cameron Mackintosh musical which ran for 27 years and had a total audience of over 60 million.

'Les Mis' is not the most accessible of musicals. It is lengthy and the quite heavy story feels like an opera. Following the release of the stage musical, a film adaptation was mired in development hell for over ten years. The rights were passed on to several major studios, and various directors including Alan Parker and Bruce Beresford were considered. In 2011, Mackintosh finally sold the film rights to Eric Fellner, who financed the film with Tim Bevan and Debra Hayward through their production company Working Title Films. As the director, they wanted the Brit Tom Hooper, who had just made the acclaimed historical drama The King's Speech (2010).


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Anne Hathaway as Fantine in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: I dreamed a dream. From the Academy Award winning director of 'The King's Speech'. The musical phenomenon.


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Isabelle Allen as young Cosette in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: Fight Dream Hope Love. From the Academy Award-winning director of 'The King's Speech'.

A surrealistic, nightmarish Paris

For his Les Misérables (2012), Tom Hooper chose an incomplete rendering of the musical. He went for depth and context so one can truly appreciate the tragedy and the themes. His film is a bold and commendable attempt at converting the musical to a film format.

Even more daring was Hooper's insistence to make a film in which all the dialogue was sung live and the actors could sing as if they were acting. In several lines, Hugh Jackman almost speaks rather than truly sings, because he is trying to do the songs in a more realistic acting fashion. This works best in Anne Hathaway's song 'I Dreamed a Dream'. Her raw, emotional rendition works perfectly for her devastatingly human portrayal of Fantine. Hathaway won an Oscar for it.

The casting is mostly good. Jackman is an excellent Valjean, vulnerable and strong. He believes. He emotes. He is as big as the story itself. Jackson deservedly received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Russell Crowe is also fine as Javert, the obsessive and punitive policeman who mercilessly hounds Jean Valjean. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter give bravura performances as the hilarious Thénardier innkeepers. In an almost three-hour show, Hooper, writer Claude-Michel Schonberg and cinematographer Danny Cohen keep the action moving. Hooper skillfully created a surrealistic, nightmarish Paris for Fantine. The extremely heightened realism is on the verge of being surrealistic. The close-ups create a kind of intimacy which provides opportunities for the actors to do their work.

The result is personal and intense. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian: "It conquers its audience with weapons all its own: not passion so much as passionate sincerity, not power so much as overwhelming force. Every line, every note, every scene is belted out with diaphragm-quivering conviction and unbroken, unremitting intensity. The physical strength of this movie is impressive: an awe-inspiring and colossal effort, just like Valjean's as he lifts the flagpole at the beginning of the film. You can almost see the movie's muscles flexing and the veins standing out like whipcords on its forehead. At the end of 158 minutes, you have experienced something."

The film grossed over $442 million worldwide against a production budget of $61 million during its original theatrical run. In anticipation of the stage musical's forthcoming 40th anniversary in 2025, the film is digitally remixed and remastered in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Cameron Mackintosh, Tom Hooper, music producer Lee McCutcheon, music director Stephen Metcalfe and sound mixer Andy Nelson all supervised the Dolby Atmos remix for this 2024 version.


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Amanda Seyfried as Cosette in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: Heart full of love. From the Academy Award-winning director of 'The King's Speech'. The musical phenomenon.


Taiwanese postcard by CoolCard, 2013. Photo: Ignition, Los Angeles / Working Title / Universal. Amanda Seyfried as Cosette and Eddie Redmayne as Marius in Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012). Caption: Heart Full of Love. The Musical Phenomenon.

Sources: Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian), Wikipedia and IMDb.