Clint Eastwood

The tall, raw-boned actor who made his mark on television in the Rawhide series, went on to acquire an international reputation as the laconically silent, supernaturally fast-drawing Man with no Name persona in a trio of films directed by Sergio Leone in Spain. Returning to Hollywood he consolidated his status as heir apparent to John Wayne (though more in line of descent from Randolph Scott in a trio of Westerns directed by Don Siegel). Subsequently he doubled as a director of considerable talent of which Unforgiven is his finest in the Western genre.

Eastwood frequently alternates between commercial potboilers and other films that constitute an attempt to explore the elements of his success. High Plains Drifter for example, can be seen as an exorcism of his twin debt to Leoni and Siegel in an extension of their influence on him, while Outlaw Josey Wales is the best of several mockingly critical appraisals of his own persona.

Nigel Arthur, bfi Stills Curator