The career of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood

Hard to believe, but Clint Eastwood's career began quite modestly in television. Now a film hero and world-famous actor, he had to keep himself afloat then by taking on minor TV roles beginning in the mid-1950s. The powerful-looking actor also had some roles in feature films, but they were likewise minor appearances.

The US TV actor Eastwood was eventually hired by Italian director Sergio Leone, who couldn't afford more expensive stars — and earned about $15,000 for his appearance in the Spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars," playing a gunslinger who goes on the gravy train among two rival gangs. The film was a huge success.

Clint Eastwood also played the cool bounty hunter in Leone's succeeding westerns "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." They marked Eastwood's breakthrough and turned him into a star. Ruggedly handsome and with an enormous physical presence, he often played tough men. In the war movie "Where Eagles Dare," he made his mark at Richard Burton's side.

Eastwood made his next career leap in 1971 when he played the rude inspector Harry Callahan in "Dirty Harry" for director Don Siegel, with whom he also shot numerous movies in the following years. The tough police thriller became one of the most influential movies of the genre. The cynical and inconsiderate Callahan became something of a cult among millions of cinema fans.

Shortly after "Dirty Harry," Clint Eastwood took on his first role as director: with the thriller "Play Misty for Me." Establishing himself as an action-oriented filmmaker, the star actor remained true to the western genre as a director, for example with "High Plains Drifter" (photo), in which he continued to hone his cinema image as a taciturn, assertive and often unscrupulous pistolero.

Clint Eastwood set new accents in the 1985 western "Pale Rider." The director and actor had already tried his hand at other genres before, including comedies. With "Pale Rider," he not only returned to the western, he rewrote the legend. His roles were no longer quite so unscrupulous and one-dimensional. "Pale Rider" earned him an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival.

Three years later, Clint Eastwood finally made the leap to arthouse cinema as a director. With "Bird," jazz fan Eastwood paid a cinematic tribute to the American musician Charlie Parker. The biographical film starring Forest Whitaker collected several awards.

In 1992, Clint Eastwood returned to his favorite genre with the western "Unforgiven." But he completely demystified the role of the tough cowboy and pistol shooter. "Unforgiven" depicted an older gunslinger who falls off his horse and hardly has any control over the situation. The work was rewarded with four Oscars, including best picture and best director.

By the mid-1990s, Clint Eastwood had reached retirement age, but he remained very active, imbuing his work with his life experience. In the romantic drama "The Bridges of Madison County," a love affair between Robert (Eastwood) and Francesca (Meryl Streep) deeply affects the rest of their lives. For the first time, Eastwood directed a movie with a woman as the central figure.

A decade later, Eastwood was at the absolute peak of his career. In the 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby," the actor played an aging boxing coach who takes a talented athlete (Hilary Swank) under his wing, and she eventually makes it to the world championship. A stirring tragedy about life and death, the sports film grabbed four Oscars.

At age 78, Clint Eastwood directed his 17th film, and proving his enormous energy and creativity yet again, he was both director and leading actor. "Gran Torino" takes a look at immigrants in the US, at racism and violence, at prejudice and how to deal with it. The movie shines with complex characters and great actors.

Clint Eastwood's 2014 film "American Sniper" was a huge success. The story of US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle — the most successful sniper in the US Army in Iraq but later murdered in his home country — was an absolute box-office hit.

Eastwood took up with mega-star Tom Hanks (shown here) to create the 2016 drama "Sully," about the US pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who initiated the January 2009 emergency landing of a doomed flight onto the Hudson River in New York. The film revolves around the landing, the survival of all 155 passengers and crew, and the subsequent publicity and investigation.

Clint Eastwood's most recent film, "Richard Jewell," released at the end of 2019, revolves around US security guard Richard Jewell, who saved many lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics. He was later vilified by journalists and the press, who falsely reported that he was a terrorist.

As an actor, director and public figure, Clint Eastwood is a cult figure in his home country, but also worldwide. Yet he has never been flashy or forced himself into the limelight. Eastwood is not a big fan of red-carpet appearances, and has never been one to show off his marriages in public. Here he is with his longtime wife Dina, from whom he separated in 2013.

Eastwood has been involved in US politics, formerly for the Republicans. "I think I was already socially liberal and fiscally conservative before this became fashionable," he once said. He has been critical of US foreign missions, but also been criticized by fellow actors like Meryl Streep for his support of US President Donald Trump. He has meanwhile distanced himself from the president.

Eastwood is known to be a fitness enthusiast, conscientious eater and practitioner of transcendental meditation, surely helping him stay fit at age 90.