Vincent's Chair by Vincent van Gogh

Five three-legged chairs around a low-legged table from Sliven 19th Century Lifestyle Museum

A chair is a raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs are most often supported by four legs and have a back^[1][2]; however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape.^[3]

A chair without a back or arm rests is a stool,^[4] or when raised up, a bar stool.^[5] A chair with arms is an armchair^[6] and with folding action and inclining footrest, a recliner. ^[7] A permanently fixed chair in a train or theater is a seat^[8] or airline seat;^[9] when riding, it is a saddle^[10] and bicycle saddle,^[11] and for an automobile, a car seat^[12] or infant car seat.^[13] With wheels it is a wheelchair^[14] and when hung from above, a swing.^[15]

A chair for more than one person is a couch, sofa, settee, or "loveseat";^[16] or a bench.^[17] A separate footrest for a chair is known as an ottoman,^[18] hassock^[19] or pouffe.^[20]

History of the chair[link]

The chair is of extreme antiquity and simplicity, although for many centuries it was an article of state and dignity rather than an article of ordinary use. "The chair" is still extensively used as the emblem of authority in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom^[21] and Canada,^[22] and in many other settings.

Committees, boards of directors, and academic departments all have a 'chairman'.^[23] Endowed professorships are referred to as chairs.^[24]

In fact, it was not until the 16th century that it became common anywhere. Until then the chest, the bench and the stool were the ordinary seats of everyday life, and the number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most examples are of ecclesiastical or seigneurial origin.^[25] Our knowledge of the chairs of remote antiquity is derived almost entirely from monuments, sculpture and paintings.^[26]

Chairs were in existence since at least the Early Dynasty Period. They were covered with cloth or leather, were made of carved wood and were much lower than today’s chairs, chair seats were sometimes only 25 cm high..^[27] In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor. Fashioned of ebony and ivory, or of carved and gilded wood, they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of the legs of beasts or the figures of captives.^[28] Generally speaking, the higher ranked an individual was, the taller and more sumptuous was the chair he sat on and the greater the honor. On state occasions the pharaoh sat on a throne, often with a little footstool in front of it.^[29]

The average Egyptian family seldom had chairs, and if they did, it was usually only the master of the household who sat on a chair. Among the better off, the chairs might be painted to look like the ornate inlaid and carved chairs of the rich, but the craftsmanship was usually poor.^[30]

During the Tang dynasty (618 - 907 AD), a higher seat first started to appear amongst the Chinese elite and their usage soon spread to all levels of society. By the 12th century seating on the floor was rare in China, unlike in other Asian countries where the custom continued, and the chair, or more commonly the stool, was used in the vast majority of houses throughout the country.^[31]

In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be a privilege of state, and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. We find almost at once that the chair began to change every few years to reflect the fashions of the day.^[32]

In the 1880s, chairs became more common in American households and usually there was a chair provided for every family member to sit down to dinner. By the 1830s, factory-manufactured “fancy chairs” like those by Sears. Roebuck, and o. allowed families to purchase machined sets. With the Industrial Revolution, chairs became much more available.^[33]

The 20th century saw an increasing use of technology in chair construction with such things as all-metal folding chairs, metal-legged chairs, the Slumber Chair,^[34] moulded plastic chairs^[35] and ergonomic chairs.^[36] The recliner became a popular form, at least in part due to radio and television.

The modern movement of the 1960s produced new forms of chairs: the butterfly chair (originally called the Hardoy chair),^[37] bean bags,^[38] and the egg-shaped pod chair.^[39] Technological advances led to molded plywood and wood laminate chairs, as well as chairs made of leather or polymers. Mechanical technology incorporated into the chair enabled adjustable chairs, especially for office use. Motors embedded in the chair resulted in massage chairs.^[40][41]

Materials[link]

The design may be made of porous materials, or be drilled with holes for decoration; a low back or gaps can provide ventilation. The back may extend above the height of the occupant's head, which can optionally contain a headrest. Chairs can also be made from more creative materials, such as recycled materials like cutlery and wooden play bricks, pencils, plumbing tubes, rope and pvc pipe.^[42]

Raimonds Cirulis, a Lativan interior designer, created a Volcanic Hanging Chair that is a 100% handmade piece of furniture and is made out of volcanic rock.^[43] Peter Brenner, a Dutch-born German designer, has created a chair made from lollipop sugar, made from 60 pounds of confectioners' sugar.^[44]

Design and ergonomics[link]

S Chair, Designed by Verner Panton

Chair design considers intended usage, ergonomics (how comfortable it is for the occupant),^[45] as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stackability, foldability, weight, durability, stain resistance and artistic design. Intended usage determines the desired seating position. "Task chairs",^[46][47] or any chair intended for people to work at a desk or table, including dining chairs, can only recline very slightly; otherwise the occupant is too far away from the desk or table. Dental chairs are necessarily reclined. Easy chairs for watching television or movies are somewhere in between depending on the height of the screen.

Ergonomic design distributes the weight of the occupant to various parts of the body. A seat that is higher results in dangling feet and increased pressure on the underside of the knees ("popliteal fold"). It may also result in no weight on the feet which means more weight elsewhere. A lower seat may shift too much weight to the "seat bones" ("ischial tuberosities").

A reclining seat and back will shift weight to the occupant's back. This may be more comfortable for some in reducing weight on the seat area, but may be problematic for others who have bad backs. In general, if the occupant is supposed to sit for a long time, weight needs to be taken off the seat area and thus "easy" chairs intended for long periods of sitting are generally at least slightly reclined. However, reclining may not be suitable for chairs intended for work or eating at table.

The back of the chair will support some of the weight of the occupant, reducing the weight on other parts of the body. In general, backrests come in three heights: Lower back backrests support only the lumbar region. Shoulder height backrests support the entire back and shoulders. Headrests support the head as well and are important in vehicles for preventing "whiplash" neck injuries in rear-end collisions where the head is jerked back suddenly. Reclining chairs typically have at least shoulder height backrests to shift weight to the shoulders instead of just the lower back.

The Difference between Leg Room & Seat Pitch

Some chairs have foot rests. A stool or other simple chair may have a simple straight or curved bar near the bottom for the sitter to place his or her feet on.

Some chairs have two curved bands of wood (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs. They are called rocking chairs.

The type of chair popular in western Hubei, China: with a fairly low seat and the back inclined at about 45 degrees from the vertical

A kneeling chair adds an additional body part, the knees, to support the weight of the body. A sit-stand chair distributes most of the weight of the occupant to the feet. Many chairs are padded or have cushions. Padding can be on the seat of the chair only, on the seat and back, or also on any arm rests and/or foot rest the chair may have. Padding will not shift the weight to different parts of the body (unless the chair is so soft that the shape is altered). However, padding does distribute the weight by increasing the area of contact between the chair and the body. A hard wood chair feels hard because the contact point between the occupant and the chair is small. The same body weight over a smaller area means greater pressure on that area. Spreading the area reduces the pressure at any given point. In lieu of padding, flexible materials, such as wicker, may be used instead with similar effects of distributing the weight. Since most of the body weight is supported in the back of the seat, padding there should be firmer than the front of the seat which only has the weight of the legs to support. Chairs that have padding that is the same density front and back will feel soft in the back area and hard to the underside of the knees.

There may be cases where padding is not desirable. For example, in chairs that are intended primarily for outdoor use. Where padding is not desirable, contouring may be used instead. A contoured seat pan attempts to distribute weight without padding. By matching the shape of the occupant's buttocks, weight is distributed and maximum pressure is reduced.

Churchchairs

Actual chair dimensions are determined by measurements of the human body or anthropometric measurements. The two most relevant anthropometric measurement for chair design is the popliteal height and buttock popliteal length.

For someone seated, the popliteal height is the distance from the underside of the foot to the underside of the thigh at the knees. It is sometimes called the "stool height." The term "sitting height" is reserved for the height to the top of the head when seated. For American men, the median popliteal height is 16.3 inches (410 mm) and for American women it is 15.0 inches (380 mm) [1]. The popliteal height, after adjusting for heels, clothing and other issues is used to determine the height of the chair seat. Mass produced chairs are typically 17 inches (430 mm) high.

For someone seated, the buttock popliteal length is the horizontal distance from the back most part of the buttocks to the back of the lower leg. This anthropometric measurement is used to determine the seat depth. Mass produced chairs are typically 15-17 inches deep.

Additional anthropometric measurements may be relevant to designing a chair. Hip breadth is used for chair width and armrest width. Elbow rest height is used to determine the height of the armrests. The buttock-knee length is used to determine "leg room" between rows of chairs. "Seat pitch" is the distance between rows of seats. In some airplanes and stadiums the leg room (the seat pitch less the thickness of the seat at thigh level) is so small that it is sometimes insufficient for the average person.

For adjustable chairs, such as an office chair, the aforementioned principles are applied in adjusting the chair to the individual occupant.

Caster wheels are attached to the feet of chairs to give more mobility

Gas springs are attached to the body of the chair in order to give height adjustment and more comfort to the user

Armrests[link]

Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman

Art deco club chair.

A chair may or may not have armrests; chairs with armrests are termed armchairs. In French, a distinction is made between fauteuil and chaise, the terms for chairs with and without armrests, respectively. If present, armrests will support part of the body weight through the arms if the arms are resting on the armrests. Armrests further have the function of making entry and exit from the chair easier (but from the side it becomes more difficult). Armrests should support the forearm and not the sensitive elbow area. Hence in some chair designs, the armrest is not continuous to the chair back, but is missing in the elbow area.

A couch, bench, or other arrangement of seats next to each other may have armrest at the sides and/or arm rests in between. The latter may be provided for comfort, but also for privacy e.g. in public transport and other public places, and to prevent lying on the bench. Arm rests reduce both desired and undesired proximity. A loveseat in particular, has no armrest in between.

See also seats in movie theaters, and pictures of benches with and without arm rests.

Chair seats[link]

Polypropylene (molded plastic) seats and stainless steel legs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This type of material is very useful in sea regions

Chair seats vary widely in construction and may or may not match construction of the chair's back (backrest).

Some systems include:

• center seats where a solid material forms the chair seat.
  • Solid wood, may or may not be shaped to human contours.
  • Wood slats, often seen on outdoor chairs
  • Padded leather, generally a flat wood base covered in padding and contained in soft leather
  • Stuffed fabric, similar to padded leather
  • Metal seats of solid or open design
  • Molded plastic
  • Stone, often marble
• Open center seats where a soft material is attached to the tops of chair legs or between stretchers to form the seat.
  • Wicker, woven to provide a surface with give to it
  • Leather, may be tooled with a design
  • Fabric, simple covering without support
  • Tape, wide fabric tape woven into seat, seen in lawn chairs and some old chairs
  • Caning, woven from rush, reed, rawhide, heavy paper, strong grasses, cattails to form the seat, often in elaborate patterns
  • Splint, ash, oak or hickory strips are woven
  • Metal, Metal mesh or wire woven to form seat

Standards and specifications[link]

Highly decorated carved-back chairs in Mexico

Design considerations for chairs have been codified into standards. ISO 9241, "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) -- Part 5: Workstation layout and postural requirements" is the most common one for modern chair design.

There are multiple specific standards for different types of chairs. Dental chairs are specified by ISO 6875. Bean bag chairs are specified by ANSI standard ASTM F1912-98 [2]. ISO 7174 specifies stability of rocking and tilting chairs. ASTM F1858-98 specifies plastic lawn chairs. ASTM E1822-02b defines the combustibility of chairs when they are stacked.

The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA)[3] defines BIFMA X5.1 for testing of commercial-grade chairs. It specifies things like [4]:

• chair back strength of 150 pounds (68 kg)
• chair stability if weight is transferred completely to the front or back legs
• leg strength of 75 pounds (34 kg) applied one inch (25 mm) from the bottom of the leg
• seat strength of 225 pounds (102 kg) dropped from six inches (150 mm) above the seat
• seat cycle strength of 100,000 repetitions of 125 pounds (57 kg) dropped from 2 inches (50 mm) above the seat

The specification further defines heavier "proof" loads that chairs must withstand. Under these higher loads, the chair may be damaged, but it must not fail catastrophically.

Large institutions that make bulk purchases will reference these standards within their own even more detailed criteria for purchase. [5] Governments will often issue standards for purchases by government agencies (e.g. Canada's Canadian General Standards Board CAN/CGSB 44.15M [6] on "Straight Stacking Chair, Steel" or CAN/CGSB 44.232-2002 on "Task Chairs for Office Work with Visual Display Terminal").

Chairs may be rated by the length of time that they may be used comfortably — an 8-hour chair, a 24-hour chair, and so on. Such chairs are specified for tasks which require extended periods of sitting, such as for receptionists or supervisors of a control panel.

Accessories[link]

AISI 304 stainless steel laboratory chair with gas springs and caster wheels. A specific type of chair for professional use

In place of a built-in footrest, some chairs come with a matching ottoman. An ottoman is a short stool intended to be used as a footrest but can sometimes be used as a stool. If matched to a glider, the ottoman may be mounted on swing arms so that the ottoman rocks back and forth with the main glider.

A chair cover is a temporary fabric cover for a side chair. They are typically rented for formal events such as wedding receptions to increase the attractiveness of the chairs and decor. The chair covers may come with decorative chair ties, a ribbon to be tied as a bow behind the chair. Covers for sofas and couches are also available for homes with small children and pets. In the second half of 20th century, some people used custom clear plastic covers for expensive sofas and chairs to protect them.

Chair pads are cushions for chairs. They contain cotton or foam for padding. Some are decorative. In cars, they may be used to increase the height of the driver. Orthopedic backrests provide support for the back. Some manufacturers have patents on their designs and are recognized by medical associations as beneficial [7][8][9]. Car seats sometimes have built-in and adjustable lumbar supports. These can also be used on kitchen chairs.

Chair mats are mats meant to cover carpet or hardwood flooring. They are usually made from plastic. This allows chairs on wheels to roll easily over the carpet and/or protects the carpet or floor. They come in various shapes, some specifically sized to fit partially under a desk.

Remote control bags can be draped over the arm of easy chairs or sofas and used to hold remote controls. They are counter-weighted so as to not slide off the arms under the weight of the remote control.

Chair glides are attached to the feet of chairs to prevent them from scratching or snagging on the floor.

The Twelve Chairs monument in Odessa - Deribassovskaya street (Ukraine).

Chairs as sculptural and art forms[link]

In 2001, Steve Mann exhibited a chair sculpture at San Francisco Art Institute. The chair had spikes that retracted when a credit card was inserted to download a seating license.

Chair sculpture by Steve Mann, exhibited at San Francisco Art Institute, 2001, comprises spikes that retract when a credit card is inserted to download a seating license.

Later other museums and galleries were equipped with the Pay to Sit chair, with a global central seating license server located in Toronto. Patrons anywhere in the world could each receive one free seat license. The first seating session was free, with a database of persons who'd already used their free session.

In language[link]

• A film or a story is said to keep you on the edge of your seat, if it is suspenseful or engaging.
• If you nearly fell off your chair, it was because you were very surprised.
• An orchestra awards a musician a chair or seat based on ability. The best player in a particular section will receive "first chair," or the "principal seat." It is also common for this position to be known as 'first stand,' a reference to the portable lectern on which the musicians put their sheet music. However, the person who is first chair in the first violin section is usually referred to as the concertmaster in the USA or leader in the UK.
• Musical chairs is a common party game, and a colloquial expression to describe people shuffling from seat to seat, or around different locations.
• In American slang, to say someone has gotten "the chair" is to say that they have been executed by an electric chair.
• To be on its last leg is an expression that stems from the practice of sawing the ends of chair legs off in previous centuries. It means that it is decrepit and nearing the end of its serviceability.

See also[link]

Look up chair in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chairs

See List of chairs for an extended list of chair types, such as the bean bag chair, lift chair, papasan chair, sofa, swivel chair and throne.

• Couch
• Cushion
• History of the chair
• Riding-like sitting
• Sitting
• Seating
• Splat, the central vertical element of a wooden chair back

References[link]

• "Guide to Great Chair Design." Guide to Great Chair Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://greatchairdesign.com/>
• "folding chairs through the ages." designboom. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/foldingchair.html>.
• "chair history — Chair Blog." Chair Blog — Chairs, Chair Designers and Chair Manufacturers. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.chairblog.eu/category/chair-history/>.

Further reading[link]

de Dampierre, F. (2006). Chairs: A History. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-5484-2

Fiell, C. (2005). 1000 Chairs. (25th ed.). Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-4103-X

Miller, J. (2009). Chairs. Conran. ISBN 1-84091-523-4

Clint Eastwood
Eastwood at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Clinton Eastwood, Jr. (1930-05-31) May 31, 1930 (age 82) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, and composer
Years active	1955–present
Spouse	Maggie Johnson (1953–84; two children) Dina Ruiz (1996–present; one child)
Children	Kimber Tunis Kyle Eastwood Alison Eastwood Scott Reeves Kathryn Reeves Francesca Fisher-Eastwood Morgan Eastwood

	This article is part of a series on Clint Eastwood
Background · 1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s · 2000s · Politics · Personal life · Awards and honors · Filmography · Discography · Malpaso Productions

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1965). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) during the late 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.^[1][2]

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Play Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. Eastwood's only comedies have been Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), which are his two most commercially successful films after adjustment for inflation.

In addition to directing most of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations, and Changeling (2008). He has received considerable critical praise in France, including for several films which were not well received in the United States, and he has been awarded two of France's highest honors: in 1994, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal, and in 2007 the Légion d'honneur medal. In 2000, he was awarded the Italian Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

Since 1967, Eastwood has run his own production company, Malpaso, which has produced all except four of his American films. He also served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, from 1986 to 1988. Eastwood has seven children by five women, although he has only married twice.

Early life[link]

Eastwood was born in San Francisco to Clinton Eastwood, Sr. (1906–70), a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (née Runner; 1909–2006), a factory worker.^[3] He was nicknamed "Samson" by the hospital nurses as he weighed 11 pounds 6 ounces (5.2 kg) at birth.^[4][5][6] After his father died in 1970, Eastwood's mother remarried to John Belden Wood (1913–2004) in 1972, and they remained married until his death 32 years later.^[7] Eastwood is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry^[3][8] and was raised in a middle class home with his younger sister, Jean (born 1934).^[9][10] His family relocated often as his father worked at different jobs along the West Coast, including at a pulp mill.^[11][12] The family settled in Piedmont, California, where Eastwood attended Piedmont Junior High School and Piedmont Senior High School, taking part in sports such as basketball, football, gymnastics, and competitive swimming.^[13] He later transferred to Oakland Technical High School where the drama teachers encouraged him to enroll in school plays, but he was not interested. As his family moved to different areas he held a series of jobs including lifeguard, paper carrier, grocery clerk, forest firefighter, and golf caddy.^[14]

In 1950, Eastwood began a one-year stint as a lifeguard for the United States Army during the Korean War^[15] and was posted to Fort Ord in California.^[16] While on leave in 1951 Eastwood was a passenger onboard a Douglas AD bomber that ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean near Point Reyes.^[17][18] After escaping from the sinking aircraft he and the pilot swam 3 miles (5 km) to safety.^[19]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Publicity photo for Rawhide, 1961

According to the CBS press release for Rawhide, Universal Studios (then known as Universal-International) was shooting in Fort Ord when an assistant noticed Eastwood and arranged for him to meet the series' director.^[20] According to Eastwood's official biography, a man named Chuck Hill was instrumental in securing employment for Eastwood at Universal;^[20] Hill, who had contacts in Hollywood, managed to sneak Eastwood into one of Universal's studios, where he showed him to cameraman Irving Glassberg.^[20] Glassberg arranged for Eastwood to have an audition with Arthur Lubin who, although impressed with Eastwood's appearance and 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m) frame,^[21] initially questioned his acting skills, remarking, "He was quite amateurish. He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything".^[22] Lubin suggested Eastwood attend drama classes, and arranged for his initial contract in April 1954 at $100 (US$865 in 2012 dollars^[23]) per week.^[22] After signing, Eastwood was criticized for his stiff manner, his squint, and for hissing his lines through his teeth, a feature that would become a lifelong trademark.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Eastwood's first acting role was an uncredited bit part as a laboratory assistant in the 1955 film Revenge of the Creature.^[28] He then had uncredited bit parts in several other films, such as Lady Godiva of Coventry and Never Say Goodbye (1956), as well as a small speaking role in Francis in the Navy.^[29][30][31] In 1959, he made a guest appearance on Maverick, opposite James Garner, as a cowardly villain intent on marrying a rich girl for money.^[32] Eastwood had a small part as an aviator in the French picture Lafayette Escadrille and took on a featured role as an ex-Confederate renegade in Ambush at Cimarron Pass, a film which Eastwood viewed as disastrous and the lowest point of his career.^[33][34][35]

In a long sought-after break, Eastwood was cast in the supporting role of Rowdy Yates for the CBS hour-long western series Rawhide in the summer of 1958,^[36][37] although he was not especially happy with his role. Now aged 28, Eastwood felt his character Rowdy was too young and cloddish for him to feel comfortable with the part.^[38] Rawhide premiered in January 1959^[39] and after its release took only three weeks to reach the top 20 in the TV ratings. Although the series never won an Emmy it was a major success for several years, reaching its peak at number six in the ratings between October 1960 and April 1961.^[40] The Rawhide years (1959–65) were some of the most grueling of Eastwood's career. He often filmed for six days a week at an average of twelve hours a day, yet some directors still criticized him for not working hard enough.^[41][40] By late 1963 Rawhide's popularity had declined. Lacking freshness in the scripts, it was canceled in the middle of the 1965–66 television season.^[42] Eastwood made his first attempt at directing when he filmed several trailers for the show, although he was unable to convince producers to let him direct an episode.^[43] In the show's first season Eastwood earned $750 (US$6,042 in 2012 dollars^[23]) an episode. At the time of Rawhide’s cancellation, he received $119,000 (US$877,609 in 2012 dollars^[23]) in compensation.^[44]

1960s[link]

Set of The Good, Bad and the Ugly in Almería in 2009

In late 1963 Eastwood's co-star on Rawhide, Eric Fleming, rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made western called A Fistful of Dollars, to be directed in a remote region of Spain by the then relatively unknown Sergio Leone.^[45] Other actors, including Charles Bronson, Steve Reeves, Richard Harrison, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, and Ty Hardin, were also considered for the role. Knowing that he could play a cowboy convincingly Harrison suggested Eastwood, who in turn saw the film as an opportunity to escape from Rawhide. He signed a contract for $15,000 (US$112,403 in 2012 dollars^[23]) in wages for eleven weeks' work, with a bonus of a Mercedes automobile upon completion.^[46][47] Eastwood later spoke of the transition from a television western to A Fistful of Dollars: "In Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an anti-hero."^[48] Eastwood was instrumental in creating the Man with No Name character's distinctive visual style and, 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.^[49]

A Fistful of Dollars proved a landmark in the development of spaghetti westerns, with Leone depicting a more lawless and desolate world than in traditional westerns, and challenging stereotypical American notions of a western hero by replacing him with a morally ambiguous antihero. The film's success meant Eastwood became a major star in Italy^[50] and he was re-hired by Leone to star in For a Few Dollars More (1965), the second film of the trilogy. Through the efforts of screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, the rights to For a Few Dollars More and the final film of the trilogy (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) were sold to United Artists for approximately $900,000 (US$6.64 million in 2012 dollars^[23]).^[51]

In January 1966 Eastwood met producer Dino De Laurentiis in New York City and agreed to star in a non-western five-part anthology production named Le streghe ("The Witches") opposite De Laurentiis' wife, actress Silvana Mangano.^[53] Eastwood's nineteen-minute installment only took a few days to shoot but his performance did not go down well with critics, with one writing "no other performance of his is quite so 'un-Clintlike' ".^[54] Two months later Eastwood began work on the third Dollars film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which he again played the mysterious Man with No Name. Lee Van Cleef returned to play a ruthless fortune seeker, while Eli Wallach portrayed the cunning Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. The storyline involves the search for a cache of Confederate gold buried in a cemetery. During the filming of one scene in which a bridge was to be dynamited, Eastwood urged Wallach to retreat to a hilltop saying, "I know about these things. Stay as far away from special effects and explosives as you can."^[55] Minutes later confusion among the crew over the word "Vaya!" resulted in a premature explosion that could have killed Wallach.^[55]

The Dollars trilogy was not shown in the United States until 1967 when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December.^[56] All the films were commercially successful, particularly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which eventually earned $8 million (US$55.8 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) in rental earnings and turned Eastwood into a major film star.^[56] All three films received generally bad reviews, and marked the beginning of a battle for Eastwood to win the respect of American film critics.^[57] Judith Crist described A Fistful of Dollars as "cheapjack",^[58] while Newsweek considered For a Few Dollars More as "excruciatingly dopey".^[57] Renata Adler of The New York Times opined that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (now widely considered one of the finest films in the history of cinema.^[59][60]) was "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre".^[61] Time magazine drew attention to the film's wooden acting, especially on the part of Eastwood, although critics such as Vincent Canby and Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Eastwood's coolness in playing the tall, lone stranger.^[62] Leone's distinctive cinematography style was widely acclaimed, even by critics who disparaged the acting in the film.^[57]

Stardom brought more "tough guy" roles for Eastwood. He signed up to star in the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High (1968), in which he featured alongside Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, Dennis Hopper, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern, and James MacArthur,^[63] playing a man who seeks revenge after being lynched by vigilantes and left for dead.^[64] A cross between Rawhide and Leone's westerns, the film earned Eastwood a fee of $400,000 (US$2.67 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) and 25 percent of its net box-office takings.^[63] Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy, accountant and Eastwood advisor Irving Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after the Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists^[65] and, when it opened in July 1968, the film became the biggest United Artists opening in history — its box office receipts exceeding all the James Bond films of the time.^[66][67] Hang 'Em High was widely praised by critics, including Archer Winsten of the New York Post who described it as, "a western of quality, courage, danger and excitement".^[10]

Before the release of Hang 'Em High Eastwood had already begun work on the film Coogan's Bluff, about an Arizona deputy sheriff tracking a wanted psychopathic criminal (Don Stroud) through the streets of New York City. He was reunited with Universal Studios for the project after receiving an offer of $1 million (US$6.97 million in 2012 dollars^[23])—more than double his previous salary.^[67] Jennings Lang arranged for Eastwood to meet Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who later became one of Eastwood's close friends, with the two forming a partnership that would last more than ten years and comprise five films.^[68] Filming began in November 1967, before the script had been finalized.^[69] The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence,^[70][71] with Eastwood's role creating the prototype for what would later become the macho cop of the Dirty Harry film series.^{[citation needed]} 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 was paid $850,000 (US$5.68 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) in 1968 for the war epic Where Eagles Dare,^[72] about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the alpine mountains. Richard Burton played the squad's commander, with Eastwood as his right-hand man. Eastwood was also cast as Two-Face in the Batman television show, but the series was canceled before filming began.^[73]

Eastwood then branched out to star in the only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin play gold miners who share the same wife (portrayed by Jean Seberg). Bad weather and delays plagued the production, while the film’s budget eventually exceeded $20 million (US$127 million in 2012 dollars^[23]), which was extremely expensive for the time.^[74] The film was not a critical or commercial success, although it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.^[75]

1970s[link]

In 1970, Eastwood starred in the western Two Mules for Sister Sara with Shirley MacLaine and directed by Don Siegel. The film follows an American mercenary who gets mixed up with a whore disguised as a nun and ends up helping a group of Juarista rebels during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.^[76][77] Eastwood once again played a mysterious stranger—unshaven, wearing a serape-like vest, and smoking a cigar.^[78] Although the film received moderate reviews^[79][80][81] the film is listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.^[82] Later the same year Eastwood starred 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 with Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas. Kelly's Heroes was the last film in which Eastwood appeared that was not produced by his own Malpaso Productions.^[83] Filming commenced in July 1969 on location in Yugoslavia and in London.^[84] The film received mostly a positive reception and its anti-war sentiments were recognized.^[83] In the winter of 1969–70, Eastwood and Siegel began planning his next film, The Beguiled, a tale of a wounded Union soldier held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girl's school.^[85] Upon release the film received major recognition in France and is considered one of Eastwood's finest works by the French.^[86] However, it grossed less than $1 million (US$5.98 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) and, according to Eastwood and Lang, flopped due to poor publicity and the "emasculated" role of Eastwood.^[87]

Eastwood with a fan circa 1970

Eastwood's career reached a turning point in 1971.^[88] Before Irving Leonard died he and Eastwood had discussed the idea of Malpaso producing Play Misty for Me, a film that was to give Eastwood the artistic control he desired and his debut as a director.^[89] The script was about a jazz disc jockey named Dave (Eastwood) who has a casual affair with Evelyn (Jessica Walter), a listener who had been calling the radio station repeatedly at night asking him to play her favorite song—Erroll Garner's "Misty". When Dave ends their relationship the fan becomes violent and murderous.^[90] Filming commenced in Monterey in September 1970 and included footage of that year's Monterey Jazz Festival.^[91] The film was highly acclaimed with critics such as Jay Cocks in Time, Andrew Sarris in the Village Voice, and Archer Winsten in the New York Post all praising the film, as well as Eastwood's directorial skills and performance.^[92] Walter was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award (Drama) for her performance in the film.

Dirty Harry (1971), written by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink, centers around a hard-edged New York City (later changed to San Francisco) police inspector named Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means.^[93] Dirty Harry has been described as being arguably Eastwood's most memorable character, and the film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop" genre.^[94][95] Author Eric Lichtenfeld argues that Eastwood's role as Dirty Harry established the "first true archetype" of the action film genre.^[96] His lines (quoted left) have been cited as among the most memorable in cinematic history^{[by whom?]} and are regarded by firearms historians, such as Garry James and Richard Venola, as the force which catapulted the ownership of .44 Magnum pistols to unprecedented heights in the United States; specifically the Smith & Wesson Model 29 carried by Harry Callahan.^[97][98] Dirty Harry achieved huge success after its release in December 1971, earning $22 million (US$126 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) in the United States and Canada alone.^[99] It was Siegel's highest-grossing film and the start of a series of films featuring the character Harry Callahan. Although a number of critics praised Eastwood's performance as Dirty Harry, such as Jay Cocks of Time magazine who described him as "giving his best performance so far, tense, tough, full of implicit identification with his character",^[100] the film was also widely criticized and accused of being fascistic.^{[101][102][103]}

Following Sean Connery's announcement that he would not play James Bond again, Eastwood was offered the role but turned it down because he believed the character should be played by an English actor.^[104] He next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd (1972), based on a character inspired by Reies Lopez Tijerina who stormed a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, in June 1967. During filming, Eastwood suffered symptoms of a bronchial infection and several panic attacks.^[105] Joe Kidd received a mixed reception, with Roger Greenspun of The New York Times writing that it was unremarkable, with foolish symbolism and sloppy editing, although he praised Eastwood's performance.^[106]

In 1973, Eastwood directed his first western, High Plains Drifter, in which he starred alongside Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Billy Curtis, Rawhide's Paul Brinegar and Geoffrey Lewis. The film had a moral and supernatural theme, later emulated in Pale Rider. The plot follows a mysterious stranger (Eastwood) who arrives in a brooding Western town where the people hire him to protect them against three soon-to-be-released felons. There remains confusion during the film as to whether the stranger is the brother of the deputy, whom the felons lynched and murdered, or his ghost. Holes in the plot were filled with black humor and allegory, influenced by Leone.^[107] The revisionist film received a mixed reception, but was a major box office success. A number of critics thought Eastwood's directing was "as derivative as it was expressive", with Arthur Knight of the Saturday Review remarking that Eastwood had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society".^[108] John Wayne, who had declined a role in the film, sent a letter to Eastwood soon after the film's release in which he complained that, "the townspeople did not represent the true spirit of the American pioneer, the spirit that made America great".^[109]

Eastwood directing William Holden in Breezy (1973)

Eastwood next turned his attention towards Breezy (1973), a film about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. During casting for the film Eastwood met Sondra Locke, an actress who would play major roles in many of his films for the next ten years and would become an important figure in his life.^[110] Kay Lenz was awarded the part of Breezy because Locke, at 28, was considered too old. The film, shot very quickly and efficiently by Eastwood and Frank Stanley, came in $1 million (US$5.24 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) under budget and was finished three days ahead of schedule.^[111] Breezy was not a major critical or commercial success and it was only made available on video in 1998.^[112]

Once filming of Breezy had finished, Warner Brothers announced that Eastwood had agreed to reprise his role as Detective Harry Callahan in Magnum Force (1973), a sequel to Dirty Harry, about a group of rogue young officers (among them David Soul, Robert Urich and Tim Matheson) in the San Francisco Police Force who systematically exterminate the city's worst criminals.^[113] Although the film was a major success after release, grossing $58.1 million (US$304 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) in the United States (a record for Eastwood), it was not a critical success.^[114][115] The New York Times critic Nora Sayre panned the often contradictory moral themes of the film, while the paper's Frank Rich called it "the same old stuff".^[115]

In 1974, Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges and George Kennedy in the buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, a road movie about a veteran bank robber Thunderbolt (Eastwood) and a young con man drifter, Lightfoot (Bridges). On its release, in spring 1974, the film was praised for its offbeat comedy mixed with high suspense and tragedy but was only a modest success at the box office, earning $32.4 million (US$153 million in 2012 dollars^[23]).^[116] Eastwood's acting was noted by critics, but was overshadowed by Bridges who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Eastwood reportedly fumed at the lack of Academy Award recognition for him and swore that he would never work for United Artists again.^[116][117]

Eastwood's next film The Eiger Sanction (1975) was based on Trevanian's critically acclaimed spy novel of the same name. Eastwood plays Jonathan Hemlock in a role originally intended for Paul Newman, an assassin turned college art professor who decides to return to his former profession for one last "sanction" in return for a rare Pissarro painting. In the process he must climb the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland under perilous conditions. Once again Eastwood starred alongside George Kennedy. Mike Hoover taught Eastwood how to climb during several weeks of preparation at Yosemite in the summer of 1974 before filming commenced in Grindelwald on August 12, 1974.^[118][119] Despite prior warnings about the perils of the Eiger the film crew suffered a number of accidents, including one fatality.^[120][121] Despite the danger, Eastwood insisted on doing all his own climbing and stunts. Upon release in May 1975 The Eiger Sanction was a commercial failure, receiving only $23.8 million (US$103 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) at the box office, and was poorly received by most critics.^[122] Joy Gould Boyum of the Wall Street Journal dismissed the film as "brutal fantasy".^[122][123] Eastwood blamed Universal Studios for the film's poor promotion and turned his back on them to make an agreement with Warner Brothers, through Frank Wells, that has lasted to the present day.^[124]

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), a western inspired by Asa Carter's eponymous 1972 novel,^[125] has lead character Josey Wales (Eastwood) as a pro-Confederate guerilla who refuses to surrender his arms after the American Civil War and is chased across the old southwest by a group of enforcers. Eastwood cast his young son Kyle Eastwood, Chief Dan George, and Sondra Locke for the first time, against the wishes of director Philip Kaufman.^[126] Kaufman was fired by producer Bob Daley under Eastwood's command, resulting in a fine reported to be around $60,000 (US$245,053 in 2012 dollars^[23]) from the Directors Guild of America—who subsequently passed new legislation reserving the right to impose a major fine on a producer for discharging and replacing a director.^[127] The film was pre-screened at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho during a six-day conference entitled Western Movies: Myths and Images. Invited to the screening were a number of esteemed film critics, including Jay Cocks and Arthur Knight; directors such as King Vidor, William Wyler, and Howard Hawks; and a number of academics.^[128] Upon release in August 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales 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.^[128] Roger Ebert compared the nature and vulnerability of Eastwood's portrayal of Josey Wales with his Man with No Name character in the Dollars westerns and praised the film's atmosphere.^[129] The film would later appear in Time's "Top 10 Films of the Year".^[130]

Eastwood was then offered the role of Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, but declined as he did not want to spend weeks on location in the Philippines.^[131][132] He also refused the part of a platoon leader in Ted Post's Vietnam War film Go Tell the Spartans^[131] and instead decided to make a third Dirty Harry film The Enforcer. The film had Harry partnered with a new female officer (Tyne Daly) to face a San Francisco Bay area group resembling the Symbionese Liberation Army. The film, culminating in a shootout on Alcatraz island, was considerably shorter than the previous Dirty Harry films at 95 minutes,^[133] but was a major commercial success grossing $100 million (US$408 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) worldwide to become Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date.^[134]

In 1977, he directed and starred in The Gauntlet opposite Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney, and Mara Corday. 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. Although a moderate hit with the viewing public, critics had mixed feelings about the film, with many believing it was overly violent. Eastwood's longtime nemesis Pauline Kael called it "a tale varnished with foul language and garnished with violence".^{[citation needed]} Roger Ebert, in contrast, gave the film three stars and called it "...classic Clint Eastwood: fast, furious, and funny."^[135] In 1978 Eastwood starred in Every Which Way but Loose alongside Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Ruth Gordon and John Quade. In an uncharacteristic offbeat comedy role, Eastwood played Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler who roams the American West searching for a lost love accompanied by his brother and an orangutan called Clyde. The film proved a surprising success upon its release and became Eastwood's most commercially successful film at the time. Panned by critics, it ranked high among the box office successes of his career and was the second-highest grossing film of 1978.^[136]

Eastwood starred in the thriller Escape from Alcatraz in 1979, the last of his films to be directed by Don Siegel. It was based on the true story of Frank Lee Morris who, along with John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from the notorious Alcatraz prison in 1962. The film was a major success; Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic praised it as "crystalline cinema"^[137] and Frank Rich of Time described it as "cool, cinematic grace".^[138] The film marked the beginning of a critically acclaimed period for Eastwood.

1980s[link]

Eastwood directed and played the lead role in the 1980 comedy Bronco Billy alongside Locke, Scatman Crothers, and Sam Bottoms.^[139] His children, Kyle and Alison, also had small roles as orphans.^[140] Eastwood has cited Bronco Billy as being one of the most relaxed shoots of his career^{[citation needed]} and biographer Richard Schickel has argued that Bronco Billy is Eastwood's most self-referential character.^[141][142] The film was a commercial failure,^[143] but was liked by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", and praised Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new.^[144] Later in 1980, Eastwood starred in Any Which Way You Can, the sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The film received a number of bad reviews from critics, although Maslin described it as "funnier and even better than its predecessor".^[143] The film became another box office success and was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year.

Eastwood in 1981

In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred alongside his son Kyle in Honkytonk Man, based on the eponymous Clancy Carlile's depression-era novel. Eastwood portrays a struggling western singer Red Stovall who suffers from tuberculosis, but has finally been given an opportunity to make it big at the Grand Ole Opry. He is accompanied by his young nephew (Kyle) to Nashville, Tennessee, where he is supposed to record a song. Only Time gave the film a good review in the United States, with most reviewers criticizing its blend of muted humor and tragedy.^[145] Nevertheless the film received critical acclaim in France, where it was compared to John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath,^[146] and it has since acquired the very high rating of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.^[147] In the same year Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox alongside Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Warren Clarke and Ronald Lacey. Based on a 1977 novel with the same name written by Craig Thomas, the film was shot before but released after Honkeytonk Man. Russian filming locations were not possible due to the Cold War, and the film had to be shot in Vienna and other locations in Austria to simulate many of the Eurasian story locations. With a production cost of $20 million, (US$48.2 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) it was Eastwood's highest budget film to date.^[148] People magazine likened Eastwood's performance to "Luke Skywalker trapped in Dirty Harry's Soul".^[148]

Eastwood directed and starred in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact, which was shot in the spring and summer of 1983 and is considered the darkest and most violent of the series.^[149] By this time Eastwood received 60 percent of all profits from films he starred in and directed, with the rest going to the studio.^[150] Sudden Impact was the last film which he starred in with Locke. She plays a woman raped, along with her sister, by a ruthless gang at a fairground and seeks revenge for her sister's now vegetative state by systematically murdering her rapists. The line "Go ahead, make my day" (uttered by Eastwood during an early scene in a coffee shop) is often cited as one of cinema's immortal lines. It was quoted by President Ronald Reagan in a speech to Congress, and used during the 1984 presidential elections.^{[151][152][153]} The film was the most commercially successful of the Dirty Harry films, earning $70 million (US$163 million in 2012 dollars^[23]). It received very positive reviews, with many critics praising the feminist aspects of the film through its explorations of the physical and psychological consequences of rape.^[154]

Tightrope (1984) had Eastwood starring opposite his daughter Alison, Geneviève Bujold, and Jamie Rose in a provocative thriller, inspired by newspaper articles about an elusive Bay Area rapist. Set in New Orleans to avoid confusion with the Dirty Harry films,^[155] Eastwood played a single-parent cop drawn into his target's tortured psychology and fascination for sadomasochism.^[156] Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (1984) alongside Burt Reynolds, a film about a private eye and his partner who get mixed up with gangsters in the prohibition era of the 1930s. The film grossed around $50 million (US$112 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) domestically, but was overshadowed by Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop.^[157]

Eastwood made his only foray into TV direction with the 1985 Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa In The Garden", which starred Harvey Keitel and Sondra Locke. This was his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg, who later co-produced Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.^[159] Eastwood revisited the western genre when he directed and starred in Pale Rider (1985) opposite Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress. The film is based on the classic 1953 western Shane and follows a preacher descending from the mists of the Sierras to side with the miners during the California Gold Rush of 1850.^[160] The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of the pale horse is Death, and shows similarities to Eastwood's 1973 western High Plains Drifter in its themes of morality and justice as well as its exploration of the supernatural.^[161] Pale Rider became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date. It was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best western to appear for a considerable period, with Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune remarking, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist".^[162]

In 1986, Eastwood co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge, about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. He portrays an aging United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant and Korean War veteran. Production and filming were marred by internal disagreements between Eastwood and long-time friend and producer Fritz Manes, as well as between Eastwood and the United States Department of Defense who expressed contempt for the film.^[163][164] At the time the film was a commercial rather than a critical success, and has only become to be viewed more favorably in recent times.^[165] The film and grossed $70 million (US$148 million) domestically.^[166]

Eastwood starred in The Dead Pool (1988), the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series. It co-starred Liam Neeson, Patricia Clarkson, and a young Jim Carrey who plays Johnny Squares, a drug-addled rock star and the first of the victims on a list of celebrities drawn up by horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson) who are deemed most likely to die, the so-called "Dead Pool". The list is stolen by an obsessed fan who, in mimicking his favorite director, makes his way through the list killing off celebrities, of which Dirty Harry is also included. The Dead Pool grossed nearly $38 million (US$74.7 million), relatively low receipts for a Dirty Harry film and it is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series, although Roger Ebert perceived it to be as good as the original.^[167][168]

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 (1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and Spike Lee, son of jazz bassist Bill Lee and a long time critic of Eastwood, criticized the characterization of Charlie Parker remarking that it did not capture his true essence and sense of humor.^[169] Eastwood received two Golden Globes for the film, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his lifelong contribution, and the Best Director award. However, Bird was a commercial failure, earning just $11 million, which Eastwood attributed to the declining interest in jazz among black people.^[170]

Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) alongside Bernadette Peters. The film is about a bounty hunter and a group of white supremacists chasing an innocent woman who tries to outrun everyone in her husband's prized pink Cadillac. The film failed both critically and commercially,^[171] earning barely more than Bird and marking a low point in Eastwood's career.^[172]

1990s[link]

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. Shot on location in Zimbabwe in the summer of 1989,^[173] the film received some critical attention but with only a limited release earned just $8.4 million (US$14.9 million in 2012 dollars^[23]).^[174] Later in 1990, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie, a buddy cop action film. Critics found the film’s plot and characterization unconvincing, but praised its action sequences.^[175] An ongoing lawsuit, in response to Eastwood allegedly ramming a woman’s car,^[176] resulted in no Eastwood films being shown in cinemas in 1991.^[177] Eastwood won the suit and agreed to pay the complainant’s legal fees if she did not appeal.^[177]

In 1992, Eastwood revisited the western genre in the self-directed film Unforgiven, in which he played an aging ex-gunfighter long past his prime. Scripts existed for the film as early as 1976 under titles such as The Cut-Whore Killings and The William Munny Killings but Eastwood delayed the project because he wanted to wait until he was old enough to play his character and to savor it as the last of his western films.^[177] Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success; Jack Methews of the Los Angeles Times described it as "the finest classical western to come along since perhaps John Ford's 1956 The Searchers.^[179] The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards,^[180] (including Best Actor for Eastwood and Best Original Screenplay for David Webb Peoples) and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. In June 2008 Unforgiven was ranked as the fourth-best American western, behind Shane, High Noon, and The Searchers, in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 10 Top 10" list.^[181][182]

Clint Eastwood at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival

Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire (1993) directed by Wolfgang Petersen and co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo. Horrigan is a guilt-ridden Secret Service agent haunted by his failure to save John F. Kennedy's life.^[183] The film was among the top 10 box office performers in that year, earning a reported $200 million (US$322 million in 2012 dollars^[23]) in the United States alone.^[184] As of 2012^[update], In the Line of Fire was the last film Eastwood acted in that he did not direct. Later in 1993, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. Set in the 1960s,^[185] Eastwood plays a Texas Ranger in pursuit of an escaped convict (Costner) who hits the road with a young boy (T.J. Lowther). Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film marked the highest point of Eastwood's directing career,^[186] and the film has since been cited as one of his most underrated directorial achievements.^[187][188]

At the May 1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal^[189] then on March 27, 1995, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards.^[190] His next film appearance was in a cameo role as himself in the 1995 children's film Casper. Later in the same year he continued to expand his repertoire by playing opposite Meryl Streep in the romantic picture The Bridges of Madison County. Based on the novel by Robert James Waller,^[191] the film relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for National Geographic, who has an affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife, Francesca (Streep). Despite the novel receiving unfavorable reviews and a subject deemed potentially unsuitable for film, The Bridges of Madison County was a commercial and critical success.^[192] Roger Ebert wrote, "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age."^[193] The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. Streep was also nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

In 1997 Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power, alongside Gene Hackman (with whom he had appeared in Unforgiven). Eastwood played the role of a veteran thief who witnesses the Secret Service cover up of a murder. The film received a mixed reception from critics.^[194] Later in 1997, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, based on the novel by John Berendt and starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. The film again met with a mixed critical response.^[195]