In the mid-1950s, Clint Eastwood made his way to Hollywood to break into acting. As you can see from the pictures after the jump, he hadn’t yet formed his signature squinty-eyed tough guy persona, and he’s peddling his wares pretty hard. He fumbled his way through a handful of B-movies, was going nowhere, and sank into a funk. This was admittedly a rough patch for Clint, and he almost threw in the towel altogether. Then in 1957 Clint Eastwood landed the role that would launch him– Rowdy Yates, in the TV Western series Rawhide. He honed his craft and made a marketable name for himself. Then in 1964 he jumped back into the big screen ring again– this time for the Spaghetti Western classic, A Fistful of Dollars. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The moral to the story– stick with it. Getting off the ground is always the hardest part– if you can get through the initial setbacks, overcome, and learn from them– it will be ever be as tough again.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California prepped-out in an old Izod Lacoste polo. Our man Clint is a bit short-waisted as you can see here, and achieves his height with long legs.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California, ca. 1965.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California, ca. 1956.
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Clint Eastwood
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The Selvedge Yard 
what a great post, its crazy how much he looks like james dean!
A 6′ 4″ chiseled version of Dean — Jimmy Dean was only 5″ 7″ on a good day — but yes, there are definitely similarities.
pomade central
A+. Great post, thanks.
For many of us, Steve McQueen is the absolute hero, for me Clint embodies “The” hero, I
unfortunately been disappointed by his latest movie: Gran Torino, not only because of movie weaknesses
but also because I do not recognize anymore “my” hero. Great post indeed!
Dude, JP, he’s WAAAAY better looking than us, isn’t he? “Hi, I’m awesome and hold guns and have hair so perfect it’s almost awkward.” Yeah well, Mr. Hang ‘EM High, you don’t have a blog, now do you? I feel better now.
Speaking for myself, I’d say he’s 1000X better looking than WTF IS TSY.
You on the other hand might be a whole different story…
JP
looks like jude law mixed with a little bowie.
Very good call.
I have to say as he got older he got more gravitas. Never knew how “pretty” he was. Love the moral of the story.
The best ole painkiller since hurtin’ began..
From watching his movies on Saturday nights as a little girl to becoming a woman and realizing just why I was always so transfixed by him.. phew. There will never be another Clint.
Simply Amazing!
this photo takes the cake!
I remember watching “Rawhide” as a kid, and I was pretty enamored with Eric Fleming who played the trail boss, Gil Favor. Then Clint came on the show and that was the end of that. He was a “pretty boy”, but always had that “edge” about him. 8 years of Rowdy Yates getting in trouble and being unpredictable was fun and exciting to watch. By the way, I think Clint did a great job in Gran Torino.
Ahhhh…..Clint.
There are no direct descendants of Eric Fleming today.
“Getting off the ground is always the hardest part– if you can get through the initial setbacks, overcome, and learn from them– it will be ever be as tough again.”
Could it stay that tough? I’m hoping that it won’t, but it might. It probably took some doing to stay making great movies for forty years. Great post, great blog.
This is way over due – Quintesential Americana. Even if it was filmed in Italy. Fond memories still permeate through my existence. Clint was and will always be the Americana Bad Ass Cowboy. It dosen’t matter if he is on a horse or in a car he helped alot of my friends (now stunt men in LA or art collectors in Philly) remember one thing. We have balls and don’t forget it. We grew up proud to be Americans . Sure John Wayne and a handfull of others I either forgot or don’t remember. (there is a difference) but for my generation (I am 50) it was Clint Eastwood.
I want you to ask yourself this… do you feel lucky … well do ya! Punk!
I grew up on 60’s TV westerns. I watched ’em all. I was never a huge fan of any of them, including Rawhide (well, except for maybe The Wild Wild West). But from the first minute of A Fistful Of Dollars, I was transfixed. Not in the way CecilyPigeon might have been transfixed, but transfixed nonetheless. Clint Eastwood immediately made the John Waynes of the world obsolete. Sergio Leone redefined a dying genre, Eastwood redefined the American hero. He is my generation’s “Duke” and one of a handful of “celebrities” that will truly leave a void when gone.