While Clint Eastwood has proven himself time and time again as a director, it’s his acting work that set him on the path to stardom. Coming through in the western TV show Rawhide, it wasn’t long before Eastwood established himself as one of American cinema’s all-time greats with a series of serious and masculine performances.
From his early efforts in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy as ‘The Man With No Name’ and the Dirty Harry movies to his later work in Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby, all of which he had remarkably also directed, Eastwood had always proven himself capable in delivering a mesmerising on-screen moment of captivation.
Like any actor, though, Eastwood had his early inspirations, and in an interview with Tony Macklin, he once named the stars who left the deepest impression on him, beginning with James Cagney, an “opposite” of Eastwood. Cagney was an actor and dancer who was loved for his high-energy performances and comic timing, and he received widespread acclaim throughout his career.
Early into his acting journey, Cagney had found that he’d be typecast in the tough guy role following a series of efforts in the likes of The Public Enemy, Taxi!, Angels with Dirty Faces and White Heat. Eventually, he found himself dancing in films too and won the Academy Award for his performance in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy.
From there, Eastwood expressed his love for the legendary Henry Fonda, who served as something of an everyman character across a glittering career. At the pinnacle of Fonda’s career was his effort as Tom Joad in John Ford’s 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece novel The Grapes of Wrath.
“I loved Henry Fonda,” Eastwood noted. “I like people in different roles. Grapes of Wrath — I was very impressed with that when I saw it as a kid.” He added of his impressions of Steinbeck, “I was reading all those books. Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath, and all those wonderful books and good movies.”
In fact, it’s another Steinbeck adaptation that led to another of Eastwood’s favourite performances, Burgess Meredith’s effort as George Milton in Lewis Milestone’s 1939 film version of Of Mice and Men. Meredith was an acclaimed actor who received two Academy Award nominations during his career and also starred in Winterset, The Story of G.I. Joe, The Day of the Locust, and the Rocky film series.
Finally, Eastwood signed off with his memory of watching Howard Hawks’ 1941 film Sergeant York with his father, in which Gary Cooper played Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I. Cooper had been a big movie star since the silent era right through the Golden Age of classical Hollywood, winning the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar two times and giving excellent performances in A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Eastwood’s top choice actors when he was growing up were largely classic American actors who left a deep impression on the future star and likely inspired him to take up the acting profession. With such acclaim among the four, Eastwood’s youthful inspirations serve as a fascinating window into the early part of the Hollywood icon’s life and career and show that he’d always had an interest in the power of performance.