Even though he began his career with a number of uncredited roles in B-movies and the aquatic subgenre has been a perennially popular pipeline for cinematic excess, Clint Eastwood has never been in a film where he was forced to fight for his life against a killer shark.
Of course, the same can be said about many actors, but there’s one major reason why the four-time Academy Award winner may not have considered the notion were it offered his way. If a shitty shark flick is good enough for Michael Caine, then who’s to say it would be too good for Eastwood?
He might be an icon of Hollywood with a back catalogue of classic credits on either side of the camera, but he’s also the guy who appeared in Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula! in the 1950s, so his filmography is hardly lacking in schlock value. Steven Spielberg brought sharks to the forefront of popular culture with Jaws, but Eastwood’s experience was a lot more up close and personal.
Not that he even realised it at the time, with the fresh-faced Army recruit being drafted into the military during the Korean War and emerging unscathed from a near-death experience. In September 1951, Eastwood was a passenger on a bomber that ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean off the California coast.
The future A-lister and the pilot made a hasty exit from the downed aircraft, inflated their life rafts, and began making their way to shore. His issues didn’t end there, though, with inclement weather ultimately knocking Eastwood into the freezing and unforgiving ocean, where he was forced to swim for several miles in order to survive and reach dry land.
It wouldn’t have been too difficult, considering he used to be a swimming instructor and a lifeguard before being drafted, but it’s not unreasonable to suggest he’d have been swimming a damn sight faster if he knew the waters he was making his way through were infested with sharks.
Explaining his ordeal to The Hollywood Reporter, Eastwood admitted he had no clue there were underwater predators in the area, and it would have completely changed his mindset if he did. “Very cold water,” he recalled. “Found out many years later that it was a white shark breeding ground, but I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time or I’d have just died.”
A fairly defeatist attitude to have, but it was to Eastwood’s immense benefit he remained completely oblivious to what may or may not have been lurking under the surface. It’s a story ripped right out of a movie, but not one that he’s ever been interested in making, having managed to make it all the way through his career without encountering another shark.