The actor and director is a living legend of Hollywood and has influenced new generations of performers and filmmakers, but he also has his favorite
At 94 years old, Clint Eastwood He is one of the living legends of Hollywood. The actor and director is one of the great veterans of the film industry both in front of and behind the cameras and, in his almost 70 years of career, He has been the creator of countless unforgettable cinematographic moments. Thus, it is not surprising that he has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for subsequent generations of both performers and filmmakers, who can find in his career such influential pieces for the history of cinema in various genres, such as Dirty Harry, No forgiveness or the dollar trilogy in the westernor many other unforgettable titles such as The bridges of Madison, million dollar Baby, Space Cowboys either Grand Turin.
After the western television series Rawhidein which he worked from 1959 and 1965 became his first great success as an actor, Eastwood moved for the first time to Italy, where he created the legendary Dollar trilogy with Sergio Leone and became an icon of Western cinema on the big screen. .
After the success of For a bunch of dollars, The dead had a price and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Eastwood was already an icon and never lacked work. His career as a director would begin shortly after, in 1971, with the film Chill in the night. Since then, the star has not stopped proving her worth behind the cameras, with a career full of successes that have earned her four Oscars: Best Director and Best Picture for the films No forgiveness and million dollar Baby. Now, at 94 years old, Eastwood is working on what will be his next film: Juror #2.
However, while Clint Eastwood is a living legend, he has rarely spoken about his own role models, those he admires and who have inspired him in his own career. Except for one exception.
In an interview with Patrick McGilligan collected in the 1999 book Clint Eastwood: InterviewsEastwood revealed that his favorite actor was the star of Red Hot (1949), James Cagney: “I always liked Cagney’s style and energy. He was fearless.”
I was never a fan of any particular actor. Except for James Cagney
While Eastwood will always be associated with the western genre, Cagney was a representative of gangster films and made his mark with his work. Eastwood would even borrow a scene from Red Hot for one of his most emblematic characters: “The scene of Dirty Harrywhere I eat a hot dog during the shooting, it’s a robbery,” Eastwood admitted to Entertainment Weekly.
Speaking with Patrick McGilligan, Eastwood explained his admiration for Cagney, even going so far as to say that cinema was invented for him: “Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney and he was invented for cinema.”
