Eastwood turns 90, with no plans to retire

LOS ANGELES • Movie legend Clint Eastwood turned 90 yesterday, but do not count on the famously stoic and hardworking star of A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) and Dirty Harry (1971) hanging up his cowboy boots just yet.

The multiple Oscar-winning actor turned director, who churned out nine films in his 80s, has expressed no desire to retire ahead of the milestone - and in any case, he is not a fan of birthdays.

"We're just going to do a family thing - very, very calm, very mellow," his 34-year-old actor son Scott told television programme Access Hollywood.

"We'll sneak a cake in there, definitely. He probably won't like it."

Clint Eastwood, born in 1930, has enjoyed a career spanning seven decades and more than 50 films.

He trod the Hollywood red carpet as recently as November last year for his Olympic bombing biopic Richard Jewell (2019).

It was released to mixed reviews and sparked backlash over its fictional depiction of a real-life female journalist trading sex for the secrets of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But Eastwood's career has weathered greater controversy, from accusations of excessive violence in the Spaghetti Western Dollars trilogy (1964 to 1966), to fascism in Dirty Harry and warmongering in American Sniper (2014), to his portrayal of racism in Gran Torino (2008).

As well as Oscars for Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), and a lifetime achievement Palme d'Or from the Cannes festival, Eastwood's back catalogue also contains a few critically savaged flops.

"I would like to think it rolls off his back... he's gotten beat up along the way pretty regularly," Variety senior vice-president Tim Gray said. "I think he's going to keep working as long as he can... he seems to have a creative drive that keeps him going."

Known on the Hollywood circuit as polite but reticent in terms of small talk or personal details, Eastwood has hinted at future projects, but had not confirmed any plans before the coronavirus pandemic shut down all productions in March.

In a January interview with Britain's ITV, he indicated he was still enjoying plying his trade.

"I like doing it, it's nice to be able to have a paying job," he told This Morning.

"I like being in films, I like making films and I started directing films because I thought one day I'm going to look up on screen and say, 'That's enough, Eastwood - you'd better do something else.'"

In other interviews, he has expressed confusion as to why luminaries such as directors Billy Wilder and Frank Capra quit the business at a younger age, and spoken of his desire to keep working as long as he finds projects that are "worth studying".

Despite previously announcing his retirement from acting after Gran Torino, Eastwood returned to the front of the camera four years later in Trouble With The Curve (2012) and in The Mule (2018).

"He's pretty unpredictable," said Mr Gray, adding: "I get the feeling now, he does what he wants to do."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE