by Randy Gambill

Clint Eastwood may have started his extraordinary career as The Man with No Name but he now has an embarrassing surplus of them: Oscar winning film director-producer, superstar, actor, western archetype, action hero, musician, jazz enthusiast, master of the stoic catch phrase, father, husband and even mayor. Add to the list Cultural Icon.

In a career that is now in its sixth decade, Eastwood has hit a creative peak in his 70’s, no less, that is unparalleled. Beginning with the powerfully elegiac Mystic River and continuing through the Oscar winning Million Dollar Baby and the stunningly crafted dual feat that is Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Eastwood has reached the height of his powers as a filmmaker when most people would be content to rest on their laurels. It is almost too exciting to ponder what cinematic marvels lay ahead.

Eastwood is an icon but an ever-changing one. It’s remarkable to think of the chameleonic path he’s taken. Starting off as a TV actor, unexpectedly morphing into a cult star of “spaghetti westerns,” segueing into an action superstar, then quietly cultivating his skills as a producer-director culminating in his first pair of Oscars for the career-defining Unforgiven. That would have been enough. In defiance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s comment that “there are no second acts in American lives,” Eastwood plowed on with a steady stream of films including his recent string of masterpieces, arguably America’s finest filmmaker.

But filmmaking isn’t enough for Eastwood. His lifelong love of jazz and particular devotion to greats Charlie Parker (the subject of a film he directed) and Dizzy Gillespie adds a particular resonance to his icon status. Eastwood’s love of music has led him to executive produce a series of documentaries in recent years, the latest a tribute to the incomparable Tony Bennett entitled Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends. In his typical understated way, this aspect of Eastwood’s repertoire was unknown to the public until late in his career, his Zen-like nature keeping it from us. That is fitting, for there is nothing self-aggrandizing about Eastwood. Raised during the depression and exposed to Steinbeckian poverty as a child, Eastwood was left with a true understanding of hardship and “…a feeling of uncertainty about life…” that has led him to take nothing for granted. He has just kept his head low, his focus sure, and spent the last 50 years plugging away at a career that quietly, steadfastly blows us away.