GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY | I DOUBLE DARE YOU TO TOUCH MY HAIR AGAIN
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Back when Clint Eastwood was more Beefcake than Badass.
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In the mid-1950s, Clint Eastwood made his way to Hollywood to break into acting. As you can see from the pictures after the jump, he hadn’t yet formed his signature squinty-eyed tough guy persona, and he’s peddling his wares pretty hard. He fumbled his way through a handful of B-movies, was going nowhere, and sank into a funk. This was admittedly a rough patch for Clint, and he almost threw in the towel altogether. Then in 1957 Clint Eastwood landed the role that would launch him– Rowdy Yates, in the TV Western series Rawhide. He honed his craft and made a marketable name for himself. Then in 1964 he jumped back into the big screen ring again– this time for the Spaghetti Western classic, A Fistful of Dollars. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The moral to the story– stick with it. Getting off the ground is always the hardest part– if you can get through the initial setbacks, overcome, and learn from them– it will be ever be as tough again.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California prepped-out in an old Izod Lacoste polo. Our man Clint is a bit short-waisted as you can see here, and achieves his height with long legs.
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Hey Clint, yeah it's me. So look man, I just wanted to say, you know, as a friend, that you should probably put some clothes on, bro. Yeah. You're gonna end-up on the cover of After Dark magazine, man. Seriously, it's getting creepy. Yup. OK, Later.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California, ca. 1965.
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Clint Eastwood at home in California, ca. 1956.
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Clint Eastwood.
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what a great post, its crazy how much he looks like james dean!
A 6′ 4″ chiseled version of Dean — Jimmy Dean was only 5″ 7″ on a good day — but yes, there are definitely similarities.
pomade central
A+. Great post, thanks.
For many of us, Steve McQueen is the absolute hero, for me Clint embodies “The” hero, I
unfortunately been disappointed by his latest movie: Gran Torino, not only because of movie weaknesses
but also because I do not recognize anymore “my” hero. Great post indeed!
Dude, JP, he’s WAAAAY better looking than us, isn’t he? “Hi, I’m awesome and hold guns and have hair so perfect it’s almost awkward.” Yeah well, Mr. Hang ‘EM High, you don’t have a blog, now do you? I feel better now.
Speaking for myself, I’d say he’s 1000X better looking than WTF IS TSY.
You on the other hand might be a whole different story…
JP
looks like jude law mixed with a little bowie.
I have to say as he got older he got more gravitas. Never knew how “pretty” he was. Love the moral of the story.
The best ole painkiller since hurtin’ began..
From watching his movies on Saturday nights as a little girl to becoming a woman and realizing just why I was always so transfixed by him.. phew. There will never be another Clint.
Simply Amazing!
this photo takes the cake!
I remember watching “Rawhide” as a kid, and I was pretty enamored with Eric Fleming who played the trail boss, Gil Favor. Then Clint came on the show and that was the end of that. He was a “pretty boy”, but always had that “edge” about him. 8 years of Rowdy Yates getting in trouble and being unpredictable was fun and exciting to watch. By the way, I think Clint did a great job in Gran Torino.
Ahhhh…..Clint.
There are no direct descendants of Eric Fleming today.
“Getting off the ground is always the hardest part– if you can get through the initial setbacks, overcome, and learn from them– it will be ever be as tough again.”
Could it stay that tough? I’m hoping that it won’t, but it might. It probably took some doing to stay making great movies for forty years. Great post, great blog.