Clint Eastwood: From wide-eyed kid to Oscar winnerNew DVD collection of his Warner Bros. films showcases the actor-director's work. A LACMA retrospective opens Friday.By Susan King
It's hard to picture Clint Eastwood as a "wide-eyed kid," but that's the way the iconic actor-director describes himself as a fledgling actor in the 1950s when he first visited the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
"There is a great history there," says the 79-year-old multiple Oscar winner. "I remember going over there as a young man, and I started thinking about all of those pictures with Cagney, Bogart and Bette Davis that were made there. Those were the pictures I grew up with."
These days, young filmmakers and actors probably feel the same about Eastwood and the venerable studio where he's been hanging out his shingle since 1976, when he did the classic western "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
Though he's never been exclusive to any one studio, Eastwood has made 35 films for Warners including 1992's "Unforgiven" and 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," his two Oscar-winning best films. Warner Home Video is celebrating that relationship with the lavish new gift set, "Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros," which will be released Tuesday on DVD. The only Warner Bros. film missing from the set is his latest, "Invictus," which opened in December.
"I have been hanging out awhile," Eastwood joked about his long-term association with Warners.
On Friday, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art film department is kicking off a monthlong retrospective. Eastwood will discuss his career Wednesday evening at LACMA with film writer and historian Richard Schickel after a screening of Schickel's new documentary "The Eastwood Factor." The short film is also included in the DVD set...
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