Eastwood Aviation
Clint Eastwood is one of the most recognizable figures in Hollywood. Public domain.
Born in 1930 in San Francisco, Clint Eastwood is one of the most familiar actors in Hollywood history. Weighing 11 pounds, six ounces at birth, the nurses in the delivery suite nicknamed him Samson as a result.
As he grew older, Eastwood was indeed a spirited lad. He was asked to leave Piedmont High School after he penned an obscene suggestion for a school official on a bulletin board in the athletic department. He later returned to burn the man in effigy on school grounds. He then transferred to Oakland Technical High School and finally graduated.
After that, Eastwood kept himself fed as a paper boy, grocery store stockman, lifeguard, fireman, and golf caddy. However, in 1951, his number literally came up. That’s when Clint Eastwood was drafted into the U.S. Army.
Eastwood had been dating the daughter of a high-ranking officer at Fort Ord, California. One weekend, he had some leave and traveled down from Sacramento to meet her. When it was time to head back to base, the young Army private caught a ride in a Navy AD-1 Skyraider that happened to be going the same direction.
The Skyraider was developed in the latter days of World War II as a general-purpose utility bomber. The plane was produced in several different variants. Some were flown single-pilot, while others had multiple crew positions. Eastwood and his pilot took off and formed up with a second AD-1 also based in Naval Air Station Seattle. Their destination was Mather Field in Sacramento. Now, hold that thought…
The character of Rowdy Yates in "Rawhide" was Clint Eastwood’s breakout role.
Public domain.
The Alpha Leading Man
As of this writing, Clint Eastwood is 95 years old and still kicking. His first film role was a minor part in the 1955 classic “Revenge of the Creature,” which sounds fake but actually isn’t. Eastwood bounced back and forth between TV and movies for three years but never really made much of a splash. Then, he landed the role of Rowdy Yates in “Rawhide,” and his career took off.
Eastwood has starred in at least 55 feature-length movies and has directed or produced 43 films. He has four Oscars, two for Best Picture and a further two for Best Director.
Of all of his remarkable film roles, I think playing Private Kelly in “Kelly’s Heroes” was his best. A true cinematic tour de force, “Kelly’s Heroes” featured an ensemble cast that included Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and many others. “Kelly’s Heroes” strikes the perfect balance between action-packed war movie, hilarious comedy, and subtle political commentary. I have likely seen that movie a dozen times. That tall, lanky kid from San Francisco became one of the most successful players in movie history. However, all that almost didn’t happen.
Clint Eastwood has played some of Hollywood’s most compelling characters. Public domain.
Trouble in Paradise
Weather forecasting was not the high art back in the 1950s that it is today. The flight of two Skyraiders encountered unexpected rough weather and got separated in the soup. Tragically, Eastwood’s plane also lost its radios. The oxygen system failed as well, so they had to fly low where the air was thick. With no way to navigate and now deep in the clouds, Eastwood’s plane poked around until it finally ran out of gas. The pilot, Lieutenant Frances Coleman Anderson, successfully ditched the machine just as the sun was setting. He and Private Eastwood became separated in the process.
Eastwood now found himself floating about alone in a tiny survival raft in the dark. This was late October, and the water was frightfully cold. With great difficulty, he paddled his way to land and the remote KPH RCA ship-to-shore coastal radio receiving station. From there, he notified the Coast Guard. He was subsequently reunited with Lt. Anderson and made his way back home.
Clint Eastwood with Sandra Locke. Public domain.
Clint Eastwood later became a rated pilot in both airplanes and helicopters. He directed the Tom Hanks movie, “Sully,” which revolved around Captain Chelsea Sullenberger’s miraculous ditching of an airliner in the Hudson River. In this case, he flavored his movie with his own personal experience.
Being alone in an expanse of dark water is a primal fear for most normal humans. Eastwood later said, “I found out many years later that this was a white shark breeding ground, but I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time or I’d have just died… What was going through my mind at the time was just a stark fear, a stark terror, because, first place, I didn’t know anything about aviation at that particular time — I was just hopping a ride.”
Clint Eastwood has lived a most remarkable life. Public domain.
Clint Eastwood directed his last movie, "Juror Number 2," when he was 93 years old.
Public domain.
Some folks are just larger than life. Clint Eastwood has played a soldier, a Marine, a hard-bitten cop, and a Western gunslinger. He has had a hand in making some of the greatest movies of our time. And all of that almost didn’t happen when the young 21-year-old Army private serendipitously caught a ride on a doomed Navy strike plane.
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