The Clint Eastwood who emerges from this new biography by film critic and historian Shawn Levy is a complex figure. Eastwood created many great works of screen art, despite an army of critics who frequently belittled his efforts as an actor and director. Indeed, criticism could never stop a career that began in the mid-1950s and was still in motion with last year’s release of “Juror #2.”
There was little early evidence to predict this kind of success. Levy acknowledges the conflicting stories of how Eastwood, who had no childhood dreams of Hollywood, transitioned from an Army stint into Universal Pictures’ school for aspiring actors. But while the tall and handsome Eastwood looked good on camera, he needed to overcome wooden line readings and a habit of speaking through his teeth. For a few years, bit parts in B-movies and television episodes barely kept the young actor afloat.
