The Post with No Name

There was one noticeable absence at the Oscars on Sunday. Many people believed Clint Eastwood deserved a nomination for Best Actor following his role in Gran Torino.

Maybe he got snubbed because Eastwood has already gotten his fair share of nominations. To date, he has won six Oscars for his 10 nominations.

He is one of only three living directors (along with Milos Forman and Francis For Coppola) to have won the Best Director distinction twice. In addition to that, Eastwood and Warren Beatty are the only two people to be nominated twice for both Best Actor and Director for the same film.

The only movies that have earned Eastwood nominations are Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and Letters from Iwo Jima. Despite that these movies are fairly recent, Eastwood has been in the public eye for quite some time.

Eastwood began acting in B-movies during the 1950's, but first gained recognition in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. In the films, Eastwood plays the Man with No Name, the prototypical anti-hero. This role established Eastwood as one of the most popular western actors in the business.

From there, Eastwood would continue his success by creating another iconic character in Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. The five film series solidified Eastwood's presence in movie history. Since that time, Eastwood began to take on more roles that simply acting. He produces and directs many of his more recent movies.

With his tough guy appearance, Clint Eastwood has been a prominent face in the movie industry for over four decades. Not only that, but he was also the mayor of Carmel, California for two years in the 1980's. During that time, he only had time to direct, produce, and star in three films.

The Christian holiday of Lent began today and I pity anyone who attempts to give up watching Clint Eastwood movies for 40 days.