Dawn's favorite Movie actors and their films of the "60's".

Clint Eastwood:
1964 A Fistful of Dollars
1965 For a Few Dollars More
1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1967 Le streghe
1968 Hang 'Em High
Coogan's Bluff
Where Eagles Dare

In 1963 Eastwood's co-star on Rawhide, Eric Fleming, rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made western, A Fistful of Dollars. Knowing that he could play a cowboy Harrison suggested Eastwood, who saw the film as a wonderful opportunity.

Eastwood later spoke about the transition from a television western to A Fistful of Dollars: "In Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an anti-hero." Eastwood, created the Man with No Name character, who smoked cigars.

The film was the beginning of spaghetti westerns and Eastwood became a major star in Italy and he also performed in, For a Few Dollars More (1965). Two months later Eastwood began work on the third Dollars film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which he again played the, Man with No Name.

The Dollars trilogy was not shown in the United States until 1967 when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December. All the films were successful and turned Eastwood into a major film star. Stardom brought more "tough guy" roles for Eastwood. Next, he signed up to perform in the western, Hang 'Em High (1968). Across between Rawhide and Leone's westerns. Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after the Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California.

While Eastwood was working on his next film, Coogan's Bluff, Jennings Lang arranged for Eastwood to meet Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who later became one of Eastwood's close friends, that would last for more than ten years. Coogan's Bluff also became the first of many collaborations with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later score the jazzy themes to Eastwood's films. Eastwood created the prototype for his role as a cop of the Dirty Harry films.

Next he went on to perform in, Where Eagles Dare(1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into the mountains.

Eastwood then performed in his only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin play gold miners who share the same wife. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Rock Hudson:
Seconds (1966)
Lover Come Back (1961)
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Send Me No Flowers (1964)

In the 60s Hudson, performed in many romantic comedies such as: Pillow Talk, the first of several co-starring with Doris Day. This was followed by Lover Come Back, Come September, Send Me No Flowers, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Spiral Road, and Strange Bedfellows. Along with Cary Grant was regarded as one of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood. He also performed in the science-fiction thriller, Seconds (1966). The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson's performance is often regarded as one of his best. He also tried his hand in the action genre with Tobruk (1967), the lead in 1968's spy thriller Ice Station Zebra, a role which he said was his personal favorite, and the western, The Undefeated (1969).

Kirk Douglas:
Spartacus (1960)
Seven Days in May (1964)
War Wagon, The (1967)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

Douglas, was a major box office star in the 60s, performing in many westerns such as, In Lonely Are the Brave (1962), his own favorite of his performances, Douglas plays a cowboy trying to live by his own code, much as he did in real life.

Douglas played many military men like in the films: Town Without Pity (1961), The Hook (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), Heroes of Telemark (1965), In Harm's Way (1965), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), Is Paris Burning (1966). Douglas played the lead with an all-star cast in, Spartacus (1960). He was also the executive producer. Douglas also performed in comedies, such as in the film, For Love or Money (1963).

Douglas made a couple of films in the 60s with Burt Lancaster: The List of Adrian Messenger(1963)and Seven Days in May (1964).



Douglas stated that the keys to acting success are determination and application, "You must know how to function and how to maintain yourself, and you must have a love of what you do. But an actor also needs great good luck. I have had that luck."Douglas had great vitality, "It takes a lot out of you to work in this business. Many people fall by the wayside because they don’t have the energy to sustain their talent.".

Cary Grant:
Charade (1963)
Father Goose (1964)
Walk Don't Run (1966)
That Touch of Mink (1962)

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company, Granart Productions, and produced a number of movies in the 60s such as: That Touch of Mink and Father Goose (1964).




In 1963, he also performed opposite Audrey Hepburn in the film, Charade (1963). His last feature film was Walk, Don't Run.

Grant was the first actor to "go independent" by not renewing his studio contract.  Because of this he decided which movies he was going to perform in, he also had the choice of the directors and his co-stars and at times even negotiated a share of the gross, something uncommon at the time.

Fred MacMurray :
Apartment, The (1960)
Absent Minded Professor, The (1961)
Son of Flubber (1963)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966)

In the 1960s, he starred in My Three Sons, which ran for 12 seasons, making it one of America's longest-running TV show. MacMurray, stared in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's, The Absent-Minded Professor and in its sequel, Son of Flubber, in 1964.



MacMurray, had a provision in his "Sons" contract that all his scenes be shot first. This freed him to pursue his film work and golf . It's also interesting to note that two character names on "My Three Sons" were named after his real life children, Rob (as in Rob Douglas) and Katherine (Kate); he often referred to his TV son Robbie as 'Rob' and later TV daughter-in-law Katie Douglas as 'Kate.'

He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He joined Bob Hope and James Stewart to campaign for Richard Nixon in 1968.

He was one of the wealthiest actors of the 60s and MacMurray usually brought a brown bag lunch to work. Friends and business associates referred to him as "the thrifty multimillionaire."

Jack Lemmon :
Apartment, The (1960)
Odd Couple, The (1968)
Great Race, The (1965)
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Lemmon, was a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, who felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting. In the Wilder biography Nobody's Perfect quotes the director as saying, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat". The biography also quotes Jack Lemmon as saying, "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown, I started to have one".

He also had a longtime working relationship with director Blake Edwards, starring in in the 60s films: Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965) and That's Life! (1986).

Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was one of his favorite roles. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, "My name is Joe Clay ... I'm an alcoholic." Three and a half decades later, he admitted on the television program, Inside the Actors Studio, that he was not acting when he delivered that line, that he really was a recovering alcoholic at the end of his life.


Lemmon's production company JML produced Cool Hand Luke in 1967. Paul Newman was grateful to Lemmon for his support and offered him the role later made famous by Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but Lemmon turned it down. He did not like riding horses and he also felt he'd already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before.

Lemmon often performed in films with Walter Matthau. Among their pairings was 1968's The Odd Couple, as Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau).

William Holden:
Wild Bunch, The (1969)
Paris - When It Sizzles (1964)
Casino Royale (1967)
Devil's Brigade, The (1968)

Holden was forced by studio contracts to perform in films such as, Paris When It Sizzles (1964), also co-starring Audrey Hepburn. By the mid-1960s, his career was beginning to fade.

Robert Redford:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)

Redford, made his screen debut in the film, War Hunt (1962). Later he was cast in larger roles in movies such as, In Inside Daisy Clover (1965) with Natalie Wood, they also performed together in the film, This Property Is Condemned (1966). The same year saw his first teaming with Jane Fonda in, The Chase. Fonda and Redford were paired again in the film, Barefoot in the Park (1967) also the film, The Electric Horseman (1979).

Redford was cast in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), scripted by William Goldman, in which he was paired for the first time with Paul Newman. The film cemented his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, good guy.




Redford did have a few box office flops, Downhill Racer (1969) and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969).

Anthony Quinn:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Guns of Navarone, The (1961)
Barabbas (1962)
Alexis Zorbas (1964)

By the 60s Quinn, was beginning to show his age and began his transformation into a major character actor. He played a Greek resistance fighter in the film, The Guns of Navarone (1961), a ex-boxer in the film, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Auda abu Tayi in the film, Lawrence of Arabia (both 1962). He also played the title role in Barabbas. The success of the film, Zorba the Greek (1964) which won him another Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Other films include: The 25th Hour (1967), The Magus (1968), Guns for San Sebastian with Charles Bronson and The Shoes of the Fisherman, where he played a Ukrainian pope. In 1969, he starred in the film, The Secret of Santa Vittoria .

Henry Fonda:
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Longest Day, The (1962)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Boston Strangler, The (1968)

In the 60s Fonda, was still performing in the western television series The Deputy (1959–1961), in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry. The 1960s also saw Fonda perform in many war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way and Battle of the Bulge. In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to prevent a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR. He also performed in the light-hearted film, Spencer's Mountain (1963), which was the inspiration for the TV series, The Waltons.

Fonda , performed against type as the villain 'Frank' in, 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West.

Fonda's was good friends with Jimmy Stewart and they teamed up to work on the film, Firecreek(1968), where Fonda once again played the bad guy.

Happy Birthday: Clint Eastwood!

Eastwood's career reached a turning point in 1971. Irving Leonard and Eastwood discussed the idea of Malpaso producing, Play Misty for Me, a film that was to give Eastwood the control his debut as a director. A psychological thriller. Jessica Walter and Donna Mills co-star. The original music score was composed by Dee Barton.

The story begins when Draper, calls into Garver's radio show and asking him to play the song "Misty". She finds out which is his favorite bar and shows up there and makes their meeting seem like a coincidence. He drives her home and they end up sleeping together.

Draper begins showing up at Garver's house uninvited and goes into jealous rages, interrupts an important business meeting with an older woman, then makes a suicide attempt in Dave's home.

Just when he believes Draper might be out of his life, she becomes his girlfriend Tobie's new roommate for their final confrontation.



This movie, is very suspenseful and Jessica Walter is absolutely terrifying. It's fun to see Clint Eastwood as a young man in his first directorial effort and he did a wonderful job.


Fun Facts:

When Clint Eastwood told Universal executive Lew Wasserman that he wanted to direct the film, Wasserman agreed, on the condition that Eastwood waive his usual acting fee, which he did.

Given complete freedom by Universal Pictures, Clint Eastwood finished shooting four days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget.

Set in Carmel, CA, where Clint Eastwood lived and became mayor in 1986.

All filming was completed in 21 days.

The first scene Clint Eastwood shot was his former director Don Siegel's cameo as Murph the bartender. As a joke, Eastwood made Siegel do 11 takes - then told the cameraman to put the film in the camera.

Universal Pictures originally wanted Lee Remick cast in the role of Evelyn, but director Clint Eastwood had been impressed with Jessica Walter's performance in Sidney Lumet's film The Group (1966), and cast her instead.


Please click here to read more about Clint Eastwood.

Donna Mills, began her acting career on television with a guest role on the CBS daytime soap opera The Secret Storm in 1966. Following this she gained a regular role as ex-nun Laura Donnelly on the soap, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, which she played from 1967 to 1970. Mills performed on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy, Don't Drink the Water.

In 1971, Mills co-starred with Clint Eastwood in the thriller Play Misty For Me, which has remained her most prominent movie role to date. Prior to signing up a contract for Universal Studios in 1972, Mills spent much of the 1970s appearing as a guest television shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, CHiPs, The Oregon Trail, Quincy, M.E., Thriller, Police Woman, and Fantasy Island, as well as several made-for-TV movies.

In 1980, she landed her best know role of scheming, Abby Cunningham on the soap opera, Knots Landing, a role she played until 1989. After leaving the series, Mills concentrated on TV movies, several of which she co-produced. She returned to Knots Landing for its final episode in 1993, and again for the reunion mini-series Knots Landing: Back To The Cul-De-Sac in 1997. In between, she had a brief recurring guest role as Josie Bissett's mother on the popular 1990s soap opera, Melrose Place. In more recent years, Mills has continued to make TV movies as well as guest appearances in series such as Cold Case (season 4, episode 13 "Blackout") and Nip/Tuck (in which she guest-starred with fellow Knots Landing star Joan Van Ark).

In 2005, she reunited with the Knots Landing cast for the reunion, Knots Landing: Together Again, in which the stars reminisced about the show.

Outside of acting, in 1986 Mills released "The Eyes Have It", an instructional video for achieving several different make-up looks. She went on to release her own line of cosmetics of the same name.

Clint Eastwood

We are wrapping up "Summer Under the Stars" Blogathon with, Clint Eastwood, film actor, director, producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, two Cannes Film Festival awards, and five People's Choice Awards, including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.

Eastwood is best known for his anti-hero roles in action and western films. Following his television series Rawhide(1958–65), he performed as the "Man With No Name" in the Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s, and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films in the 1970s and 1980s. Eastwood is also known for his comedic performances, in Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980). In the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and for producer of the Best Picture, and received nominations for Best Actor. Some other well known Clint Eastwood films, Paint Your Wagon (1969), Play Misty for Me (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Pale Rider (1985), In the Line of Fire (1993), and Gran Torino (2008), have all been successful. He has directed films, Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations.

TCM is featuring one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies today.

The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Romantic drama film based on the best-selling novel by Robert James Waller. The film was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with Kathleen Kennedy as co-producer and the screenplay was adapted by Richard LaGravenese. The film stars Eastwood and Meryl Streep, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her performance in the film.

The film takes place during four summer days of 1965. While Francesca, a Italian housewife in Iowa, is home alone. Her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair, she meets and falls in love with a photographer who has come to Madison County, Iowa to take pictures for National Geographic on the covered bridges in the area. The four days they spend together are a turning point in her life and she writes of her experience in a diary which is later read by her children after her death and they are taken back by it.

I thought Clint Eastwood was amazing in this very emotional film. It seems he steps back and allows Meryl to become the heart of the film. The film is beautifully directed, beautifully photographed and beautifully scored. The music on the radio really helps create the romantic, mood of the film.

The Bridges of Madison County (1995). One of Clint Eastwood's few Romantic Films.

The Bridges of Madison County(1995) Romantic drama film based on the novel by Robert James Waller. The film was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with Kathleen Kennedy as co-producer and the screenplay was adapted by Richard LaGravenese. Cast: Eastwood and Meryl Streep, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her performance in the film.

This is one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies. The story begins in the summer of 1965. Francesca, a lonely, Italian housewife in Iowa(While her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair) meets and falls in love with a photographer who has come to Madison County, Iowa to take pictures for National Geographic on the covered bridges. The four days they spend together turn out to be the most important time in her life. She writes about those four days in a diary which is later found by her children after her death.

This one of those movies I have mixed feelings about, because of the infidelity. Isn't it funny that all the films I seem to have mixed feeling about is Clint Eastwood movies? Anywho... Meryl Streep is absolutely wonderful in this film. One of my favorite scenes is the breakfast scene where all of her story is seen in her face, the results are pure magic. Look at how she closes the refrigerator door with her foot to her laughter. Look at her reaction when she discovers that Clint stopped in her home town in Italy, just because he thought it was pretty. I do not want to give the ending away.. but, I feel she made the right decision.

Space Cowboys

OK, I can't help it. Of all the films Clint Eastwood has directed this is by far my favorite. If you have not seen it Shame On You
Here is the trailer.

Forgotten Film: The First Traveling Saleslady(1956).

The First Traveling Saleslady (1956). Cast Ginger Rogers, Carol Channing, James Arness and Clint Eastwood.

The story begins when Rose and her friend Molly, decide to head west to sell barbed wire. Unfortunately, they end up in trouble with the local cowboys. The the cowboys try to run them out of town, certain that the wire will injure the cattle. The women's only friend is horseless carriage inventor Charles Masters.

I thought it was a sweet little film and it was fun to see a Clint Eastwood, 26 years old..



Fun Facts:

The script for The First Traveling Saleslady was first offered to Mae West, who declined, and many of the film's reviewers, Rogers might have been wiser to do the same. "Lame, offbeat, an interesting but failed experiment, The First Traveling Saleslady only underlined the emptiness of such backward-looking fare in changing times," wrote Patrick McGilligan, author of Ginger Rogers.

Ginger Rogers would joke that this picture shut down RKO (it was the last film produced by that studio).

Clint Eastwood's first on screen performance with a speaking part.

Happy 80th Birthday Clint Eastwood!

Clint Eastwood, film actor, director, producer, and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and five People's Choice Awards — including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.

Eastwood is known for his action and western films. Following his performance as in the TV series Rawhide(1958), he went on to perform as the Man With No Name in the trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films of the 1970s and 1980s. Eastwood also performed in Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can, his two highest-grossing films.

In 1969, Eastwood performed in his only musical, Paint Your Wagon. With Lee Marvin. They played a couple of gold miners who share the same wife. Production for the film had many delays. The film was not a success, although it was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Another favorite film of mine was, Two Mules for Sister Sara(1970) with Shirley MacLaine. The film, is a story about an American mercenary who gets mixed up with a woman disguised as a nun and aid a group of Juarista rebels during the time of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. The film saw Eastwood perform as a mysterious stranger once more, unshaven, wearing a serape-like vest and smoking a cigar.


Eastwood turned his attention towards a story about a love between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl, Breezy(1973). During casting for the film, Eastwood met Sondra Locke for the first time, who performed in many of his films for the next ten years and in his life. Locke, who was 26 and was too old to play the Breezy part, actress Kay Lenz, who had performed in American Graffiti, was cast. The film was not a major critical or commercial success. But, I thought a very interesting story line. I have mixed feelings about this film because the girl is 18 and her love interest is 45.

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and for producer of the Best Picture and received nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others such as Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Pale Rider (1985) and Gran Torino (2008), have all received great success. He has directed most of his star vehicles as well as films he has not acted in, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations.

He also served as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986–1988, tending to support small business interests on the one hand and environmental protection on the other.