Clint Eastwood has had a career that spans more than 6 decades. With five Oscars to his name, the Hollywood legend is an actor, director, and producer and was once mayor of a seaside city in California.
Over the years, he has been known not only for his career achievements but much attention has been given to his private life and the many women he has been associated with over the years.
The soon to be 90 year old has 8 children, has been married twice and had more girlfriends than the media could keep up with.
But not as much is known about his childhood.
The mystery surrounding his upbringing even led to a rumor that he was secretly the son of one of Hollywood’s greatest comic actors Stan Laurel.
Nicknamed Samson
According to the many biographies written about the actor, Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a salesman and Ruth Eastwood.
At birth, Eastwood was nicknamed “Samson” by the hospital nurses because he weighed 11 pounds 6 ounces.
Eastwood has made references to growing up during the Great Depression, implying his family was poor, but long-time lover Sandra Locke disputed this in her book “The Good, the Bad & the Very Ugly.”
“Actually they were never poor, they lived in a very wealthy part of town, had a swimming pool, belonged to the country club, and each drove his own car,” Locke said in her 1997 memoir.
Whatever financial circumstances the Eastwoods actually experienced, it seems the parentage rumors came from a joke made by a newspaper in Italy.
The rumor started during the time the movie star was making spaghetti westerns in Italy, and an article appeared in an Italian newspaper noting the resemblance between the two actors.
Speaking to the Sun newspaper in 2009, Eastwood settled the rumors once and for all.
”It’s because my hair stands up,” he said in an interview cited by The Guardian newspaper.
“My mother was hysterical,” he added of Ruth Eastwood’s reaction to the rumors. “She said, ‘I always admired the man, but I never met him let alone had his child.'”
The Guardian adds that his words may not have ended the matter as there is another rumor that claims Eastwood was adopted from the Laurels by his parents and that he is directly related to the Queen of Sheba.
As long as there are celebrities there will be rumors but there is a certain mystery surrounding Eastwood’s childhood.
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