Career

1950s: Early career struggles

According to the CBS press release for Rawhide, the Universal (known then as Universal-International) film company was shooting in Fort Ord when an enterprising assistant spotted Eastwood and invited him to meet the director.^[35] According to Eastwood's official biography, the key figure was a man named Chuck Hill, who was stationed in Fort Ord and had contacts in Hollywood.^[35] While in Los Angeles, Hill became reacquainted with Eastwood and managed to sneak Eastwood into a Universal studio, where he showed him to cameraman Irving Glassberg.^[35] Glassberg arranged for an audition under Arthur Lubin, who, although very impressed with Clint's appearance and stature at 6'4" (193 cm), disapproved initially of his acting skills, remarking, "He was quite amateurish. He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything".^[36] Lubin suggested that he attend drama classes and arranged for Eastwood's initial contract in April 1954, at $100 per week.^[36] After signing, Eastwood was initially criticized for his stiff manner and delivering his lines through his teeth, a lifelong trademark.^[37]
In May 1954, Eastwood made his first real audition for Six Bridges to Cross but was rejected by Joseph Pevney.^[38] After many unsuccessful auditions, he was eventually given a minor role by director Jack Arnold in Revenge of the Creature (1955), a sequel to the recently released The Creature from the Black Lagoon.^[39] In September 1954, Eastwood worked for three weeks on Arthur Lubin's Lady Godiva of Coventry, won a role in February 1955, playing "Jonesy", a sailor in Francis in the Navy and appeared uncredited in another Jack Arnold film, Tarantula, where he played a squadron pilot.^[40][41] In May 1955, Eastwood put four hours' work into the film Never Say Goodbye and had a minor uncredited role as a ranch hand (his first western film) in August 1955 with Law Man, also known as Star in the Dust.^[42] Universal presented him with his first television role on July 2, 1955, on NBC's Allen in Movieland, which starred Tony Curtis and Benny Goodman.^[43] Although he continued to develop as an actor, Universal terminated his contract on October 23, 1955.^[44]
Eastwood joined the Marsh Agency, and although Lubin landed him his biggest role to date in The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and later hired him for Escapade in Japan, without a formal contract Eastwood was struggling.^[45] Upon the advice of Irving Leonard, his financial advisor, he changed talent agencies to the Kumin-Olenick Agency in 1956 and Mitchell Gertz in 1957. He landed several small roles in 1956 as a temperamental army officer for a segment of ABC's Reader's Digest series, and as a motorcycle gang member on a Highway Patrol episode.^[45] In 1957, Eastwood played a cadet in West Point series and a suicidal gold prospector on Death Valley Days.^[46] In 1958, he played a Navy lieutenant in a segment of Navy Log and in early 1959 made a notable guest appearance on Maverick opposite James Garner as a cowardly villain intent on marrying a rich girl for money.^[46] Eastwood had a small part as an aviator in the French picture Lafayette Escadrille and played a major role as an ex-renegade of the Confederacy in Ambush at Cimarron Pass, a film which Eastwood viewed disastrously and professes to be the lowest point of his career.^[47][48][49]

Publicity photo for Rawhide, 1961

In 1958, Eastwood was cast as Rowdy Yates for the CBS hour-long western series Rawhide, the breakthrough in his career he had long been searching for.^[50][51] However, Eastwood was not especially happy with his character; Eastwood was almost 30, and Rowdy was too young and too cloddish for Clint to feel comfortable with the part.^[52] Filming began in Arizona in the summer of 1958.^[53] It took just three weeks for Rawhide to reach the top 20 in TV ratings and although it never won an Emmy, it was a major success for several years, and reached its peak at number six in the ratings between October 1960 and April 1961.^[54] The Rawhide years (1959–65) were some of the most grueling of Eastwood's career, often filming six days a week for an average of twelve hours a day, yet he still received criticism by some directors for not working hard enough.^[54][55] By late 1963 Rawhide was beginning to decline in popularity and lacked freshness in the script; it was canceled in the middle of the 1965–66 television season.^[56] Eastwood made his first attempt at directing when he filmed several trailers for the show, although he was unable to convince producers to let him direct an episode.^[57] In the show's first season Eastwood earned $750 an episode. At the time of Rawhide's cancellation, he received $119,000 an episode as severance pay.^[58]