Clint Eastwood has been a man of few words during his astounding career spanning seven decades, but RadarOnline.com has learned the Rawhide star may be hanging up his cowboy hat and retiring from Tinseltown forever as pals fear his health is in decline.
“Clint goes through spells of talking about retirement, but what’s worse for him, he feels the movie industry has retired on him,” said an insider. “He’s had a 50-year partnership with Warner Brothers, but there are new people in charge there now and they were very disappointed Clint’s last movie Cry Macho bombed at the box office.
“He was happy to finally get a go-ahead from Warner for his new film, but he isn’t counting on it happening again.”
The Pale Rider star, who turns 93 on May 31, is gearing up to shoot his final film, a thrilled called Juror No. 2 with Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult, and cameras are expected to roll in mid-June.
“He wants to do this movie as a swan song and go out in a blazing sunset,” spilled the insider. “Some thought Cry Macho was going to be his last film two years ago because he seemed frail even then, but the movie wasn’t well received so Clint’s gathering up the troops one last time — and hoping for a blockbuster.”
Clint has talked about retirement before. “I never did get to that day when I said I’d quit. I’ve flirted with the idea a lot lately, but every once in a while, a script comes along, and I think, ‘That’s a challenge that I haven’t been able to do before,'” he stated.
But insiders said Clint is also a realist.
“It’s still a lot for a guy in his nineties,” the source shared. “People do worry about his health. He’s the director, but he’s also involved in every other aspect like the casting and he’ll likely compose the score as he’s done on his other films.”
The actor hasn’t been spotted in public in over 450 days, leading many to call him a “recluse” as they fear that his health has taken a turn for the worse.
“Clint has always enjoyed great health and been vital and active despite his advancing age, but the fact that he hasn’t been around as much lately has a lot of people in Hollywood worried about him,” dished the source. “It’s hard to imagine him in anything other than fine form but Father Time catches up to all of us.”