They formed one of the most influential couples in American cinema in the 1970s. But Sondra Locke and Clint Eastwood separated with loss and a crash. Their story will have been as beautiful as it is tragic. But years after their split, their names are still intertwined. Because if Sondra Locke stood out young in Hollywood, it was by meeting Clint Eastwood that she breathed new life into her career.
That was in the 1970s, after she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress with a starring role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. In 1976, the director hired her to play in his film Outlaw Josey Wales. “I think what he liked about me was my reputation for being a somewhat intellectual, artistic woman. Clint didn’t have that label” , said Sondra Locke years later. He will also make her turn in several other films, such as Showdown, Bronco Billy or The Return of Inspector Harry.
At the time, Clint Eastwood fell madly in love with his actress while he was married to Maggie Johnson, the mother of two of his children. She too was not single since she was married to Gordon Leigh Anderson. It was in 1986 that she went behind the camera for the first timewith Ratboy, produced by… Clint Eastwood.
After making three other films, Sondra Locke returned to her first love and became an actress again after 13 years of absence. But the couple then found themselves trapped in one of the most toxic relationships in Hollywood history. In April 1989, the passionate relationship of the director and the actress exploded. Clint Eastwood took advantage of Sondra Lock leaving their home to empty it of its belongings and store it in a storage room.
Sondra Locke: what did the actress die of ? Brought to justice by his ex who describes him in his autobiography as “a monster”Clint Eastwood is accused of blocking Sondra Lock’s projects with Carner. Finally, the two exes found a confidential financial arrangement before the outcome of this river trial. Forced to abort twice by her companion at the time, Sondra Locke gradually withdrew from the profession.
She made a TV movie in 1995 and another for the cinema, which remained unpublished in France, in 1997 and only appeared in three films between 2000 and 2017. Actress and director Sondra Locke died on November 3, 2018, in the age of 74, victim of a heart problem caused by cancer from which she had suffered for years. She rests with the biggest names in American cinema, at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary in Los Angeles.