Clint Eastwood in the 70's and 80's

As well as acting Clint Eastwood decided to turn his hand to directing, he directed his first film the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), in which he played a man being stalked by a crazed female admirer whose obsession with him turns from seductive to violent. That same year, he played the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971) that gave Eastwood one of his signature roles and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day. Eastwood also found work in American revisionist westerns like High Plains Drifter (1973), which he also directed. He had constant quality films over the next few years, teaming up with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), and starring the "Dirty Harry" sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976/I), and the quintessential western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), the action flick The Gauntlet (1977), and the hugely successful comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978) with Clyde the orangutan.

Eastwood found even more solid work with the fact-based thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979). The sequel to "Every Which Way but Loose", Any Which Way You Can (1980), was also a blockbuster despite negative reviews from critics. It was the fourth 'Dirty Harry' sequel, Sudden Impact (1983) (the highest grossing film of the series) that made him a viable star for the eighties. Clint also starred in Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), which were all big hits but did not become classics. His fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, The Dead Pool (1988), was a minor commercial hit but severely panned by critics. Shortly after his career declined with the outright bomb comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) and the disappointing cop adventure The Rookie (1990). It was fairly obvious Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before.