Film actor and director, born in San Francisco, California, USA. He began acting in television Westerns, especially the Rawhide series (1959–65), and became an international star with three Italian-made ‘spaghetti’ Westerns, beginning with A Fistful of Dollars (1964). In the USA his box-office status was confirmed with several violent crime thrillers, such as Dirty Harry (1971), and from that time he began to combine acting performances with directing, beginning with Play Misty for Me (1971) and continuing with Bronco Billy (1980), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), and Bird (1987), among many others. In 1992 he directed the highly successful film Unforgiven which received two Oscars (best picture, best director), and later directed and starred in Absolute Power (1997), True Crime (1998), Blood Work (2002), and Million Dollar Baby (2004, Golden Globe Best Director; Oscar Best Director and Best Film), which also won the Directors Guild of America Award. Further work as a director includes the Oscar nominated Mystic River (2003), for which he also composed the soundtrack, and Flags of our Fathers (2006). He was elected Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA (1986–8).