SONDRA LOCKE : THE GIRLFRIEND IN CLINT EASTWOOD FILMS and HIS MISTRESS OFF SCREEN ; THEIR LONG RELATIONSHIP ENDED UGLY

SONDRA LOCKE

Image by Georges Biard

Wikimedia Commons attribution

1944-2018

(Sandra Louise Smith)

Back in July 2010, when Mistress Manifesto was a newish blog, I featured actress Sandra Locke as Mistress of the Month. Here is what I wrote:

She's an actress and director, an interior designer and home renovator, but she had a lot of time off and waited around for her lover... actor Clint Eastwood. Her income from the work on his films was small and she lived a life of more luxury than on her own salary with him. When she wanted and needed to do more - become the producer of film projects - he found her less desirable. She had two abortions and then a tubal sterilization at age 30 to keep him happy. She's sorry about that now, but there it is. She wanted her relationship with Clint to endure but, while he had these demands of her, he cheated and had other children with other mistresses...

Sondra Locke is a woman who could have made it on her own financially without Clint. But her case is interesting... because she kept a marriage with a gay man who had his own long term relationship all the while. ***

They spent over a decade as a couple - some count thirteen years. The first film, in which she played his love interest was The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Then she was in the lead role with Eastwood in the film The Gauntlet (1977). Then they hit special success in Every Which Way But Loose, which may people remember because of a orangutan named Clyde that also had a role. (1978). In that film and the sequel called Any Which Way You Can (1980) Sondra finally got paid well, reportedly six figures plus a percentage of the profits. She had a career before Clint Eastwood but had taken a pay cut for the Josie Wales film. Because she she played the role as a country singer in these two films, there was briefly an attempt to get a singing career going. Bronco Billy (1980), Sudden Impact (1983). In 1985 Clint Eastwood directed Sondra in an Amazing Stories episode.

1989 Locke sued Clintwood and it was settled out of court. He was accused of fraud, of ruining her career.  He sued too accusing her saying she had not fulfilled her agreements with him.  The lawsuits went on for years.  

Sondra died of breast and bone cancer at the age of seventy-four. She had been Oscar nominated in 1968 for her roll in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter.  She is best known for her films with Eastwood.  However, she did continue to work as a producer and director.  And when she died she was still married to her husband Gordon Anderson. Their loyalty was lifelong, though they were undoubtedly in an Alternative Relationship, one that Clint Eastwood seemed to understand and then use against Sondra. In the excerpts I have chosen from her memoir, I'll do my best to move the story along for you.

Missy

C 2024 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

*** Gordon Anderson was homosexual and pursued various relationships during his marriage to Sondra.  Sondra considered him to be her only family.