SONDRA LOCKE : THE UGLY END : CLINT HAS MOVED ON AND FINANCIAL MACHINATIONS BEGIN

After Clint Eastwood bought Sondra Locke the house, following her second abortion and the a sterilization, he bought a house for her husband, Gordon.  However, she was presented what appeared to be a lease agreement for that house, which was explained to her as a business maneuver to his benefit. She had been paid less than market rate salaries for her work in the films she appeared in with Clint - the Dirty Harry films.  Finally for Sudden Impact she got a substantial raise for her acting. Wishing to improve her career, Sondra took a directorial position for another film that would not be a collaboration with Clint.  Clint seemed to resent it in some way.  When he was elected mayor of Carmel, California, the town he considered home, his responsibilities put a further distance in their relationship. For Sondra and Clint's relationship might have been a well kept secret when it came to the public, even as they had as a couple many friendships and associations with Hollywood's biggest names.  In 1987 the tabloids were catching up with them.  It was reported that Clint had given Sondra a big engagement ring.  The ring was a gift from a friend. By the Christmas - New Years season 1988, Clint was behaving as if Sondra was no longer his "bestest of the westest." Her women friends felt he was treating her badly and suggested she get a lawyer.  She talked to one, just in case.

Excerpt: page 248 :

"I hesitated to bring it up while you were shooting this film," he began, " but I was .... uh... thinking, it's come to my attention that you... uh... and Gordon are sitting on my only real estate in Los Angeles."

Sitting on his real estate!  Gordon and I? Incredible!

"Your real estate?  Your real estate! That's outrageous, Clint." He actualy looked caught.

"Well,... uh...well... uh, I was thinking maybe you could go stay with Gordon for a while."

He said it as if it were a casual and normal request. 

****

Page 250  Gordon called:

"Listen to me carefully. Stay calm, do you understand? Gordon said. With that my pulse quickened.

"What is it? Just tell me quick,: I almost screamed.

"Clint has locked you out of your house. The sissy waited until you were safely at work, then he changed the locks."

(A letter followed telling her not to return to the house where she had been allowed to stay rent free by Mr. Eastwood.... This was the house that he had supposedly gifted to Sondra. Next boxes were delivered with her personal effects including her clothes - in effect moving her out of that house. Gordon refused the boxes.  By not accepting these boxes Gordon knew they would have to go back to the house she had lived in or be put in storage. But perhaps the worst of it was learning that Clint had two children in Carmel.)

Page 270

My mind was still searching to get all his actions lined up. For at least the last four years, Clint had been living this double lie, going between me and this other woman, and having children with her. Two babies had been born in the last three years of our relationship, and they were't mine. More pain was heaped onto my pain about my own abortions and subsequent tubal ligation.

(In court hearings Sondra learned that she was not in Clint's will but the other woman with children was.)

To this point I will conclude my excerpting of Sondra's book.  What she went through would devastate anyone.

WHAT OPINION DO YOU HAVE OF WHAT YOU'VE READ?

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SONDRA LOCKE : ABORTIONS and STERILIZATION : CLINT WAS NOT GOING TO CHANGE HIS NATURE OR HIS LIFESTYLE

Sondra Locke and Clint Eastwood didn't just go from hotel to old house he owned with his wife in Sherman Oaks. From 1977 through the 1980's she says they acquired most of their homes.  These included Sun Valley, Idaho.  Then a house in Carmel, near the ocean.  He considered it "home" while she thought of Los Angeles as 'home." Because she traveled with him as well, it does seem as that he was mostly living with her. It was the ranch near Mount Shasta that they had the conversation in which to decide on a second abortion...

These passages from ages 170-171

"What are we gonna do? I asked, gently approaching the subject we'd been postponing.

"Well, baby, you know how I feel," Clint said.

I had learned that I was pregnant.

It was not my first pregnancy. The previous year in the summer of 1978, we had to face the same dilemma, and I had reluctantly agreed to an abortion. IT was a hard and painful decision, but Clint had convinced me that it was the only reasonable answer.  It was difficult for me to argue the point, because Maggie had only just learned about us then, and Kyle and Alison (Clint Eastwood's children with his wife Maggie) had had no time adjust.  However, the concept of abortion was not something I had ever even turned over in my mid: I had never been pregnant, no close friend of mine had been pregnant,  Even Gordon, with whom I naturally talked about everything, only said, "It's something only you and Clint should decide."

"In truth, I had never contemplated having a family or not.  But "abortion," despite my pro-choice" politics, was a horrible word and, if I had allowed myself to think about it, a horrible deed.  But denial can be a short term savior, so I flipped a switch somewhere in my head and heart and had taken denial's hand.  After all, Clint had been a clear and unmovable on what he wanted me to do. I abstracted it all. Through a reliable reference, Clint had arranged for a doctor at UCLA to perform the abortion for me.  A woman.  I liked her immediately; she was sensitive and thoughtful and before I knew it, it was all over.  And I tried to forget.

But now in 1979, we had to face the same decision again.... Before I had met Clint my gynecologist had suggested and fitted for me an IUD. Because my sex life was not very active, he did not think I should be constantly taking birth control polls. Clint complained of the IUD - it was uncomfortable for him, he said.  And he too was not in favor of birth control pills, so he suggested a special clinic at Cedars Hospital where they taught a 'natural' method of birth control.  It was the same rhythm' system that historically has been used to determine the fertile days for those who are attempting to achieve pregnancy......

"Well, you know I feel the same way I did before, sweetie.  I don't really want more children." Clint told me softly.  I'm concerned about you're having another abortion, though."

***

Clint convinced Sondra that it would be best to avoid the pill and prevent any further abortions through sterilization on the basis that this was the healthiest option.

***

I could feel my heart in my throat.  It was not that Clint was taking something away from me that I had absolutely counted on or had consciously planned on... it was just that any decision from which there is no going back is a scary one. (page 171-172)

***

Clint asked Sondra if she wanted to spend her life with him or not.  He reasoned that he was a lot older than she and that the sterilization would be the best thing for their life together.  Her husband Gordon and another friend took her to the hospital; Clint was not going to make an appearance and have the press figure things out.  Then he made a show of giving Sondra the Sherman Oaks house, which she did not want. so he told her to go find herself that she could love and decorate and he would buy it for her.  In 1980 she found her house In Los Angeles - Bel Air. It cost $1.1 million - a deal at the time. Gordon, her husband, helped her design it and renovate it. The Warners Brothers studio also helped.

DO YOU THINK SONDRA SHOULD HAVE LEFT CLIFF A THIS POINT?

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SONDRA LOCKE : THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF BEING A MARRIED WOMAN HE CALLED SNOW WHITE - INVOLVED WITH A MARRIED MAN SHE CALLED DADDY : CLINT EASTWOOD

In these passages Sondra Locke's memoir, she describes the good and bad, the benefits and the accommodations, of accepting life with him unmarried, as his mistress. This is the second time I've read the book from cover to cover and I'm sensitive to two things; One that Sondra had no intention of divorcing her husband who she thought of as her only family and that husband, Gordon, was accepting of his wife, Sondra, being another man's mistress. 

It seems that Clint Eastwood was also happy that Sondra stayed married to Gordon. Two, that Sondra was into the relationship for the long haul, even though Clint remained married and she had two abortions and a tubal ligation, giving up any future children with him or another man, at his insistence. In the mid 1970's Gordon was having a romance with another man.

1975 : "Although Clint was clearly Daddy in the dynamics of our relationship, I seemed to bring out the little boy in him. And although he loved me for my childlike nature, he brought out the woman in me. Clint seemed astonished at his need for me, even admitting that he'd never been faithful to one woman - because he'd never been in love before," he confided.  He even made up a song about it: " She made me monogamous."  That flattered and delighted me. I would never doubt his faithfulness and his love for me. (page 145)

In the beginning when we were in Los Angeles, Clint and I stayed in his private  apartment adjacent to his office on the Warners lot. Soon we moved into his small house in Sherman Oaks, which he and Maggie's (Clint's wife) had acquired during his Rawhide success...... (Sondra hated the architecture and interiors but it was a respite from hotel rooms.)

***

1978 : Almost as if it were a nonevent, he answered, "Maggie wants to go to Hawaii."  I stood there dumbstruck.

"What do you mean a vacation? You didn't mention anything  to me." With Clint everything usually came out in little tiny snippets, but this one really threw me.

"Maggie asked about you and I told her," said Clint.

"What do you mean?  What did she say?"......

"She wants us to go there with the kids to see if we can 'work things out,' save our marriage, I guess," he replied.  (page 151)

(Clint said that he told his wife it was not just an affair and that he loved Sondra. This wife filed for a legal separation but not a divorce and did not actually divorce him till 1984.)

***

...  In retrospect it's interesting how the whole 'marriage or not" issue evolved for me with Clint.  In the beginning, I guess I wanted Clint to be divorced and marry me.  ...  Then, as the years went by somehow it did not seem to matter.  I truly believed that Clint and I did not need papers to validate the commitments we had made to each other.... And Clint knew the nature of Gordon's and my relationship, and was unconcerned that legally we were still married. In my conscious mind then, my marriage with Gordon was financial protection for him.  If something happened to me, he would be saved from unnecessary taxes on any assets I would leave behind. ... 

DO YOU THINK SONDRA's MARRIAGE TO A GAY MAN THAT SHE WOULD NOT GIVE UP MADE HER MORE VULNERABLE TO CLINT?

SONDRA LOCKE : MEETING CLINT EASTWOOD and THEN SOME! THEIR INSTANTANEOUS CONNECTION

Sondra Locke had an acting career before she and her husband, Gordon, came to Los Angeles - Hollywood. Gordon was reportedly homosexual and Sondra stayed married to him. They were living in the city when, in 1975, her agent called her to meet with Clint Eastwood, for consideration for a part in the film The Outlaw Josie Wales, which became a hit. Upon meeting him on the set, Sondra experienced an attraction and Clint began to court her right away.

Excerpt pages 138 - 139:  The next night Clint sat across from me at a table for two in a cozy restaurant only a shot drive from the Wahweap Lodge. We both ordered steak and baked potatoes. It was that kind of place.

His gray-green eyes studied me again.  "I find it hard to think of what to say when I'm with someone I really like," he confided.

My pulse quickened. "Me too." Then my eyes returned to my plate for another long silence.  I wanted to fill the empty space with words.  But what words? I told him how happy I was that Kaufman wanted me to be in this film, ad how much I was looking forward to the experience, ad how much I loved the location and how - and how -

"I was the one who wanted you in the film" he interrupted....

"Really?"

"I'll never forgot meeting you for Breezy, Sondra."

"But you didn't hire me for that film, did you," I teased.

"No, I didn't. Big Mistake." He smiled.  I hadn't noticed how long his eyelashes were, how aquiline his nose. "But I've hired you ow."

"I'm glad," I genuinely blushed.

Even though our instant rapport was completely different from out office meetings, it was still just as real, just as natural. I could almost forget that he was Clint Eastwood, could almost believe he was some handsome stranger that I had happened to meet while on vacation in Arizona.  But after dinner as we walked to the car, I was quickly reminded of exactly who he was when I glanced back toward the restaurant.  There, with their noses glued to the window was every waitress and customer, straining to get a last glimpse.

We were both completely silent as we began that twenty minute drive back to the hotel, where this dram of an evening would end.  Then suddenly, but easily, I felt his large hand touch mine.  My fingers involuntarily responded, instantly wrapping themselves around his - a perfect fit.  He turned and looked at me, and squeezing my hand a little tighter, pressed down on the accelerator, making our car surge forward, faster and faster, back toward the Wahweap Lodge.

Once at my door all that was necessary was another look at each other.  There was no conservation, no maneuvering, it was all as natural as if it were happening for the thousandth time, but as exciting as any first time could be.  He pulled me into his arms and kissed me gently, delicately.  Then lifting me up, like some knight bearing his maiden, he carried me across the room to the bed.  Physically I thought he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen - his heroic face, his tall, tithe, muscular body. And in spite of his size and power, he was a gentle, affectionate, thoughtful, and yet intensely ardent lover.  I thought of nothing except the moment.  There was nothing in his past I wanted to know about, and nothing I wanted to tell, and certainly nothing I wanted to address about my future reality.  We made love that night, not once, but several times.  It was truly magic. Together, it seemed that, through we were two bodies, two hearts... in perfect accord we were one.

The next morning I awoke and found myself alone.  Perhaps it had been a dram.  But there on my pillow was a little scrawled reminder; "Miss you, duck." And I smiled.

From that moment on, Clint and I were inseparable.  Even on the set, working together, we couldn't take our eyes off each together.  He wanted me constantly with him, to go every place with him, even just to watch him play tennis with a friend.  "I've never known anyone that I wanted to be around me all the time,' he said seriously. "I guess I'm usually trying to get away."

C Sondra Locke

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SONDRA LOCKE : IMPORTANT OBITUARIES CELEBRATED HER BUT HER DEATH WAS NOT ANNOUNCED UNTIL MUCH LATER

VANITY FAIR - SONDRA LOCKE OBIT - THE TRIUMPH and TRAGEDY of SONDRA LOCKE by Yohana Desta  

EXCERPT: “I understood it would be at the risk of our relationship,” Locke said to the Post, referring to her desire to move away from Eastwood films. “And when I did, that was the beginning of the end.”

By 1989, it was clear the relationship was falling apart, she said. Eastwood was secretly involved with another woman and had two children with her. Meanwhile, Locke claimed that she had had two abortions over the course of their relationship, because Eastwood had told her that he didn’t want more children.

One April day while she was filming Impulse, she returned to their shared home to find that Eastwood had changed the locks and boxed up her clothes, the Post notes. Locke then filed a lawsuit. in depositions, Eastwood characterized her as his “occasional roommate . . . for 10 years,” per the Post. They ultimately settled the suit, with Locke securing a three-year, $1.5 million deal with Warner Bros. to develop directing projects.

NEW YORK TIMES OBIT - SONDRA LOCKE 74, IS DEAD - OSCAR NOMINATED ACTRESS by Julia Jacobs

EXCERPT: Ms. Locke made her directorial debut in 1986 with "Ratboy," a somewhat satirical tale of an alien boy with ratlike features.  "In sociological terms, he exists somewhere between E.T. and the Elephant Man, as an innocent alien adrift in an unsympathetic world." Janet Maslin wrote in a largely unfavorable review in The Times.  Ms. Locke also starred in the movie.

After many years off screen, she re-emerged this year in "Ray Meets Helen," a romantic drama, directed by Alan Rudolph, about two lonely late-middle-aged strangers who meet after separately coming into money.

THE GOOD - THE BAD - AND THE VERY UGLY by SONDRA LOCKE : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

SONDRA LOCKE

THE GOOD, THE BAD, and the VERY UGLY - A Hollywood Journey

Sondra Locke has an innocent wistful quality to her looks, and she's a very spiritual in a New Age kind of way, seeing ghosts, believing in synchronicity, signs, and portents. Yet, like many people who have psychic abilities, she had not a clue about what was really going on in her life with long term lover and keeper, Clint Eastwood, until it was a shock. She was maybe the last to know.

They met on a set for a film he hired her for, had an affair, and it lasted - and was good- for a long time - years. In that time she had two abortions and a sterilization, to do it Clint's way.

Now, Clint was clearly married when they met and so was she - to a gay man from her home town who she apparently always held in high regard. They both went their own way with other partners and did not divorce for years. Sondra at times contributed to his support. Clint knew all that.

Clint was married, straight, and a father. But IT TURNS OUT HE WAS ONCE KEPT BY A GAY MAN early in his career!

Though Sondra Locke was and is an actress, her relationship with Clint was first and foremost, and though she was paid - poorly - for her work in his films, she was loyal to him, loved him, and gained some benefits. When he was out of town she busied herself with decorating and refurbishing a house of her dreams - which Clint owned and she came to think of as her - their - house.

She lived the life of a wealthy woman, a woman who had other people - Clint's people - to take care of a lot of things so she could focus on a major redecorating project. She got used to him coming and going, being here, there and everywhere. She was in shock and denial for a long time. After all, she and Clint had been a couple in his - their -social life for a long time and now some of those friends, catching change in the air, were stepping back, not wanting to be involved or only suggesting she needed a lawyer.

Sondra Locke writes intelligently, honestly, and with the perception of what happened after the fact. It sounds like Clint got tricky and nasty when he wanted out (or her out of their Los Angeles house, one of many) and that he had been dishonest with her for a long time too.

One of the problems many mistresses have is getting recognition for the value they have in a man's life and having that translated to finances. (Remember we are not discriminating here in saying a woman - a man. We know there are kept homosexual people and heterosexual men kept by women!)

IT WAS IN THE TRADITION OF THE EUROPEAN (KINGS) IN DAYS GONE BY THAT A WOMAN BE COMPENSATED FOR THE TIME SHE SPENT WITH HER ROYAL, especially if she gave him children; being a mistress kept a woman out of the marriage market though sometimes she was married off into a cover marriage. Because all mistresses are not dependent women and the things women do are often thought of as free, it becomes a feminist issue.

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The book is C 1997 by Sondra Locke William Morrow is the publisher.\

Note January 2024  I'll be excerpting from Sondra Locke's book during this revisit to past posts.  I hadn't before.  Missy

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

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