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

C 2024 commentary and selection  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

LILIUM

 

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.

TIGER LILLY

 

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.

C 2010 - 2024 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  All rights including International and Internet Rights are reserved.

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

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.

SLEEPING IN! COMING UP : FROM MY ARCHIVES CIRCA 2010!

Mistress Manifesto has been on Google Blogger for many years. To start this new year out, I want to revisit one of the Mistresses of the Month that I featured so many years ago. This actress actually wrote a book about her life and her experiences... She was a mistress to her leading man. I will begin this revisit tomorrow morning!   

You can always pull up past posts using the google search feature,  if you're interested in reading about other subjects in this blog!

Missy

A WISH FOR WORLD PEACE and a NEW YEAR RESOLUTION TO CHOOSE A CAUSE

We are here to create and preserve civilization. 

You have to decide which side you're on, and by that I mean peace, love, empathy, cooperation, and building and understanding, or war, hate, soullessness, destruction and chaos.  Though our individual circumstances in life vary, as do our cultural and societal place in the world, our humanity requires we be on the side of peace. Honest debate in which both sides state their views and their reality is a first step. Start with yourself. I know we only have so much time or money to give but this year choose a cause and stick with it for one year, learning as much as you can about that issue, the people who are involved with it, and find your little niche where what you say and do matters.

Missy