When a 20-year-old Clint Eastwood was drafted into the army and stationed at California’s Fort Ord, his longtime love affair with Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Monterey Bay area began. “The first time I saw the place I thought it was terrific,” he told AD in 1993. “Visually it was something else, and I thought it was the place I’d like to call home. So I kind of adopted Carmel.”
But long before the star owned property in the serene coastal region—located about five and a half hours northwest of Los Angeles—he couldn’t imagine it was where he’d actually settle down. “Back then I didn’t plan on owning too much of anything,” he said in 2007. After his time in the armed forces, he studied business administration at Los Angeles City College and spent his evenings at acting class. It wasn’t long before Eastwood landed his big break as Rowdy Yates in the CBS Western series Rawhide.
Hollywood was home during the early days of his career in spaghetti Westerns, but Eastwood was never able to shake his love for Carmel. Here, we look at 10 photographs of the film legend in his happy place when the cameras stopped rolling.
Apartment living
Eastwood’s acting career began in the mid-1950s with some minor film roles before he landed a supporting part in the 1956 Western comedy The First Traveling Saleslady, which starred Ginger Rogers, Carol Channing, and Barry Nelson. At the time, Eastwood and his first wife, Maggie Johnson—whom he married in 1953—were living near Universal’s lot at the Valli Sands, a U-shaped, two-story apartment complex in Studio City. According to Patrick McGilligan’s Clint: The Life and Legend, they paid $125 a month in rent for the pad. In this 1956 shot, Eastwood is pictured out front of the building in his Austin-Healey 100M sports car. Actors Gia Scala and Lili Kardell also had apartments there, per McGilligan, and when Kardell was dating James Dean, he’d allegedly come speeding up the street in his Porsche.
Riding in style
Clint’s priorities in life, per his biographer McGilligan, were fast cars and women. “He owned his first car even before he could legally carry a license,” McGilligan wrote in Clint: The Life and Legend. After Eastwood retired the Austin-Healey, it was on to the Jaguar XK150, a classic sports car from the luxury vehicle brand. According to GQ, Eastwood loved his set of wheels so much that it was used in the 1971 psychological thriller film Play Misty for Me, which was also his directorial debut.
Upgrading in LA
In 1959, Eastwood and Maggie moved to 3512 Beverly Glen Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. McGilligan described the home as a “modest hillside ranch house” with a “scenic outlook.” A journalist who once visited the home was surprised to see that it appeared “stripped to bare essentials,” McGilligan wrote. But the couple began adding personal touches after Maggie quit work and focused on her artistic endeavors. “One of her fortes was dark, moody portraits,” McGilligan wrote of Maggie, who can be seen here sketching her husband. “People speculate that the production’s ‘look’ of Clint’s later films was influenced by the visual style of Maggie’s paintings.”
Sunny days
Though their Sherman Oaks property wasn’t massive, the couple’s home did have a modest swimming pool for sunny days—like the one captured in this 1960 snapshot—when Eastwood and his wife would sport their swimsuits in the yard. He and Maggie sold the house in 1983—a year before their divorce was made final—to friend and film producer Fritz Manes for $250,000.
Tee time
When the movie star wasn’t on set, he could often be found golfing. The actor played the sport throughout his youth and enjoys it so much that he founded the Tehàma Golf Club, a 2,000-acre residential community in Carmel with an 18-hole championship course. “I started caddying at 13 and knew I could carry clubs but never thought I’d swing one,” he jokingly told AD in 2005, explaining that he worked with architect Alan Williams in the late 1990s on his exclusive membership-only golf course to make it feel like “home.”
A man of many talents
Another of Eastwood’s passions has always been music. In fact, that’s what he planned to study in college before he was drafted into the army and assigned to Fort Ord. “I was trying to get into Seattle University on a music program, but I applied too late,” Eastwood once said. “I was drafted into the US Army at the time of the Korean War, 1951. I came to Fort Ord. That’s how I got used to the Carmel area. I got to spend time in Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach, and Salinas.”
Ranch life
In 1978, Eastwood purchased the 1,067-acre property in Northern California known as Rising River Ranch. A newspaper reported that he snapped up the ranch from the estate of late actor Bing Crosby for $1.9 million. At the time, Eastwood was dating married actor Sondra Locke, whose husband Gordon Anderson was said to be gay. Locke explained that Eastwood would “undergo a metamorphosis” whenever he’d arrive at the idyllic property, per biographer McGilligan, and that he’d stop at the front gate to smell the sage. “Clint would get like a little boy,” she once said. “That was the best part of Clint.” Scenes from the 1982 film Firefox were reportedly filmed at the ranch.
Cruising in Carmel
Eastwood shot his directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, in Carmel and areas on the Monterey Peninsula. From then on, he told AD in 1993, “I just gradually became part of the community. Carmel gave me a different perspective from the movie business.” One of his first properties in the area was a “little house across from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club,” he once said. “I loved that house. It was the first home I ever owned.” The actor said he paid $20,000 for the home and later parted ways with it for $25,000.
Mayor on a mission
Eastwood, pictured here in Pebble Beach, would purchase his 22-acre Mission Ranch for $5 million eight years after this photo was taken. That year, he was elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea and served a two-year term. As Eastwood recalled to AD in 1993, renovation roadblocks inspired him to run for office: Carmel’s city council refused the actor’s request to update a building he owned downtown. He learned that many other residents were dealing with similar issues. “We couldn’t get anyone else to [run for mayor],” he said. “So after a few glasses of wine, I said I’d do it. Being a very determined person, I decided to win.” The beach city, known for its serene views and coastal locale, is “primo,” per Eastwood. “The place just gets in your blood. When you’ve been away and you come back here, you always feel like you’re coming home.”
Chef Clint
Eastwood has become so involved in Carmel that he founded the Hog’s Breath Inn restaurant in 1970—a place he feels embodies the city’s spirit: “unpretentious, artistic, and wrapped in a touch of mystique.” In a 1978 interview, Eastwood can be seen making a restaurant staple, the Dirty Harry Burger, which is still served today. “I’m not the normal chef,” he said from the restaurant’s kitchen, “but once in a while, I come in and whip one of these up for myself.”