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Sondra Locke

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Sondra Locke
at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival
Born (1944-05-28) May 28, 1944 (age 80)[1][2] or
(1947-05-28) May 28, 1947 (age 77)[3][4]
Shelbeyville, Tennessee, United States
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, director
Years active1968–1999
Spouse
Gordon Anderson
​
(m. 1967)​
PartnerClint Eastwood (1975–1989)
Signature

Sondra Locke (born May 28, 1944[1][2] or 1947[3][4])[contradictory] is an American actress, singer and film director.

She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. From 1976 to 1983, she appeared in six films with then-partner Clint Eastwood, starting with The Outlaw Josey Wales, and ending with the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact.

Early life

She was born and raised in Shelbyville, Tennessee, the daughter of Raymond Smith, a military man, and Pauline Bayne Locke, a pencil factory worker. Her parents separated before she was born, and her mother quickly married construction company owner Alfred Taylor Locke, whose name she took. Locke has a half-brother, Don (born 1946).

Locke was the valedictorian of the Shelbyville Central High School class of 1962. She attended Middle Tennessee State University for a year, before dropping out to pursue an acting career.

Career

In 1967, Locke won a nationwide talent search for the role of Mick Kelly in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The film was released in 1968, and her performance garnered her the Academy Award nomination, as well as two Golden Globe Award nominations (one for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the other for Most Promising Newcomer). Despite this early success, it was eight years before Locke had another notable film role.

In the early 1970s, she appeared in such independent films including Willard (1971) and The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974). She also guest starred on several television shows, including Barnaby Jones and Kung Fu. In the Night Gallery episode "A Feast of Blood", she played the victim of a curse planted by Norman Lloyd; the recipient of a brooch that devoured her.

In 1976, Locke played the supporting role of a pioneer woman who falls in love with the eponymous character in The Outlaw Josey Wales. This marked the first of six collaborations with Eastwood. With Eastwood as her leading man, Locke went on to star in a number of box-office hits. She played a foul-mouthed prostitute on the run from the mob in the action film The Gauntlet (1977), a spoiled heiress who joins a traveling Wild West show in Bronco Billy (1980), a country singer in the comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and its sequel, Any Which Way You Can (1980), and a revenge-seeking murderess in the highest-grossingDirty Harry film[citation needed], Sudden Impact (1983).

Locke made her directing debut with the comedy film Ratboy (1986) and later directed the critically acclaimed[citation needed] thriller Impulse (1990). She later directed the television film Death in Small Doses (1995) and the low-budget independent film Do Me A Favor (1997).

After 13 years away from acting, she returned in two little-exposed independent films in 1999. Locke has not worked in the film industry since then.

Personal life

Marriage

Locke married sculptor Gordon Anderson on September 25, 1967.[5]

Domestic partnership

Locke had a fourteen-year relationship with Eastwood; they cohabited from 1975 to 1989.[6] During the early years of the relationship, Locke had two abortions and a tubal ligation.[7]

Lawsuits

In 1989, Locke sued Eastwood for palimony, after he changed the locks on their house and placed her belongings in storage.[8] They settled in 1990, with Eastwood giving her a directing contract with Warner Bros. in exchange for her dropping the suit. However, the studio never hired her to direct and rejected all of the 30+ film projects she proposed.

In 1996, Locke hired entertainment attorney Neil Papiano and sued Eastwood for fraud, alleging that he had compensated Warner Bros. for the contract. The case was left in the jury's hands, with analysts predicting that Locke would win. In 1999, Eastwood and Locke agreed to settle out of court for a reportedly large amount. The details of the settlement were not publicly disclosed. The case is used in some modern law school contracts textbooks to illustrate the legal concept of good faith.[9]

Cancer and later life

In 1990 Locke underwent a double mastectomy due to breast cancer.[5] During her treatment, Locke began a relationship with Dr. Scott Cunneen, the Chief of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. They began cohabiting in 1996, but are no longer together.[10]

In 1997, she published an autobiography, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly – A Hollywood Journey.

In 2001, Locke purchased a large, six-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills,[11] a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains.

Filmography

Acting

Films

Television guest appearances

Directing

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b "Today in History". ABC News. May 28, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Database (undated). "Sondra Locke Overview". MSN. Retrieved October 7, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b McGilligan, Patrick (2002). Clint – The Life and Legend. St. Martin's Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-312-29032-0.
  4. ^ a b Database (undated). "Sondra Locke". AllMovie. Retrieved October 7, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Staff (undated). "Locke Biography". annoline.com. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  6. ^ McGilligan (1999), p. 250.
  7. ^ Locke, Sondra (1997). The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly – A Hollywood Journey. William Morrow and Company. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-688-15462-2.
  8. ^ McGilligan (1999).[page needed]
  9. ^ See, e.g., Charles Knapp, Nathan Crystal, and Harry Prince, eds., Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials, 6th ed. (New York: Aspen, 2007), pp. 470-80.
  10. ^ Database (undated). "Sondra Locke". Notable Names Database. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  11. ^ Staff (February 25, 2009). (http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/sondra-lockes-house/ "Sondra Locke's House"]. virtualglobetrotting.com. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
Bibliography

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