Clint Eastwood, legend of American cinema, turns 80

A cowboy is born ... Eastwood had his first audition in 1954, a bright-eyed 24-year-old. He got his first contract with Universal Studios, earning $100 a week
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His big break came with the western series Rawhide, which he started filming in 1958. It took just three weeks for it to reach top 20 in the TV ratings
Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Eastwood was cast as hot-headed Rowdy Yates in the TV series
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Eastwood quickly became a Hollywood pin-up
Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

... and like all good pin-ups, wasn't shy about stripping off
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In fact, it is hard to find an image of young Clint with his clothes on
Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features

He hit the big screen with the spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars, in which he starred opposite Marianne Koch in 1964
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His critics said that the young actor relied too much on his good looks and too little on his acting skills
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Eastwood acted opposite Eli Wallach in the third film in the Dollars trilogy – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, filmed in Italy and Spain in 1966
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Bad and brooding, his character, the Man With No Name, redefined the stereotype of the western hero
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

The trilogy made Eastwood into a household name
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Eastwood in Hang 'Em High. The 1967 film became studio United Artists' biggest opening in history, exceeding all of the Bond films at that time
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Starring opposite Pat Hingle and Inger Stevens, Eastwood's flash of flesh reminds us of his pin-up days ...
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

... which are not long forgotten, as he strips off again as Sheriff Walt Coogan, a lonely deputy sheriff in New York, in the 1968 film Coogan's Bluff
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Eastwood starred in his first and only musical, Paint Your Wagon, in 1969. He and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin play gold miners who share the same wife. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was nominated for the Golden Globe for best motion picture (musical or comedy)
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Rough and always ready ...
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... to play the tall, mysterious, gun-wielding stranger once again, this time in Two Mules for Sister Sara in 1968
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His directorial debut came with pyscho-thriller Play Misty for Me in 1971. He stars as a DJ heart-throb whose jilted lover turns into an unhinged stalker
Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Collection

Eastwood plays the victim in The Beguiled, 1971. The film was largely unsuccessful, which Eastwood blamed on his fans not warming to his emasculated role
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Eastwood gets back to action in Dirty Harry, 1971, starring as a tough San Francisco cop. This was the first of five Harry Callahan movies, making it Eastwood's signature role
Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

His most famous lines: "But, being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
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Released in 1971, Dirty Harry was a phenonemal success. The film has been credited with inventing the loose-cannon cop genre imitated to this day
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Topless once more in High Plains Drifter, 1973. This was his first foray into directing westerns
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges in action flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in 1974
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

To a tee ... Eastwood at the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am tournament in California, 1974 Photograph: AP

Eastwood plays an assassin turned art professor in The Eiger Sanction, 1975. The actor insisted on doing all his own climbing and stunts despite conditions so dangerous that a professional climber was killed during filming
Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

In 1977 Eastwood directed and starred in The Gauntlet, in which he plays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Monkey business ... Eastwood starred in Every Which Way But Loose in 1978, going against type to play a comic character
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

... An orangutan named Manis was brought in to play Clyde
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

... and the film was Eastwood's most commercially successful picture yet. Naturally, it is not without some of his classic nudity ...
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz, 1979. The film dramatises the story of Frank Morris's breakout from the notorious island prison
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Clint and Manis reunited in Any Which Way You Can, 1980
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Despite bad reviews from critics, the film was another box-office blockbuster
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

And it's no surprise that his familiar sixpack gets another airing
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Cool customers ... Eastwood with his City Heat co-star Burt Reynolds are caricatured by Al Hischfeld
Photograph: AP

The family business ... Eastwood's daughter Alison (left) acts alongside dad in the provocative thriller Tightrope in 1984. Eastwood plays a single-father cop led astray by the promise of sex
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

The Dead Pool, 1988, is the fifth and final Dirty Harry film
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A smash ... although it was panned by critics, The Dead Pool was a commercial success. The film also starred Liam Neeson and a young Jim Carrey
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Thirty years into his career, and Eastwood still reaches for a gun at every opportunity
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You can't teach an old dog new tricks ... 62-year-old Eastwood revisits the western in the self-directed film, Unforgiven, 1992. He plays an ageing ex-gunfighter long past his prime ...
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The film, also starring Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris, won four Academy Awards, including best picture and best director
Photograph: Universal

Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a guilt-ridden secret service agent in the thriller In the Line of Fire, 1993, co-starring John Malkovich and Rene Russo
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That same year Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. Met with a mixed reception at its release, the film is now seen as one of Eastwood's most underrated directorial achievements
Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Collection

In royal company ... Eastwood meets Princess Diana at the London premiere of The Fugitive in 1993
Photograph: Rex Features

As dashing as ever, the actor-director looks sharp for a 64-year-old
Photograph: Allstar

... and shows his versatility as he stars opposite Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, 1995
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Back in the director's chair, Eastwood made Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1997, loosely based on the non-fiction bestseller by John Berendt. Eastwood made several changes to the text and wrote in a love interest for reporter John Cusack, a role that was played by Eastwood's daughter Alison
Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Collection

The film also stars Kevin Spacey and Jude Law
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All roses ... 1997 was a successful year with Eastwood also directing, producing and starring in political thriller Absolute Power
Photograph: Jim Cooper/AP

Eastwood directed and starred in True Crime in 1999, playing Steve Everett, a journalist recovering from alcoholism. The film was a box-office bomb
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

... but that doesn't stop the 70-year-old from smiling
Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

The boys ... Eastwood and his co-stars Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner pose for a photo prior to a screening of his 2000 film Space Cowboys
Photograph: Franck Prevel/AP

True blood ... Clint Eastwood with his daughters Morgan and Francesca at the premiere of Blood Work, 2002
Photograph: Chris Pizzello/AP

Eastwood gets a large laugh from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and producer-director Lili Zanuck at a news conference in 2004, announcing their appointments to the California Film Commission
Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Eastwood addresses an audience at the National Film Theatre, London, ahead of the release of his Oscar-tipped film Mystic River
Photograph: Sarah Lee

And the tipsters were right ... Mystic River won two Oscars at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004, although Eastwood missed out on the best director statuette
Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

But Tim Robbins went home with the best supporting actor Oscar and Sean Penn won for best actor
Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Back in the ring ... Eastwood directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, 2005, with Hilary Swank
Photograph: Everett/Rex Features

The film won Eastwood his second Oscar for best director, which he accepts here. Million Dollar Baby also won best picture, best supporting actor for Morgan Freeman …
Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/AP

... and best actress for Hilary Swank. The tearful actor is congratulated by Eastwood
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Eastwood himself also received a best supporting actor nomination for the film
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The generation gap ... Eastwood was up against youngsters like Leonardo DiCaprio, who was nominated for his role in Aviator
Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/AP

Eastwood watches as actor Dustin Hoffman pretends to make off with his Oscar. In fact, it was Jamie Foxx who took home the award for best actor for his barnstorming performance in Ray
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And if the Oscars weren't enough, here's Eastwood and his wife Dina Ruiz at the Golden Globes in 2005
Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

... where Eastwood won the award for best director
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A busy year for the 75-year-old, Eastwood was also nominated for an award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture at the Screen Actors Guild awards
Photograph: Bill Davila/Rex Features

Clear vision ... Eastwood slips on his specs to introduce his film at the rehersal for the ceremony
Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP

Back in his natural habitat ... Eastwood calling the shots on the set of Flags of Our Fathers, 2006, the first of his brace of films about one of the bloodiest battles in the second world war
Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive

Eastwood in Tokyo, where he was promoting Flag of Our Fathers and its Japanese companion piece Letters from Iwo Jima
Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images

Chuckle vision ... Jerry Seinfeld gets a laugh at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007
Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP

Does size matter? Tiger Woods's trophy is a lot larger than any of Eastwood's awards
Photograph: Lou Dematteis/Reuters

Eastwood looks dapper at his restaurant Mission Ranch Inn, a former dairy farm in Carmel, California
Photograph: Axel Koester/Corbis

In 2007, Eastwood tells the Observer's film critic Philip French that he intends to "retire gradually, just ride off into the sunset" in a chat at the Ritz Hotel in Paris
Photograph: Karen Robinson

... but doesn't look like stopping anytime soon, as he sips champagne with director Paul Haggis at the premiere of In the Valley of Elah
Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Stylish in the south of France ... Eastwood at the premiere of Changeling at the Cannes film festival, 2008. The film is a Depression-era drama with Angelina Jolie as a mother searching for her missing son
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Veterans' association … Eastwood has a warm greeting for Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira as they arrive at a ceremony in the latter's honour at the 61st Cannes film festival
Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

Eastwood acknowledges the applause as he picks up lifetime achievement award at the first Lumiere film festival in Lyon, 2009
Photograph: Jean-Phillipe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images

Back in the thick of it, here's Eastwood working in France on his forthcoming thriller Hereafter
Photograph: Patrick Kovarick/AFP/Getty Images

He might be 80, but Eastwood still looks sharp and captivates the audience at yet another awards ceremony, this time at the 24th annual American Cinematheque awards
Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

And what's better than eternal youth? A wax model of young Clint can now be seen at Madame Tussauds in California. Of course, he has a gun
Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images