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Wed 24 September 2025 20:45, UK
It’s been over 60 years since Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy turned Clint Eastwood into a movie star, and people are still talking about the ‘Man with No Name’, which means the actor and filmmaker is already more than 60% of the way toward being someone cinephiles have talked about for a century.
He’s arguably Hollywood’s single most prominent living legend, which comes with the territory for a 95-year-old who’s won four Academy Awards, directed dozens of features, played some of cinema’s most iconic characters, and delivered some of the industry’s most indelible one-liners, and his legacy will endure.
In the grand scheme of things, there aren’t too many names destined to be discussed decades after their peak, never mind centuries. However, the evidence is there that Eastwood is as close to a sure thing as anyone to join the same rarefied air as John Wayne, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, and the other nailed-on legends who are guaranteed never to be forgotten.
However, the Dirty Harry and Unforgiven headliner has a sneaking suspicion that one of modern Hollywood’s biggest and longest-tenured stars will be granted entry into that exclusive club, and considering he’s been around the block and back more times than many of his peers could ever dream of, he’s probably not wrong.
Sure, there have been some ups and downs along the way, but what was true 40 years ago remains true now: the guy sits at the very top of the A-list, and there’s little chance he’s ever coming down. As Cameron Crowe explained, there was only one thing Eastwood wanted to talk about when they met.
“I have the same lawyer as Clint Eastwood, and he invited me to a dinner party,” the director told The New York Times. “He sat me next to Clint Eastwood, and I was so nervous. What do you say to Clint Eastwood? So I’m sitting there and Clint Eastwood leans over and says, ‘Tom Cruise.’”
Crowe might have had no idea how to strike up a conversation, but Eastwood did, knowing that the former had collaborated with Cruise on Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky. “Oh man, I love working with Tom Cruise,” he shared. “And he goes, ‘In 100 years, they’re gonna look back. That’s the career, Tom Cruise’s career.’”
In typical Eastwood fashion, he didn’t elaborate, but his point is clear. Having evolved from a fresh-faced talent into a leading man who used their newfound influence to surround himself with the most talented directors in the business before becoming a one-man blockbuster empire who can still put butts in seats into his 60s, Cruise has laid down a blueprint that every aspiring movie star could do worse than follow.
He’s a completely different type of star from Eastwood, who used his name value to launch what’s almost certainly the most impressive secondary career of any actor ever, but if someone of his stature thinks Cruise is the person of his generation who’ll still be remembered 100 years from now, who’s going to argue?
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