Clint Eastwood is a well-known and adored actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous film prizes for his famous performances, not to mention his involvement in politics, and has served as a symbol of masculinity for many years.
The 93-year-old celebrity does not make a big deal of his personal life, but he has had his fair share of relationships. In addition to having married twice, he has seven children.
However, Eastwood just shared a tale that links him to one of his well-known films and about which he has been silent for many years.In 1930, at the height of the Great Depression, San Francisco witnessed the birth of Hollywood’s longest-running movie star. He has a younger sister.
Because of the repeated moves the family underwent due to his father’s steel industry employment was given the name Samson and weighed an amazing 11 pounds, 6 ounces when he was born. He eventually grew to be 6 feet 4 inches tall
But many people are unaware of the fact that Eastwood, at 21 years old, was a passenger on a naval plane from World War II that crashed in the Pacific.
“I was catching a free ride from Seattle down to Almeda,” Eastwood said in an interview.
“It was stormy and we went down off of Point Reyes, California, in the Pacific. I found myself in the water swimming a few miles towards the shore. I remember thinking, ‘well, 21 is not as long as a person wants to live.’”
After swimming through kelp beds for many hours in the Pacific, Eastwood finally reached shore and scaled a bluff to send out a distress call.
When he was directing the Tom Hanks-starring biographical film Sully: Miracle on the Hudson in 2016, this experience proved to be quite helpful.
The critically acclaimed film depicts the 2009 emergency Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549, in which all 155 passengers and crew members were saved.
In the movie, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who was later overruled by his superiors, made the split-second decision to land the jet in the icy Hudson River.
“I suppose having been in a similar situation as the pilot, I would have chanced a water landing rather than go someplace where there’s no runway,” Eastwood said in The Telegraph interview.“And of course, Sully was familiar with that area…he picked the right spot…He knew that somebody would see them” he continued.
Despite the remarkable landing Sully accomplished and the lives he saved, Eastwood was more fascinated by what happened next.
“Anybody who keeps their wits about them when things are going wrong, who can negotiate problems without panicking, is someone of superior character, and interesting to watch on film,” Eastwood said.
“But for me, the real conflict came after, with the investigative board questioning his decisions, even though he had saved so many lives.”
