Do we like Clint Eastwood?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Backed people's right to marry and ran a well-liked small town, but the 2016 Trump remarks and the Sondra Locke lawsuits keep him mid-table.
Eastwood is the Rawhide cowboy turned Oscar-winning director, and his latest film, Juror No. 2, may be his last. In between all that he did something unusual for a megastar: he ran for mayor of his little Californian town. In 1986 he won Carmel-by-the-Sea with 2,166 votes to the incumbent's 799, on what Mental Floss calls a platform of ice cream.
As mayor he tossed out the planning board that had blocked repeal of the town's ice cream cone ban. He also added public toilets and beach stairways, expanded the library's offerings, and flew back from film shoots to attend weekly council meetings. He didn't seek re-election in 1988. For a celebrity mayor, that's an actual record rather than a photo op.
The ugly chapter is Sondra Locke, his long-time co-star and ex-partner. She sued him for palimony in 1989, and it ended with a Warner Bros. directing deal. In 1995 she sued again, alleging that deal was a sham meant to make her drop the suit and wreck her career. That fraud case settled for an undisclosed sum during jury deliberations in 1996, so no court ever ruled against him, but it's hard to call it a flattering look.
On the harm check, the good news first. In 2011 he told GQ he didn't care who wanted to marry whom and said to give everybody the chance to have the life they want. The bad news is 2016. He didn't formally endorse Trump, but said he'd have to go for Trump over Clinton. He called Trump's remarks about a judge's heritage a dumb thing to say, then told people to get over the outcry and said “Everybody's walking on eggshells.” Where you land depends on whether you read that as a grumpy old man or as brushing off real hurt.
We found nothing from him on trans people, and no reliable report of a 2024 endorsement; the pages claiming one were junk. Nothing in the reporting I read ties his recent work to anyone pushing harm. That's a thin record on the newest culture-war topics, so say it plainly: the harm test is a pass with an asterisk, not a gold star.
The recent news is the retirement chatter. Kyle Eastwood said in an interview, translated by Dark Horizons, that his father is retired at 95. It recirculated in June 2026 when Clint turned 96. The report carries no statement from Clint, so call it unconfirmed.