Actor: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood became a star in Italy, in Leone’s Dollars trilogy, playing a man who says almost nothing and whose morality is never clarified. That character had no name and needed none.

Dirty Harry made him controversial. The film was accused of endorsing vigilantism on release and the argument has never entirely settled, which is arguably a mark in its favour.

The remarkable thing is the second half. Unforgiven takes the gunfighter he spent thirty years playing and shows him as a drunk who murdered women and children, and the film is dedicated to Leone and Siegel. Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino and The Mule continue the interrogation.

He has directed more than forty features and won Best Director and Best Picture twice. Almost no film career has been this long or this consistent about examining its own foundations.