Oscar-Nominated Actress Sondra Locke Dies at 74
by EG
Oscar-nominated actress Sondra Locke has died at the age of 74 in Los Angeles. Although she was nominated for an Academy Award for her 1968 role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, most obituaries have focused on her contentious relationship with ex-boyfriend Clint Eastwood, whom she sued for fraud in 1995. Read on for details.
Sondra Locke, the Oscar-nominated actress who made six movies with Clint Eastwood before their relationship disintegrated and she sued him for palimony and then fraud, has died. She was 74.
Oscar-nominated actress and director Sondra Locke, best known for her films with Clint Eastwood, has passed at the age of 74. https://t.co/UqvL4l0rFh pic.twitter.com/XLhxoIZaIE
— KARE 11 (@kare11) December 14, 2018
Locke died Nov. 3 at her home in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest stemming from breast and bone cancer, according to her death certificate, which was obtained by the Associated Press.
The blond, waifish actress made her onscreen debut in stunning fashion, earning her Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of the teenager Mick Kelly opposite Alan Arkin in Robert Ellis Miller's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), the adaptation of the Carson McCullers novel.
Sondra Locke: a charismatic performer defined by a toxic relationship with Clint Eastwood https://t.co/OnQMF3oWhY
— The Guardian (@guardian) December 14, 2018
In October 1975, during the making of the Civil War-set The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), she and Eastwood became romantically involved on location in Page, Arizona. They eventually moved into a Bel Air mansion that was built in 1931.
After they became a couple, Locke acted almost exclusively in Eastwood films at Warner Bros., co-starring with him in The Gauntlet (1977), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), Bronco Billy (1980), Any Which Way You Can (1980) and Sudden Impact (1983), with the actor directing all but two of those as well.
She said Eastwood insisted she work with him alone; one exception came when singer Rosemary Clooney personally asked Locke to portray her in a 1982 biopic for CBS.
In Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can, she played country-music singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor and shared billing with orangutan.
"I didn't want to be up there with the orangutan," Locke said in a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I was there because I was in love and [Eastwood] wanted me to be there. And I loved working with him and we were together. But I didn't want that."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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