Actor / Director Profile

Sondra Locke was born on May 28, 1944, and grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Her parents, Raymond Smith and Pauline Bayne, never married and separated before Sondra was born, and her mother quickly married construction company owner Alfred Locke. Sondra attended Shelbyville Central High, where she played basketball and graduated as class valedictorian in 1962. Resenting the way she was brought up by her close-minded, tormenting mother, Sondra would eventually leave home for good at the age of 20 and remain estranged from her family for nearly thirty years.Following graduation, Sondra attended Middle Tenessee State University on a full scholarship, and acted in the college's productions of The Crucible and The Monkey's Paw. She ultimately decided not to return after completing her freshman year in 1963. During the next few years, she had jobs like working as a typist for a Nashville news station, and continued to hone her acting skills in local theater productions. Sondra made a very unconventional choice in 1967 when she married her gay friend and confidant, Gordon Anderson, a sculptor. The Andersons (Sondra uses her maiden name only professionally) had known each other since they were ten and became extremely close as teenagers, during which he disclosed his sexuality to her in their conservative hometown. Though Anderson's sexual orientation was later kept secret from the press during her Hollywood career, Sondra would eventually clear up all of the ambiguity surrounding the marriage in her 1997 autobiography.Shortly after she and Anderson married, they were informed about a casting call being held in New York for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), a period piece based on the novel by Carson McCullers. The film's producers were searching for an unknown actress to portray Mick Kelly, a tomboyish teen from a poor family in the deep south who forms an unlikely bond with a suicidal deaf-mute (played by Alan Arkin). Taking her husband's advice, Sondra bleached her eyebrows, bound her bosom, and deceived producers by stating she was 17 in order to be more convincing for the role. It worked, and she won the part over 2,000 other contenders. Sondra's effective portrayal earned her Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actress.Warner Bros. had badly advised Sondra to turn down other roles after production on "Heart" wrapped, suggesting that better offers would come once the film was released. Despite the Oscar nomination she received for the film, her career did not take off as she had hoped. Over the next several years, she starred in some independent films and made guest appearances on television shows. One notable film of hers was Willard (1971), which was a moderate success and gained a cult following. However, the rest of the films she made during this period (Cover Me Babe (1970), A Reflection of Fear (1973), The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974), The Shadow of Chikara (1977), and Death Game (1977)) went little noticed. In fact, the majority of these films, respectively, were shelved for a couple years before receiving very limited releases. Meanwhile, she and Anderson moved to California, where she resided in an apartment at the historic Andalusia building in Hollywood and he in a nearby townhouse with his then-partner.Finally, in 1976, Sondra was in a hit film. It was The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), a western classic in which she portrayed Laura Lee, a pioneer woman who falls in love with the titular character, played by Clint Eastwood, whom she met four years prior through mutual acquaintances. Their romantic involvement with each other began on location in Utah during the film's production, and escalated into an intense relationship that would last fourteen years. With Eastwood as her leading man, she went on to star in a number of subsequent box office hits. Their next collaboration was an action-packed road adventure, The Gauntlet (1977), where Sondra played a foul-mouthed hooker who falls in love with a cop while on the run from the mob. Next up was the blockbuster comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978), which became the second-highest grossing film of 1978. She reprised her role as the sexy country singer Lynne Halsey-Taylor in the equally successful sequel, Any Which Way You Can (1980).Although Sondra gave heartfelt performances, her acting was often criticized. She undeservedly received a "Worst Actress" Razzie nomination for her performance as Antoinette Lily, a spoiled, stranded heiress who joins a Wild West Show in Bronco Billy (1980), which was not exactly well-received by critics or audiences upon release. Sondra portrayed Rosemary Clooney in the television biopic Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982) (TV), which was her third made-for-TV movie (the previous two were The Gondola (1973) (TV) and Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979) (TV)). She returned to the big screen as the revenge-seeking murderess Jennifer Spencer in Sudden Impact (1983), which was the highest grossing film of the "Dirty Harry" film series, and considered by many to be the best sequel.After starring in several commercial hits, Sondra decided to fulfill another ambition of hers: directing. She made her directorial debut with Ratboy (1986), an offbeat comedy in which she also starred. The film was a flop, receiving only a limited release and another Razzie nomination. Sondra later noted that she sensed increasing tension in her relationship with Eastwood while making the film. Eastwood (who reportedly had trysts with tens of women) began commuting to Carmel, where he was secretly and illicitly involved with Jacelyn Reeves, a flight attendant who gave birth to two illegitimate children whom he would take years to acknowledge.Following the failure of "Ratboy", Sondra put her acting career on the back burner. She believed her future lay in directing. The second film she directed, Impulse (1990), was a thriller about a female cop going undercover as a prostitute. Sondra received critical praise for her efforts, and "Impulse" was hailed by film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert as the best directed film of the year.While she was working on "Impulse" in 1989, out of the blue, Eastwood had his men change the locks on their Bel Air house (which Sondra had spent years decorating and remodeling), removed many of her possessions and placed them in storage, while his new girlfriend, actress Frances Fisher, moved in. Sondra fainted on the film's set when she received a phone call from husband Gordon Anderson - who read a letter to her over the phone that had been left on his doorstep, stating that she was being evicted from her home and that Eastwood was giving her one month to get her belongings out of storage. She sued him for palimony and, after a year in court, decided to settle when he offered her a directing contract with Warner Bros. in exchange for dropping the suit. Sondra was diagnosed with breast cancer during the ordeal and underwent a double mastectomy. Fortunately, she made a full recovery and began a relationship with her surgeon, Dr. Scott Cunneen, now the Chief of Surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center Center in Los Angeles.After her recovery, she was eager to return to work, but the directing contract given to her was a sham, as the studio had no intention of making any films with her. She pitched more than 30 separate projects, all of which were rejected by the studio. The only directorial work she could find elsewhere was with the made-for-television movie Death in Small Doses (1995) (TV) and the direct-to-video film Do Me a Favor (1997). Alleging that Eastwood had committed fraud by compensating Warner Bros. to keep her out of work, Sondra soon found herself back in court, suing the studio that had originally discovered her and the superstar who once claimed he loved her. The case was left in the jurors' hands in 1996, with analysts predicting that she would win. In response, Eastwood's lawyers agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount. Sondra penned an autobiography titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly," which chronicled her early beginnings in Tennessee, cleared up the ambiguity about her marriage, recalled how Eastwood persuaded her to have two abortions and a tubal ligation during the early years of their relationship, and - most effectively - expressed her shock of having been informed about his love children with Jacelyn Reeves via a Carmel reporter who had contacted her during the trial, reiterating the fact that both birth certificates stated "father declined".In 1999, Sondra returned to acting with small roles in two very obscure independent films: The Prophet's Game (2000) (which went straight to video) and Clean and Narrow (1999) (which premiered on cable then disappeared). She has not worked in the film industry since then. She remains married in name only to her best friend Gordon Anderson, who has stuck by her side for over forty years and testified in her defense during the litigation with Eastwood. Sondra's relationship with Scott Cunneen progressed, and the two began living together in 1996. They have since gone their separate ways. Sondra now resides in the Hollywood Hills, where she has settled into a quiet retirement.