Sondra Locke

About Sondra Locke

Who is it?: Actress, Director, Soundtrack
Birth Day: May 28, 1944
Birth Place:  Madison, Alabama, United States
Occupation: Actress singer director author
Years active: 1968–1999
Spouse(s): Gordon Anderson (m. 1967)
Partner(s): Clint Eastwood (1975–1989)

Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke was born on May 28, 1944 in  Madison, Alabama, United States, is Actress, Director, Soundtrack. Sondra Locke was born May 28, 1944 as Sandra Louise Smith, probably in Madison, Alabama. She was the daughter of Raymond Smith, a military man stationed nearby, and Pauline Bayne. Smith departed the scene before Sondra's birth. In 1945, her mother wed William Elkins, and together they had a son, Donald, in 1946. The short union ended in divorce. In 1948, Bayne remarried. Alfred Locke bestowed his surname on Pauline's children and raised the family in Shelbyville, Tennessee, a quiet little town about 60 miles southeast of Nashville. Sondra's stepfather was a carpenter; her mother worked in a pencil factory. For the smart, fanciful Locke, "My childhood felt as if I had been dropped off at an extended summer camp for which I was waiting to be picked up." The bright girl loved to read, which puzzled her simple mother, who was always pushing her to spend more time outside. Sondra's happiest moments occurred on weekend visits to the local movie theater.Locke was a cheerleader in junior high and graduated as valedictorian of Shelbyville Mills's eighth grade class of 1958. At Shelbyville Central High School, the "classroom was the one place where I felt like I had a chance to prove myself and I continued to excel. I felt safe there and I liked it." Her best friend was classmate Gordon Anderson. He was a fey young man, who shared many of Sondra's fanciful hopes about the future and was her collaborator in devising harmless ways to make their lives in Shelbyville more magical. One of the duo's frequent activities was making home movies with Gordon's Super 8 camera.In 1962, when Gordon attended Middle Tennessee State University, Sondra enrolled there, too. Upon completing freshman year, Sondra had a blowup with her mother, left home, and did not return to college. Instead, she worked in Nashville as a promotions assistant for WSM-TV, with occasional modeling and voiceover work. While in Nashville, Locke began acting in community theater as a member of Circle Players Inc. Meanwhile, Gordon revealed to her that he was homosexual. He went off to Manhattan to study acting and, for a while, had a lover there. Anderson was talented but unfocused about his theater craft and eventually returned to Tennessee. Because of Locke's spiritual kinship with Anderson, she and Gordon decided to wed. The mixed-orientation couple were married in a simple church service in Bedford County on September 25, 1967. (Reputedly, the marriage was never consummated.)If Gordon was unable to launch his own acting career, he had no such problems igniting Sondra's. He learned that Warner Bros. was holding an open casting call for a young actress to play a key role in the screen adaptation of Carson McCullers's novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968). Anderson helped Locke research the part of Mick, a teenage waif in a southern town who befriends a suicidal deaf-mute boarding at the house where she lives. For the audition, Gordon bleached her eyebrows, bound her bosom and carefully fixed her hair, makeup and outfit so that she would instantly impress casting agents. The ploy worked, and, after several callbacks, Locke -- who lied about her age to seem younger -- was hired. The movie was released in the summer of 1968 and earned respectful reviews from critics, although many filmgoers found the picture too arty. Sondra was Oscar-nominated for her sensitive portrayal.Next, Sondra moved to Los Angeles, with Gordon in tow. She hoped to parlay her Academy Award nomination into further movie assignments. The big-eyed, petite, wiry blonde found it difficult to win suitable parts, making her accept lesser projects, the most famous of which was Willard (1971), a film about marauding rats. Cover Me Babe (1970), A Reflection of Fear (1972) and The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974) faded into cinematic obscurity. In the last picture Locke played a Christ figure and had torrid love scenes with Paul Sand. Episodic television provided better acting opportunities: the anthology program Night Gallery (1969) and dramatic series including The F.B.I. (1965), Cannon (1971), Kung Fu (1972) and Barnaby Jones (1973).For half of the 1970s, the Andersons resided at West Hollywood's Andalusia condominium complex whilst dating other people. Sondra was linked with Bruce Davison, her costar from Willard (1971), and Bo Hopkins, who appeared with her in a teleplay called Gondola (1974). In 1975, her personal and professional fortunes shifted when Warner Bros. offered her the part of Clint Eastwood's romantic interest in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). It was a rather minor role, but Locke realized Eastwood's popularity would draw large audiences and thus provide exposure she needed to revitalize her dormant career. Not surprisingly, the complimentary pair fell for each other once on location in Lake Powell, Arizona. "We were almost living together from the very first days of the film," Locke remembered. Ecstatic Clint confided he'd never been in love before and made up a song for his new girlfriend: "She made me monogamous". This serially philandering megastar was 14 years her senior and a foot taller than she.The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) was indeed a hit, and Sondra sparked a flurry of interest among male viewers as virtually nonspeaking eye candy. Yet she stopped pursuing film roles by her own initiative to attend to wifely duties and appeared on the big screen exclusively in Eastwood-controlled projects, with one minor exception in The Shadow of Chikara (1977). (The home invasion thriller Death Game (1977), though released after they became an item, was actually shot in 1974.) "Clint wanted me to work only with him," she said. "He didn't like the idea of me being away from him."Over the next few years, Locke had two abortions from her relationship with Eastwood. In 1979, she underwent a tubal ligation to prevent further pregnancies. She and Clint settled into a $1.1 million, seven-bedroom Spanish-style Bel-Air mansion originally built in 1931, which she spent months renovating and decorating, and which she believed would be hers forever. She continued to spend platonic time with Gordon, whom she never divorced, nurtured by their spiritual relationship. Gordon moved in and out of gay relationships, and sometimes he and a boyfriend would socialize with Clint and Sondra. As for the professional side of things, Eastwood and Locke reteamed for his actioner The Gauntlet (1977), slapstick adventure-comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978), its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), the quirky western satire Bronco Billy (1980) and the fourth, darkest, most ambitious "Dirty Harry" vehicle, Sudden Impact (1983). All were stellar box office performers that cemented the twosome as filmdom's most visible couple.During this period, Sondra took a few TV roles when Clint was starring in a movie that had no part for her to play (such as Escape from Alcatraz (1979) or Firefox (1982)). The first time she worked apart from him for any length of time since The Shadow of Chikara (1977) in 1976 was Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982). (Rosemary Clooney personally asked Locke to star in the CBS biopic on the strength of her performance in Bronco Billy (1980).) She later made an appearance on Britain's Tales of the Unexpected (1979) serial. For the most part, however, she found herself sitting on the sidelines waiting for Eastwood to cast her in something.By the mid-1980s, Sondra, over 40, was acutely aware that in Hollywood terms her leading lady days were at an end. She had long been interested in film directing and had observed carefully how Eastwood and others directed the pictures she was in. With his blessing, she found a property that intrigued her and that his company, Malpaso Productions, would package. She developed it into a project for Warner Bros., where Clint had a long-term working relationship. She made Ratboy (1986), but despite good reviews, the film received scant distribution. In retrospect, Locke concluded that her exertion of authority over the project caused her longtime paramour to turn away from her, to find someone who was more compliant. (In an unpublicized affair with stewardess Jacelyn Reeves, Eastwood sired two legally fatherless children born in 1986 and 1988, in Monterey -- an "evil betrayal" Locke was totally unaware of.)The showdown between Sondra and Clint occurred on December 29, 1988 at their mountain retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho. After an unpleasant confrontation, Eastwood suggested Locke return to Los Angeles. She sensed their relationship had passed a point of reconciliation, a fact confirmed when she scarcely saw Eastwood in subsequent months and when industry friends they knew in common shunned her. As she admitted later, "In my head I guess I knew it was over, but in my heart Clint and I were still not severed." On April 10, 1989, while she was directing a demanding sequence in a new police procedural, Impulse (1990), Eastwood had the locks changed on their Bel-Air home. He also ordered her possessions to be boxed and put in storage. A letter addressed to "Mrs. Gordon Anderson", imperatively telling her not to come home, was delivered to her lawful husband's doorstep. When Gordon telephoned Sondra on the set and read her the letter, she fainted dead away in front of the cast and crew.On April 26, 1989, Sondra filed a palimony lawsuit against her domestic partner of 14 years. Her "brazenness" in taking on the powerful Eastwood amazed and shocked Tinseltown and titillated the public. Her action sought unspecified damages and an equal division of the property she and Eastwood had acquired during their relationship. Locke asked for title to the Bel-Air home they had shared and to the Crescent Heights (West Hollywood) place Eastwood had purchased in 1982 (in which Gordon lived). The closed hearing was held on May 31, 1989, before a private judge. Before any court decision could be made, a private settlement was reached between the parties. Locke received $450,000, the Crescent Heights property, and a $1.5 million multiyear development-directing pact at Warner Bros. In return, she dropped her suit. By then, the fall of 1990, she was happy to end the hassle. (In the past months she had been diagnosed with cancer, undergone a double mastectomy, and endured chemotherapy.)For the next three years Locke submitted over 30 projects to Warner Bros., but none received a green light to move ahead. Moreover, the studio refused to assign her to direct any of their in-house projects. In the mid-1990s, Sondra discovered that Eastwood had, in fact, arranged to reimburse Warner Bros. for her three-year studio contract -- a matter that he had never mentioned to her. It became obvious that the studio's negative professional attitude toward her had little or nothing to do with her directing or project-finding abilities. On June 5, 1995, Locke sued Eastwood again, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. She claimed that Clint's behind-the-scene actions had sent a message "to the film industry and the world at large ... that Locke was not to be taken seriously." (According to Sondra's lawyer, the situation was Clint's "way of terminating the earlier palimony suit.")While Locke's case was revving up in the courtroom, Eastwood begged her to settle. On September 24, 1996 -- the morning in which jurors were set to begin a second day of deliberation -- Sondra announced her decision to drop her suit against Clint for an undisclosed monetary reward. One contingency was laid down: she would not reveal the settlement amount. The jubilant plaintiff said, "This was never about money. It was about my fighting for my professional rights." According to the victor, "I didn't enjoy it. But sometimes you have to do things you don't enjoy." Locke added, "In this business, people get so accustomed to being abused, they just accept the abuse and say, 'Well, that's just the way it is.' Well, it isn't."But Locke was not finished. She had a pending action against Warner Bros. for allegedly harming her career by agreeing to the sham movie-directing deal that Eastwood had purportedly engineered. On May 24, 1999, just as jury selection was beginning, the studio reached an out-of-court settlement with Sondra.In the decade following her courtroom saga, Sondra did not direct another movie. She did make a brief return to acting with supporting roles in the low-budget independent features The Prophet's Game (2000) and Clean and Narrow (2000), both of which failed to secure a theatrical release. In 2001, she sold her home in the Hollywood Hills and moved to another part of Los Angeles. She had a live-in relationship with one of the physicians who had treated her during her cancer siege. Dr. Scott Cunneen, described by Locke as "Herculean", was 17 years her junior, his mother only three years older than Sondra. She has since split up with him.In 2016, after a protracted absence from the public eye, trade press reported that Sondra Locke will come out of retirement to co-star in Alan Rudolph's Ray Meets Helen (2017) opposite Keith Carradine.
Sondra Locke is a member of Actress

Does Sondra Locke Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Sondra Locke is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Sondra Locke - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Sondra Locke is 79 years, 10 months and 0 days old. Sondra Locke will celebrate 80rd birthday on a Tuesday 28th of May 2024. Below we countdown to Sondra Locke upcoming birthday.

Days
Hours
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Popular As Sondra Locke
Occupation Actress
Age 79 years old
Zodiac Sign Gemini
Born May 28, 1944 ( Madison, Alabama, United States)
Birthday May 28
Town/City  Madison, Alabama, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Sondra Locke’s zodiac sign is Gemini. According to astrologers, Gemini is expressive and quick-witted, it represents two different personalities in one and you will never be sure which one you will face. They are sociable, communicative and ready for fun, with a tendency to suddenly get serious, thoughtful and restless. They are fascinated with the world itself, extremely curious, with a constant feeling that there is not enough time to experience everything they want to see.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Sondra Locke was born in the Year of the Monkey. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Monkey thrive on having fun. They’re energetic, upbeat, and good at listening but lack self-control. They like being active and stimulated and enjoy pleasing self before pleasing others. They’re heart-breakers, not good at long-term relationships, morals are weak. Compatible with Rat or Dragon.

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Biography/Timeline

1944

Sandra Louise Smith was born on May 28, 1944, to New York City native Raymond Smith, then serving in the military, and Pauline Bayne, a pencil factory worker from Huntsville, Alabama. Her parents separated before her birth. In her autobiography, Locke noted that "although Momma would not admit it, I knew Mr. Smith never married my mother" She has a maternal half-brother, Donald (b. April 26, 1946) from Bayne's subsequent brief marriage to william B. Elkins. When Bayne married Alfred Locke in 1948, Sandra and Donald adopted his surname. She grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where her stepfather owned a construction company.

1962

Locke was a Cheerleader and class valedictorian in junior high. She attended Shelbyville Senior High School, where she was again valedictorian and voted "Duchess of Studiousness" by classmates, graduating in 1962.. She then enrolled at (but did not graduate from) Middle Tennessee State University, majoring in Drama.. Later, Locke worked in the promotions department for WSM-TV in Nashville when she lived there for approximately three years and modeled for The Tennessean fashion page.. She changed the spelling of her first name in her early 20s to avoid being called Sandy.

1967

Locke married Sculptor Gordon Leigh Anderson on September 25, 1967. She has stated in court papers that the marriage was never consummated and described her relationship with Anderson (reportedly a homosexual) as "tantamount to sister and brother." According to Locke, her husband is "more like a sister to me."

1970

Throughout the first half of the 1970s, Locke guested on television drama series, including The F.B.I., Cannon, Barnaby Jones and Kung Fu. In the 1972 Night Gallery episode "A Feast of Blood", she played the victim of a curse planted by Norman Lloyd; the recipient of a brooch that devoured her. Lloyd acted with her again in Gondola (1973), a three-character teleplay with Bo Hopkins, and remarked that Locke gave "a beautiful performance – perhaps her best ever."

1975

From 1975 until 1989, Locke cohabited with actor Clint Eastwood. They had first met in 1972, but became involved while filming The Outlaw Josey Wales. In the late 1970s, Locke had two abortions. "I'd feel sorry for any child that had me for a mother," she told syndicated columnist Dick Kleiner in 1969. After the second abortion she underwent a tubal ligation, stating in her autobiography that her decision to have the procedures was due to Eastwood's adamancy that parenthood would not fit into their lifestyle. Eastwood secretly fathered another woman's two children during the last three years of their relationship.

1978

In 1978, Locke and Eastwood appeared with an orangutan named Manis in that year's second highest-grossing film, Every Which Way But Loose. She portrayed country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor in the adventure-comedy. Its 1980 sequel, Any Which Way You Can, was nearly as successful. Locke recorded several songs for the soundtracks of these films and has performed live in concert with Eddie Rabbitt and Tom Jones.

1980

Locke starred as a bitter heiress who joins a traveling Wild West show in Bronco Billy (1980), her only film with Eastwood not to become a major commercial success. She cites Bronco Billy and The Outlaw Josey Wales as her favorites of the movies they made together. The couple's final collaboration as performers was Sudden Impact (1983), the highest-grossing film in the Dirty Harry franchise, where Locke played a vengeful Artist who systematically murders the men who had gang-raped her and her sister a decade earlier.

1986

In 1986, Locke made her feature directorial debut with Ratboy, a fable about a boy who is half-rat, produced by Eastwood's company Malpaso. Ratboy only had a limited release in the United States, where it was a critical and financial flop, but was well received in Europe, with French newspaper Le Parisien calling it the highlight of the Deauville Film Festival. Concentrating almost exclusively on directing from that point onward, Locke's second foray behind the camera was Impulse (1990), starring Theresa Russell as a police officer on the vice squad who goes undercover as a prostitute. Later, she directed the made-for-television film Death in Small Doses (1995), based on a true story, and the independent film Do Me a Favor (1997) starring Rosanna Arquette.

1989

In 1989, Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood after he changed the locks on their Bel-Air home and moved her possessions into storage while she was on the Impulse set. Following a yearlong legal battle, the parties reached a settlement wherein Eastwood set up a film development/directing pact for Locke at Warner Bros. in exchange for dropping the suit. Locke sued Eastwood again for fraud in 1995, alleging the deal with Warner was a sham—the studio had rejected all of the 30 or more projects she proposed and never used her as a Director. According to Locke's attorney Peggy Garrity, Eastwood committed "the ultimate betrayal" by arranging the "bogus" deal as a way to keep her out of work. The case came to trial in 1996, but before the jury was to render a verdict in Locke's favor, she settled with Eastwood for an undisclosed amount of money. The outcome of the case, Locke said, sent a "loud and clear" message to Hollywood, "that people cannot get away with whatever they want to just because they're powerful."

1990

Locke is a breast cancer survivor, having undergone a double mastectomy and chemotherapy in 1990. During treatment, she began dating one of her Surgeons, Scott Cunneen. Cunneen is 17 years younger than Locke. He moved in with her in 1991. In 2001, Locke purchased a six-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains.

1999

Locke brought separate action against Warner Bros. for allegedly conspiring with Eastwood to sabotage her directorial career. As had happened with the previous lawsuit, this ended in an out-of-court settlement, in 1999. The agreement with Warner Bros., Locke said, was "a happy ending" after "five years of torture." "I feel elated. This has been the best day in a long, long time," Locke said outside the courthouse. The case is used in some modern law-school contract textbooks to illustrate the legal concept of good faith.

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