Today, Clint Eastwood is known more as an actor and director, but it wasn’t always this way. The Hollywood star stuck to acting for much of his early career, officially shifting to directing in the 1970s. Even though he loved Westerns, he embraced the neo-noir psychological thriller Play Misty for Me as his directorial debut. He then made and starred in High Plains Drifter, a supernatural Western that drew condemnation from various figures, including John Wayne, for its nihilistic and cynical tone. A few years later, he got a proper directorial hit in The Outlaw Josey Wales.

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