The Triumph and Tragedy of Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke, the Oscar-nominated actress who starred in several movies with Clint Eastwood—a romantic partner-turned-litigious opponent—has died. She was 74. According to the Associated Press, Locke died on November 3 at her Los Angeles home of cardiac arrest stemming from bone and breast cancer.

Locke was an accomplished actress, making her debut in the 1968 drama The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter alongside Alan Arkin. She was nominated for a best-supporting-actress Oscar for her performance, an auspicious welcome for the Hollywood newcomer. She continued steadily working from that point, but her career—and life—changed forever when she was cast alongside Eastwood in the 1976 Western The Outlaw Josey Wales. The pair began dating on the set, sparking a relationship that would last for 13 years and spawn five more movies, the last being Sudden Impact in 1983. However, their relationship ended acrimoniously, coloring both their legacies and entwining them in two ugly lawsuits.

In her 1997 book The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly, Locke wrote about their relationship, detailing how it deteriorated as the years went on, according to a write-up in The Washington Post. Locke claimed the reason that she and Eastwood were at odds was because she wanted to branch out into the industry and build a career beyond his films—including by directing her own movies. Ultimately, Locke made two films during that period: Ratboy (1986) and Impulse (1990).

“I understood it would be at the risk of our relationship,” Locke said to the Post, referring to her desire to move away from Eastwood films. “And when I did, that was the beginning of the end.”

By 1989, it was clear the relationship was falling apart, she said. Eastwood was secretly involved with another woman and had two children with her. Meanwhile, Locke claimed that she had had two abortions over the course of their relationship, because Eastwood had told her that he didnt want more children.

One April day while she was filming Impulse, she returned to their shared home to find that Eastwood had changed the locks and boxed up her clothes, the Post notes. Locke then filed a lawsuit. in depositions, Eastwood characterized her as his “occasional roommate . . . for 10 years,” per the Post. They ultimately settled the suit, with Locke securing a three-year, $1.5 million deal with Warner Bros. to develop directing projects.

However, as the years went on, Lockes deal went nowhere. From 1990 to 1993, her lawyer Peggy Garrity claimed, Locke proposed 30 films to the studio, all of which were turned down. So she filed another suit, alleging that Eastwood defrauded her, and that the Warner Bros. deal she had been given was not real. Terry Semel, then the C.E.O. and co-chairman of Warner Bros., said when questioned that the deal did not guarantee any films would be produced and, because the deal was not exclusive, she was free to take projects to other studios. Eastwood later testified that he felt victimized by Locke. “I felt it was like social extortion of a kind—blackmail or whatever you want to call it,” he said.

The suit was eventually settled in 1996 for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Locke said it sent a “loud and clear” message to Hollywood “that people cannot get away with whatever they want to, just because theyre powerful.”

In the 1997 interview with the Post, Locke spoke openly about the ordeal and writing her subsequent book. “People can say, He made her famous; he gave her movies. He didnt give me movies—I did a job,” she said. “He didnt make me famous. It was never my fame—it was his fame. I was Clints girl. I only stood to lose professionally.”

Locke directed two more films after Impulse: *Death in Small Doses (1995) and Trading Favors (1997), both of which were little-seen. She also acted in a handful of projects, making her final turn in the 2017 romantic comedy Ray Meets Helen.

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Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:Debbie Reynoldss Fabulous Hollywood Life in PicturesDebbie Reynolds during her high-school years, in the late 1940s.Photo: From Everett Collection.Reynolds in her most famous role, opposite Gene Kelly in Singin in the Rain.Photo: From Everett Collection.Reynolds singing for a rapt audience of 30,000 G.I.s.Photo: From Bettmann/Getty Images.Reynolds married her first husband, Eddie Fisher, in 1955.Photo: By Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.Carrie Fisher (left), Reynolds, and Fishers daughter, Billie Lourd, pose together in 2011.Photo: By Brian To/FilmMagic/Getty Images.Reynolds and her son, Todd, among the actresss vast collection of Hollywood memorabilia.Photo: By Evans Vestal Ward/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.Carrie Fisher (left), Reynolds, and Billie Lourd were all present when the Screen Actors Guild honored Reynolds with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.Photo: By John Salangsang/BFA/Rex/Shutterstock.PreviousNext

Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.