As a child, the star of action movies like Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire was a "big daydreamer. I dreamed I was going to be an airplane pilot or a doctor who saves thousands of lives." While Clint Eastwood became neither, he did end up with an outstanding acting career, but one that was preceded by some unglamorous work. Just after high school, he was a gas station attendant and a firefighter. His love for music also led him to play jazz piano in a bar in Oakland. In 1950, when the Korean War was started, Eastwood was drafted. While flying a plane over the Pacific Ocean, it crashed and he had to swim three miles back to camp. He was then designated as the camp's swimming instructor and was not called on to fly or fight.

Two of his friends whom he had met in the army (one being David Janssen of The Fugitive television series fame) encouraged him to pursue acting. Soon after getting to Hollywood in 1954, Eastwood got a $75 a week contract at Universal Studios, playing bit parts in movies like Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula. But after two years he was told he spoke too slowly and that his Adam's apple was just too big, and so his career as a swimming pool digger began.

In 1959, Eastwood got another break when he was visiting a friend at CBS studios. A studio executive who saw him and liked his look cast him as a cattle driver in the western show Rawhide. His interest in directing was instilled during this time, and he remembers that the people at Rawhide would "look at me like I was crazy" when he asked if he could take over an episode. He finally got his chance at directing with 1971's Play Misty for Me, the same year he starred in the movie that would finally catapult him to stardom, Dirty Harry.