Clint Eastwood is 80 today!

Even though a vital actor, Dennis Hopper, passed away recently it good to know that at least probably the biggest cinematic legend is still alive and kicking.  Ol' grizzled eyes himself turns 80 today and strangely is still shoveling out movies of such high quality.  He's realeased some of the best films of the last decade (Mystic River, Flags Of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby, etc) and he's got 2 more lined up, 1 of which is based on J. Edgar Hoover (Leo Dicap is rumoured to play him)

This guy has a sickenly high-value CV under his belt.  It's hard to imagine if anyone will ever match the quality of films he's directed and starred in,  in this day and age of CGI galore shit-fest I doubt it won't be any time soon.

Plus he is essentially the blueprint to all hard-asses and action heros in cinema since the Spaghetti Westerns redifined cinema.  Back in the day when westerns were becoming stale and full of fluff, he & Sergio Leone came along and basically did a Bourne Identity to cinema by making them more grittier.  Even his last goodbye to western, Unforgiven back in 1992, is considered one of his best films.

Dirty Harry redifined it again with a lead guy who didn't like anybody and did anything to get the job done.  He's a huge influence on pop-culture from his immortal one-liners ("D'ya feel lucky, punk?......well, do ya!?!") to a name that's pretty much known by everyone, even those who might never have watched one of his films.

He was always the type of guy who could probably strike a match off the palm of his hand while giving you that thousand-yard stare. 

So, here's a tribute video to the living legend himself: