Sandra Louise Anderson, professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director.
74 Facts About Sondra Locke
2.
Sondra Locke achieved recognition for her relationship with Clint Eastwood and the six hit films they made together.
3.
An alumna of Middle Tennessee State University, Locke broke into regional show business with assorted posts at the Nashville-based radio station WSM-AM, then segued into television as a promotions assistant for WSM-TV.
4.
Sondra Locke went on to appear in such box office successes as Willard, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can and Sudden Impact.
5.
Sondra Locke worked regularly with Eastwood, who was her companion for 14 years despite their marriages to other people.
6.
Sondra Locke directed four films, notably Impulse, and published an autobiography, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey.
7.
Sondra Locke's persona belied her age, and she habitually played roles written for women much younger than herself.
8.
Sondra Locke claimed to have been born several years later than 1944, and her true age remained a secret throughout her career.
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Sondra Locke grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where her stepfather owned a construction company; the family later moved to nearby Wartrace.
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Self-described as introspective and ambitious, Sondra Locke started working part-time at age 16, drove her own car, and had a phone installed in her bedroom.
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Sondra Locke was a cheerleader and class valedictorian in junior high.
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Sondra Locke played on the girls' basketball team, served as PTSA representative and was president of the French club.
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Sondra Locke dropped out after completing two semesters of study.
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Sondra Locke held a variety of jobs, including as a bookkeeper for Tyson Foods and secretary in a real-estate office.
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Sondra Locke modeled for The Tennessean fashion page, acted in commercials for Rich-Schwartz ladies apparel and Southerland Gel mattresses, among others, and gained further stage experience in productions for Circle Players Inc In 1966, the 22-year-old appeared in a UPI wire photo that showed her cavorting in new fallen snow.
16.
In July 1967, Sondra Locke competed with 590 other Southern actresses and dozens of New York hopefuls for the part of Mick Kelly in a big-screen adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter opposite Alan Arkin.
17.
Sondra Locke won "Most Promising New Star of the Year" at the Show-A-Rama film exhibitor convention.
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Sondra Locke made it as part of a $150,000 three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, and was compensated for the other two which never came to fruition.
19.
Sondra Locke was offered Barbara Hershey's role in Last Summer, but her management turned it down without telling her.
20.
In 1971, Sondra Locke co-starred with Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine in the psychological thriller Willard, which became a surprise box office smash.
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Sondra Locke felt overqualified for her role but did it as a favor to Davison, who at the time was her unofficial paramour.
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Sondra Locke was then featured in William A Fraker's underseen mystery A Reflection of Fear, which required her to project the image of a character nearly half her age, and held the title role in Michael Barry's avant-garde drama The Second Coming of Suzanne, winner of three gold medals at the Atlanta Film Festival.
23.
In 1973, Sondra Locke was attached to star in Terminal Circle.
24.
Sondra Locke was up for a big part in Earthquake, but lost out to Genevieve Bujold.
25.
Sondra Locke was advised by her agents to stay away from TV, but thought it foolish to sit around not working between films.
26.
In 1975, Sondra Locke was cast in the western film The Outlaw Josey Wales as the love interest of Clint Eastwood's eponymous character.
27.
Sondra Locke said she chose the role for its exposure, following a run of unremarkable credits.
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Sondra Locke took a pay cut just to be in the film; her salary for Josey Wales was $18,000, less than half of what she'd earned for her previous job.
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Sondra Locke followed it up with a lead role alongside Eastwood in the popular action film The Gauntlet, the duo replacing Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand, who bowed out from the production owing to a reported clash of egos.
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Sondra Locke portrayed country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor in the adventure-comedy.
31.
Sondra Locke recorded several songs for the soundtracks of these films and was whispered to be shopping for a record deal at the time.
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Sondra Locke starred as a bitter heiress who joins a traveling Wild West show in Bronco Billy, her only film with Eastwood not to reach blockbuster status, though it still ranked among the annual box office top 25.
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The couple's final collaboration as performers was Sudden Impact, the highest-grossing film in the Dirty Harry franchise, in which Sondra Locke played an artist with her own code of vigilante justice.
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Sondra Locke never appeared in a wide release after Sudden Impact.
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Sondra Locke announced plans to develop and star in a movie about Marie Antoinette, but the project fell apart.
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In 1986, Sondra Locke made her feature directorial debut with Ratboy, a parable about a youth who is part rat and part human, produced by Eastwood's company Malpaso.
37.
Sondra Locke told a Spanish website that she'd been informed Entertainment Weekly originally planned to publish a positive review, but for reasons unclear, it was pulled and a negative review appeared instead.
38.
In 2014, it was announced that Sondra Locke would serve as an executive producer on the Eli Roth film Knock Knock, starring Keanu Reeves.
39.
Sondra Locke came out of retirement once more in 2016, shooting Alan Rudolph's indie Ray Meets Helen with Keith Carradine.
40.
In 1992, Sondra Locke served as honorary chairwoman for the "Starry, Starry Night" silent auction in Costa Mesa, California to benefit Human Options, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.
41.
Sondra Locke had known Anderson since at least the late 1950s; accounts as to when they met vary by as much as four years.
42.
In early 1969, as Sondra Locke was flooded with script offers after her Oscar nomination, she and Anderson left Tennessee and moved into a condo at The Andalusia in West Hollywood.
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Sondra Locke started as secretary to Tom Griscom in local sales for WSM Radio.
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Sondra Locke later got into local politics and was elected mayor of Belle Meade in 2000.
45.
Sondra Locke dated a sculptor prior to marrying Anderson.
46.
Sondra Locke referred to these intervals as "casually exploring for a romantic relationship," noting that she had not fallen in love with any of the men.
47.
Sondra Locke first met Eastwood in 1972 when she unsuccessfully lobbied for the title role in his film Breezy ; they became involved upon arrival at the shooting location of The Outlaw Josey Wales in Page, Arizona.
48.
Sondra Locke had simultaneously been wooed by screenwriter Philip Kaufman but chose Eastwood over him.
49.
Conversely, the media's running narrative was that Eastwood "left" or "walked out on" his wife for Sondra Locke as opposed to simply giving up the facade.
50.
Sondra Locke resented having her relationship with Eastwood labeled as an affair and being made to feel sordid as if she had "stolen" a married man, but did not contemporaneously refute such notions.
51.
Late in the 1970s, Sondra Locke became pregnant by Eastwood twice; she terminated both pregnancies.
52.
In 1979, at the age of 35, Sondra Locke underwent a tubal ligation at UCLA Medical Center, citing Eastwood's adamancy that parenthood would not fit into their lifestyle.
53.
Particularly with regard to the tubal ligation, I encouraged Sondra Locke to make her own decision after she had consulted with a physician about the appropriateness of and the necessity for that surgical procedure.
54.
Sondra Locke thought Eastwood was acting out "because he wasn't number one at the box office anymore, or because he was facing his mortality".
55.
Sondra Locke was shooting Impulse at the time of the lockout.
56.
Sondra Locke sought half of Eastwood's earnings and an equal division of property, requesting title to the house in Bel-Air and to the Gothic-style West Hollywood place Eastwood had leased to Gordon Anderson since 1982.
57.
Sondra Locke battled Eastwood in court for 19 months; she developed breast cancer during proceedings and said the treatments sapped her will to fight.
58.
Sondra Locke was awarded the West Hollywood property, $450,000 cash and unspecified monthly support payments as well.
59.
The female comrades Locke credited with loyalty and support were those she had known pre-Eastwood: art director Elayne Barbara Ceder, whom she met on The Second Coming of Suzanne, and realtor Denise Fraker, wife of A Reflection of Fear director William A Fraker.
60.
When her contract had yielded zero directing assignments three years in, Sondra Locke became convinced the deal was a sham.
61.
Sondra Locke began to seek corroboration and came across incriminating printouts from WB's bookkeeping records.
62.
Sondra Locke contended that the money WB pretended they were paying her came from Eastwood's pocket and was laundered through the operating budget of Unforgiven.
63.
Sondra Locke underwent a double mastectomy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, followed by chemotherapy.
64.
In February 2001, Sondra Locke purchased a six-bedroom gated mansion in the Hollywood Hills, where she resided for the remainder of her life.
65.
In 2015, after a 25-year period of apparent remission, Sondra Locke's cancer returned and metastasized to her bones.
66.
Sondra Locke died at age 74 on November 3,2018, at her Los Angeles home from cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancer.
67.
Sondra Locke bequeathed Anderson an estimated fortune of $20 million, and seemed to have always supported him financially.
68.
Sondra Locke's death received no television coverage except for a 15-second spot on ABC World News Tonight.
69.
Eastwood did not comment on the death, nor did any of Sondra Locke's other living exes, nor any of her friends or relatives.
70.
Sondra Locke is remembered as an early pioneer for women in Hollywood.
71.
Sondra Locke was one of 11 female filmmakers in 1990, the year WB released her sophomore feature, Impulse.
72.
Sondra Locke is admired by such actresses as Frances Fisher and Rosanna Arquette, who applauded the strength of her directorial accomplishments, however short-lived.
73.
Sondra Locke attended one of those performances in 2004 at the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood.
74.
The movie was a "special gift" to Sondra Locke, according to Deborah Obenchain, another Eastside student who said she did not think Sondra Locke really understood her impact on the small town she once called home.