Clint Eastwood refused to be in Westerns.
Clint Eastwood . After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide , he rose to international fame with his role as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone 's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the 1960s , and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s . For his work in the Western film Unforgiven ( 1992 ) and the sports drama Million Dollar Baby ( 2004 ) , Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture , as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor . Other popular films include the Western Hang 'Em High ( 1968 ) , the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me ( 1971 ) , the crime film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot ( 1974 ) , the Western The Outlaw Josey Wales ( 1976 ) , the prison film Escape from Alcatraz ( 1979 ) , the action film Firefox ( 1982 ) , the suspense thriller Tightrope ( 1984 ) , the Western Pale Rider ( 1985 ) , the war films Where Eagles Dare ( 1968 ) , Heartbreak Ridge ( 1986 ) , the action thriller In the Line of Fire ( 1993 ) , the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County ( 1995 ) , and the drama Gran Torino ( 2008 ) .