Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry Callahan: Bet You Didn’t Know…

Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry, c1971

Even die hard fans of Clint Eastwood miss out on some of the more interesting facts about this legend of the big screen. Such as, a real hardcore fan would know he learned conversational Italian before filming A Fistful of Dollars, so he could converse with directors and fellow actors without an interpreter, but may not know he wasn’t Sergio Leone’s first choice for the role of the man with no name — Leone wanted Jason Robards but he was too expensive…Robards demanded $25,000 and Eastwood accepted $15,000.

In fact, Eastwood is still fluent in Italian today. This clip includes an awards ceremony where you can hear him speaking the language many years after The Dollars Trilogy ended:

But let’s look at another legendary Eastwood role — that of Inspector Harry Callahan.

Here are a few unknown and little known facts about the actor and this iconic character, and of course, the movie.

Lucky Number Five and First Refusals

1. In the beginning of his career, Clint Eastwood wasn’t always…