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The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey
The surprising, intensely personal account of Sondra Locke's thirteen-year relationship with actor Clint Eastwood recalls his manipulation of her career and personality and her spiritual journey out of a destructive relationship. 100,000 first printing. Tour.
371 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 31, 2007
Wanna know how f'n insane Clint Eastwood really is? Read this book.
September 9, 2011
I enjoyed the first part of this book, the story of Sondra's early life and career, though I thought the period where she worked with Clint for years was skipped over very briefly, punctuated by stories that made me feel she was more than a little spoiled.
Now I'm not playing devils advocate but the deliberate spin doctoring of this book eventually became too much for me, if it was presented with a little less propaganda it could have been digestible and I could have sympathised with her situation however it's just too over the top, every snipe that can be taken is taken and along with her genuine distresses she also builds mountains out of perceived incidents and peppers the book with spiritual 'god is on my side' nonsense.
Some statements, especially toward the end were pure fabrication and in retrospect the whole book is an exercise in spin designed to subvert the reader.
I'm not condoning Clint's behaviour and I guarantee I wouldn't behave the same way in the same situation, but if you read this book, don't forget that there is another side to this story and this is an extremely biased account.
I look forward to finding and reading an objective biography one day that covers the same peoples lives however I think that this might be the last modern auto-biography I read, and this copy is going in the bin.
Now I'm not playing devils advocate but the deliberate spin doctoring of this book eventually became too much for me, if it was presented with a little less propaganda it could have been digestible and I could have sympathised with her situation however it's just too over the top, every snipe that can be taken is taken and along with her genuine distresses she also builds mountains out of perceived incidents and peppers the book with spiritual 'god is on my side' nonsense.
Some statements, especially toward the end were pure fabrication and in retrospect the whole book is an exercise in spin designed to subvert the reader.
I'm not condoning Clint's behaviour and I guarantee I wouldn't behave the same way in the same situation, but if you read this book, don't forget that there is another side to this story and this is an extremely biased account.
I look forward to finding and reading an objective biography one day that covers the same peoples lives however I think that this might be the last modern auto-biography I read, and this copy is going in the bin.
March 13, 2015
I liked this biography and found it a very easy read. It shows life in stardom sometimes isn't what its cracked up to be.
March 24, 2016
Read some parts but not all. She came across as a flake and Clint comes across as a control freak. No idea how they were together that long.
March 28, 2014
The true intention of this book is a sleazy tell all, closely forworded with a biography from Ms Locke herself that explains how she put herself in this situation. Sondra Locke had a very hard early life, and she caught fame almost by accident, by lying about her age.
The book has a very long introduction to her life and her struggles of horrible parenting and the escape of a rich boy down the street who encouraged her to chase stardom.
Then evidently she met Clint, and she uses the latter part of the book to explain this in bitter detail. From red carpet dining, skiing trips and her gifted own home, to being locked out of 'her' home, having her walls tapped and her job finished. Clint Eastwood is a nasty man by all accounts of this book, but you really do question how naive Sondra Lockewood was/is. Locke fails to be suprised of his behaviour even thought when she met Clint he was married and his wife didn't know of their affair for years,
she makes light work of the fact she believed the house Clint bought her and bought her friend were actually rightfully theirs, Clint's fearful reputation to other people - even ruining
the careers of his business partners for fun, the fact she was sterilised all because he told her to, and her bizarre marriage to a gay man to this day. Honestly, she makes herself an embarrassment to feminists. Clint ended up cheating on her, which is exactly how his last wife found out about her, and he was a prolific womanizer, was she blind?
I feel for Locke because she never met A list status even with the support of Clint, but I don't buy that he ruined her career - I think he's nasty but she couldn't really help herself as
her work wasn't speaking for itself and after her departure from Clint she no longer had that appeal to studios.
The psychology behind her marriage to Gordon who she didn't know was gay for years and despite its ethical reasoning, she should have seen the light and divorced him and married Clint to see his true colours years before she did.
Great read but a bit of an excuses fantasy. Where can I find a man who will give me a million dollar house after a few years of cohabiting and no marriage?
The book has a very long introduction to her life and her struggles of horrible parenting and the escape of a rich boy down the street who encouraged her to chase stardom.
Then evidently she met Clint, and she uses the latter part of the book to explain this in bitter detail. From red carpet dining, skiing trips and her gifted own home, to being locked out of 'her' home, having her walls tapped and her job finished. Clint Eastwood is a nasty man by all accounts of this book, but you really do question how naive Sondra Lockewood was/is. Locke fails to be suprised of his behaviour even thought when she met Clint he was married and his wife didn't know of their affair for years,
she makes light work of the fact she believed the house Clint bought her and bought her friend were actually rightfully theirs, Clint's fearful reputation to other people - even ruining
the careers of his business partners for fun, the fact she was sterilised all because he told her to, and her bizarre marriage to a gay man to this day. Honestly, she makes herself an embarrassment to feminists. Clint ended up cheating on her, which is exactly how his last wife found out about her, and he was a prolific womanizer, was she blind?
I feel for Locke because she never met A list status even with the support of Clint, but I don't buy that he ruined her career - I think he's nasty but she couldn't really help herself as
her work wasn't speaking for itself and after her departure from Clint she no longer had that appeal to studios.
The psychology behind her marriage to Gordon who she didn't know was gay for years and despite its ethical reasoning, she should have seen the light and divorced him and married Clint to see his true colours years before she did.
Great read but a bit of an excuses fantasy. Where can I find a man who will give me a million dollar house after a few years of cohabiting and no marriage?
Read
April 22, 2021somebody shouldve beat clint's old bitch ass imo
September 19, 2024
This book was a real rollercoaster ride. What she went through with Clint Eastwood was horrifying and changed my opinion of him forever. Not that I didn't already surmise that he was a masochistic and self-absorbed human being, but I didn't realize the extent of it. There is a side story about her husband that is very interesting and absorbing, and I found that I was more interested in that than about her life with Clint.
March 15, 2018
I didn't know much about Sondra Locke before reading this book, I've seen her in some older movies though.
First off I really liked her little stories of he friend Gordon, it made this book sme how much more personal. The dirty details she gave about Clnt Eastwood were a bit shocking , how he treated her , talked her into getting her tubes tied just for his convenience of not wanting more children , but didn't think how she might want children in the future. Ver selfish , how he ended things was really heartless.
She seems like a nice woman and. I Enjoyed her stories growing up as well.
This book kept me very entertained. 5 stars!!!
First off I really liked her little stories of he friend Gordon, it made this book sme how much more personal. The dirty details she gave about Clnt Eastwood were a bit shocking , how he treated her , talked her into getting her tubes tied just for his convenience of not wanting more children , but didn't think how she might want children in the future. Ver selfish , how he ended things was really heartless.
She seems like a nice woman and. I Enjoyed her stories growing up as well.
This book kept me very entertained. 5 stars!!!
January 29, 2019
I'd been a fan of her work since I was a kid, and while watching old Eastwood movies recently, someone mentioned this- it's a well written narrative with some interesting stories most women could relate to. Sure, there is some dirt, most biographies if written honestly have it.
There were some things I'd wished she'd elaborated on, and some were very heartfelt and honest, which I appreciated.
I'm not spoiling, but I would recommend it to anyone who loves those old films and is looking for an interesting read.
There were some things I'd wished she'd elaborated on, and some were very heartfelt and honest, which I appreciated.
I'm not spoiling, but I would recommend it to anyone who loves those old films and is looking for an interesting read.
November 25, 2012
Definitely a guilty-pleasure book. I'm not a fan of Eastwood's or Locke's and picked this up based on the title alone. I learned nothing about Clint Eastwood that was the least bit surprising or memorable, but I did learn about a young actress's early career and all of that seemed quite honest. The view into the Hollywood bubble was interesting, and Ms. Locke's very unusual relationship with her one and only husband (not Clint Eastwood) is so odd as to be good fodder for a made for TV movie.
April 2, 2012
A whole new at who Clint Eastwood is/might be.
February 20, 2014
It was k, I didn't enjoy very much of this book at all. Not because I'm a Clint Eastwood fan, but I felt it was very unfocused.
January 31, 2019
RIP Sondra Locke.
July 4, 2025
There are memoirs that rise from the fire of fame, tempered by wisdom, polished by age, and there are the one's like this one: raw, cracked, and still hot to the touch. The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly is one for the record books. It reads not like a carefully bound life, but like a woman standing barefoot in the ruins of her own mythology, still angry, still wounded, still hoping someone will understand the storm that shaped her.
Sondra Locke begins not with Clint Eastwood, but with herself, which is both the book’s greatest mercy and its deepest wound. She grew up in a house of shouting voices and broken silences, where cruelty was routine and tenderness was hard to come by. Shelbyville, Tennessee, my own place of residence, makes an appearance not as a backdrop but as a ghost town of her origin stories. Her youth smells of clay dirt and southern shame, of boys with good looks and bad intentions, and dreams too big for Flat Creek.
When she tells of Gordon, her best friend and later her husband-in-name-only, you sense the ache of a girl reaching for safety in a world she didn’t understand. Their story is stranger than fiction and sadder than most. Gordon was gay. Everyone seemed to know but her, or more likely... she knew and chose not to know, which is a Southern art form all its own.
His family were allegedly horrible to him because of that truth. And though Locke was not kind to the family that abandoned her Gordon in this book, in my mind, she was as kind as she could possibly have been…Yeah, she was nice.
The truth was there, albeit wrapped in niceties and performed dinners and whispered conversations behind drawn blinds. Her devotion to Gordon is the book’s quiet heart, more affecting than all the Hollywood drama that follows. As far as I know, Gordon still lives today.
Then comes Clint.
Locke meets him at the height of his fame, when his jawline could still cut glass and his silence passed for depth. She doesn’t just fall for him; she hands him her life like an offering. And what she gets in return is the kind of slow, meticulous betrayal that only the powerful can inflict. A house not in her name. A career quietly undone. A future sterilized, literally, with a nod and a whisper from a man who didn’t want more children and made sure she didn't either by "suggesting" she get her tubes tied.
Eastwood doesn’t come off well in these pages. He’s not painted with hate but with disappointment, a man who built his empire with one hand while dismantling hers with the other. She writes of bugged phones and locked doors, of charm turned to cruelty and favors that curdled into obligations. You get the sense she saw it coming and stayed anyway. That’s not stupidity. That’s heartbreak in slow motion.
And yet, despite it all, she doesn’t ask for your pity. She wants your understanding. She wants you to know that she once stood in the sun, even if now she writes from the shadows. The writing is sharp, honest, sometimes bitter, but always pulsing with life. It is a woman’s voice, unvarnished and unafraid.
No, she was not Meryl Streep. But in these pages, she becomes something better, someone real.
I wouldn't have read this book had it not been for the local connection, not my kind of genre. I finished the book with mixed feelings and a heavy heart. It reminded me that stardom is often just another kind of cage, that women like Sondra Locke carry entire novels inside them before the world ever lets them speak. And that sometimes, even a million-dollar house can feel like a prison if the man who gave it to you never gave you the keys.
Five stars. Not for the acting, especially the acting in The Outlaw Josey Wales, but for the truth, and the telling of it.
Sondra Locke begins not with Clint Eastwood, but with herself, which is both the book’s greatest mercy and its deepest wound. She grew up in a house of shouting voices and broken silences, where cruelty was routine and tenderness was hard to come by. Shelbyville, Tennessee, my own place of residence, makes an appearance not as a backdrop but as a ghost town of her origin stories. Her youth smells of clay dirt and southern shame, of boys with good looks and bad intentions, and dreams too big for Flat Creek.
When she tells of Gordon, her best friend and later her husband-in-name-only, you sense the ache of a girl reaching for safety in a world she didn’t understand. Their story is stranger than fiction and sadder than most. Gordon was gay. Everyone seemed to know but her, or more likely... she knew and chose not to know, which is a Southern art form all its own.
His family were allegedly horrible to him because of that truth. And though Locke was not kind to the family that abandoned her Gordon in this book, in my mind, she was as kind as she could possibly have been…Yeah, she was nice.
The truth was there, albeit wrapped in niceties and performed dinners and whispered conversations behind drawn blinds. Her devotion to Gordon is the book’s quiet heart, more affecting than all the Hollywood drama that follows. As far as I know, Gordon still lives today.
Then comes Clint.
Locke meets him at the height of his fame, when his jawline could still cut glass and his silence passed for depth. She doesn’t just fall for him; she hands him her life like an offering. And what she gets in return is the kind of slow, meticulous betrayal that only the powerful can inflict. A house not in her name. A career quietly undone. A future sterilized, literally, with a nod and a whisper from a man who didn’t want more children and made sure she didn't either by "suggesting" she get her tubes tied.
Eastwood doesn’t come off well in these pages. He’s not painted with hate but with disappointment, a man who built his empire with one hand while dismantling hers with the other. She writes of bugged phones and locked doors, of charm turned to cruelty and favors that curdled into obligations. You get the sense she saw it coming and stayed anyway. That’s not stupidity. That’s heartbreak in slow motion.
And yet, despite it all, she doesn’t ask for your pity. She wants your understanding. She wants you to know that she once stood in the sun, even if now she writes from the shadows. The writing is sharp, honest, sometimes bitter, but always pulsing with life. It is a woman’s voice, unvarnished and unafraid.
No, she was not Meryl Streep. But in these pages, she becomes something better, someone real.
I wouldn't have read this book had it not been for the local connection, not my kind of genre. I finished the book with mixed feelings and a heavy heart. It reminded me that stardom is often just another kind of cage, that women like Sondra Locke carry entire novels inside them before the world ever lets them speak. And that sometimes, even a million-dollar house can feel like a prison if the man who gave it to you never gave you the keys.
Five stars. Not for the acting, especially the acting in The Outlaw Josey Wales, but for the truth, and the telling of it.
November 15, 2023
I was reading an old news article about Clint Eastwood. It mentioned that he was sued for palimony by Sondra Locke. I was intrigued because I'd either forgotten or never heard about that. So, I found this book.
I'm on the fence about old Clint. He grossed me out when I saw him without a shirt romancing Meryl Streep in Bridges of Madison County. He disappointed me with his lame Dirty Harry movies, not withstanding the great San Francisco scenery. He surprised me when he directed Million Dollar Baby, which I consider an excellent movie. He confused me when he showed up at the Republican Convention and talked to a chair.
I like Sondra Locke. I remember her from a Kung Fu episode. She seemed like a beautiful, capable actress with a soft, vulnerable quality.
This is a surprising read and I'm glad I looked this book up.
What surprised me is the quality of the writing and how much of Sondra's story doesn't involve Clint at all. I was transported to Shelbyville, Tennessee and the magical world that was created by Sondra's future husband.
Sondra's parents were uninvolved in her life. She found a friend Gordon Anderson who she eventually married although their relationship was platonic because he was gay. Before they went to Los Angeles, Sondra immerses us in the fantastical world created by Gordon. They did Circus acts and plays and he eventually helped her into her acting career. I enjoyed this part of her story the most.
I really loved Gordon for the first half of the book and then my feelings changed. Although Sondra portrays Gordon as competent, often brilliant, she eventually reveals him to be an unemployed "man-child". He can be manipulative. There are many instances where he lies to help Sondra gain employment. Later on in the book, it is revealed that he believes he is some sort of clairvoyant. Sondra's unwavering belief in his skills left me with doubts. I'm not a believer in the paranormal. I suspect Clint wasn't either.
The Clint Eastwood parts of the story weren't as interesting to me because they are what you'd expect of a man who has had at least 8 children with 5 different women. I do think he did Sondra wrong. I suspect she's not the only one. I did learn a little about what it's like to be super rich. Imagine having so many homes that you can stash your mistresses all around California so they won't know of each other. Also, imagine having the Warner Brothers G-2 private jet at your personal disposal. Clint is crazy rich and powerful. He used his tremendous influence against Sondra.
Sondra was clearly very intelligent and a great writer. I read this book because of Clint but enjoyed it because of Shelbyville, Tennessee and Sondra and Gordon's imagination filled life pre-Hollywood.
I'm on the fence about old Clint. He grossed me out when I saw him without a shirt romancing Meryl Streep in Bridges of Madison County. He disappointed me with his lame Dirty Harry movies, not withstanding the great San Francisco scenery. He surprised me when he directed Million Dollar Baby, which I consider an excellent movie. He confused me when he showed up at the Republican Convention and talked to a chair.
I like Sondra Locke. I remember her from a Kung Fu episode. She seemed like a beautiful, capable actress with a soft, vulnerable quality.
This is a surprising read and I'm glad I looked this book up.
What surprised me is the quality of the writing and how much of Sondra's story doesn't involve Clint at all. I was transported to Shelbyville, Tennessee and the magical world that was created by Sondra's future husband.
Sondra's parents were uninvolved in her life. She found a friend Gordon Anderson who she eventually married although their relationship was platonic because he was gay. Before they went to Los Angeles, Sondra immerses us in the fantastical world created by Gordon. They did Circus acts and plays and he eventually helped her into her acting career. I enjoyed this part of her story the most.
I really loved Gordon for the first half of the book and then my feelings changed. Although Sondra portrays Gordon as competent, often brilliant, she eventually reveals him to be an unemployed "man-child". He can be manipulative. There are many instances where he lies to help Sondra gain employment. Later on in the book, it is revealed that he believes he is some sort of clairvoyant. Sondra's unwavering belief in his skills left me with doubts. I'm not a believer in the paranormal. I suspect Clint wasn't either.
The Clint Eastwood parts of the story weren't as interesting to me because they are what you'd expect of a man who has had at least 8 children with 5 different women. I do think he did Sondra wrong. I suspect she's not the only one. I did learn a little about what it's like to be super rich. Imagine having so many homes that you can stash your mistresses all around California so they won't know of each other. Also, imagine having the Warner Brothers G-2 private jet at your personal disposal. Clint is crazy rich and powerful. He used his tremendous influence against Sondra.
Sondra was clearly very intelligent and a great writer. I read this book because of Clint but enjoyed it because of Shelbyville, Tennessee and Sondra and Gordon's imagination filled life pre-Hollywood.
February 21, 2021
I remembered with fondness the movie The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and of course saw some of the Clint Eastwood movies, although I was not generally a big fan. I circumstantially met her lifelong friend and husband (I won't reveal his name - I'll call him John) who lives in Hollywood in a fantastical fairytale house. I meant him through my doll collection as he bought several things from me. He is charming, intelligent and was deeply in love with Sondra since childhood. He and she connived to get her the role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. He pretty much guided her career until she met and lived with Clint Eastwood for a long period of time. He was married, and she was married also (although her husband, the aforementioned gentleman was gay). My estimation of Eastwood went way down when I read how he treated her and how he ruined her future career. She was only allowed to be in his movies while they were together, so wasn't able to capitalize on her early success. When she finally left him, as part of the settlement he promised to get her a contract with (I think) Warners Studio but what he did was pay them Not To use her. When she found out she sued him and was probably the only actrees to win such a lawsuit and a large settlement. Her life with John forms the early part of the book and the long drawnout lawsuit is the rest. She spent the rest of her life with John. She dies a few years ago of a recurrence of breast cancer and John is still mourning her. He is mostly a nightowl so we sometimes have long talks late at night. He is very into mysticism and his whole life has been full of strange and serendipitous things.
April 6, 2024
. . . a little over the top, as people who feel and usually are abused professionally and financially by those powerful enough to do so, are likely to do, and without guilt when it comes to the color green.
I had read in the past that she had been mistreated by Mr. Eastwood and the industry as a whole. I just wanted to know her side of what transpired. Who did what to who, how and when?
Worth the read.
Hollywood has a history of taking advantage of the vulnerable for selfish gain. My experiences in life has been much the same.
I had read in the past that she had been mistreated by Mr. Eastwood and the industry as a whole. I just wanted to know her side of what transpired. Who did what to who, how and when?
Worth the read.
Hollywood has a history of taking advantage of the vulnerable for selfish gain. My experiences in life has been much the same.
January 14, 2019
Hollywood can be magical and cruel. She has experienced all facets in the spectrum.
After I finished this book, I went to her IMDB page only to find she had died of a heart attack two months ago and she never directed another film. A brave account of a perlious journey to stardom and beyond. RIP Sondra.
After I finished this book, I went to her IMDB page only to find she had died of a heart attack two months ago and she never directed another film. A brave account of a perlious journey to stardom and beyond. RIP Sondra.
March 22, 2020
Stories Hollywood life always seemed to disappoint me and this isn’t any different. The narcissistic behavior and the fake relationships are sad to me and for that reason this book is depressing. It is also difficult to read in spots due to the strange stories of “synchronicities” that seem to go on forever.
January 5, 2021
I got very annoyed at Sondra Loche's constant references to her friend Gordon , he featured throughout the book , it was almost as if she was trying to promote him or build his career almost attributing her talent to him.
In regards to Clint , I feel she was justifiably bitter but felt that any form of reconciliation was sabotaged by Gordons observations .
In regards to Clint , I feel she was justifiably bitter but felt that any form of reconciliation was sabotaged by Gordons observations .
December 7, 2019
Interesting at first, then got a little tedious and couldn't wait to finish it. Some juicy stuff about Clint Eastwood in it, though.
December 3, 2021
My neighbor thrust this into my hands and insisted that I read it. It is extremely well written and offers some insight into the man who conversed with an empty chair.
Read
March 6, 2023Boring and slow
August 7, 2023
A really stellar book. If you've ever had any interest in following Sondra Locke's career, you will enjoy this. She went through hell and never gave up.
June 11, 2025
one of these surreal books that makes you question both Eastwood and Locke for honesty
I guess the daggers lie on both sides, and they're all mixed up crazy kinds
March 22, 2019
Some parts of this book are very interesting, especially about Eastwood’s way of filmmaking.
April 27, 2018
Interesting autobiography.
abandoned
January 29, 2019I tried. Maybe it eventually gets interesting, but there isn't much interesting about her admittedly bizarre and tough childhood. The writing isn't even all that great. Oh well.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews