If you ask Clint Eastwood, his early childhood drove him to develop a strong worth ethic due to the rough conditions his family endured during the Great Depression. If you ask his biographer or embittered former lovers, this is either a slight or great exaggeration to better serve his public persona. Either way, his family moved around throughout the Depression years before settling in Piedmont, California in 1940. It was in Piedmont that Eastwood went to junior high and high school.
Childhood classmates recalled Eastwood as a good-natured member, but not a leader, of a pack of boys, according to “Clint: The Life and Legend.” He dabbled in athletics and got on well with the ladies, but his studies were another story. Eastwood was an indifferent student. He had to attend summer school to keep his grades up. A mildly rebellious sort, he got into enough mischief that Piedmont High asked him to leave. He transferred to Oakland Tech, where he continued to cut class and enjoy his youth.
Eastwood’s laziness and delinquency held him back in high school until he was 19. His graduating class was 1948-49, but it’s a very real possibility that Eastwood never managed to graduate at all. His grades never improved, and friends interviewed by his biographer expressed doubt that he finished high school. Eastwood’s senior yearbook says he was scheduled to graduate mid-term, but with graduation records being confidential, it’s unknown if he followed through or if, as his friends surmised, he dropped out to have a good time.
