Clint Eastwood’s mom, Ruth Wood was kind and generous. In an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, Eastwood recalled that she’d often share food with people who visited their home in search of work or something to eat. The pair had a close mother-son bond, such that when Eastwood didn’t thank her on stage when he won an Academy Award for Best Director (for “Unforgiven”) in 1992, he vowed to mention her in case he got the Best Picture award. And he did!
Unlike Eastwood’s father, who died unexpectedly and at what the actor considered a premature age, his mother lived until she was 97. Wood died in February 2006 after suffering a stroke. Until she took her last breath, Eastwood was determined to save her, but she, on the other hand, was ready to die.
“The only thing she ever said to me, toward the last, she said, ‘I want out of here, I am tired.’ And I said ‘No, no, three more years. We get the century mark,'” Eastwood shared in his interview with Reuters. “When she finally did pass away, she couldn’t talk because she had had a stroke. They said ‘Do you want to be resuscitated for while?’ And she said ‘no.’ So, I had to grant her that wish.”
