, and he was a masked pilot in Arnold's "Tarantula" the same year. He was in comedy films, war pictures, and globe-trotting adventures, establishing his career and proving his versatility. He also worked, very briefly, for Universal TV, and had bit parts in a few hit shows of the mid-'50s.

It wouldn't be until 1959, when he landed the role of Rowdy Yates in the hit series "Rawhide," that he would become associated with Westerns. While "Rawhide" was in its penultimate seventh season in 1965, Eastwood was cast by Sergio Leone in his Italian Western "A Fistful of Dollars," which would go on to become one of Eastwood's best movies. The actor's taciturn performance left a deep mark on his career, and he has been associated with the genre ever since. (At least as an actor — as a director, he has proven more versatile.)

In those early years, however, Eastwood still had to forge an identity, and, perhaps surprisingly, was seen as something of a pretty boy. Indeed, back in 2015, talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Eastwood reminisced about his early contract with Universal, and how he was shunted about between various films, not finding a toehold. To provide a timeline, Eastwood's Universal contract was terminated in October of 1955, only shortly after his "Revenge of the Creature" gig. Biographer Patrick McGilligan, in his book "Clint: The Life and Legend," points out that Eastwood was often criticized for being something of an amateur, and for speaking through gritted teeth too often. 

Eastwood also recalled that he couldn't get any parts in the Westerns of the day because, perhaps surprisingly, the casting directors thought he looked too much like Gary Cooper. And if there was already one Gary Cooper out there in the world, Universal didn't need a cheap knockoff of its own.