BIO

Sondra Locke was born Sandra Louise Smith in Madison County, Alabama, in 1944.   Her father left before she was born.   She adopted the surname of her second step-father, owner of a construction company, and grew up in the small town of Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Locke attended Middle Tennessee State University on a scholarship, majored in drama, but never graduated.

She began working at a local radio station before she was cast in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), at the age of 24, in a role for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Locke appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and the two began a 14-year affair.   She appeared in another five Eastwood films through 1983.

She also began directing in 1986 and captained 3 films through 1997.   Her last movie role was in 2017.

Although Locke married her schoolmate, the actor/sculptor Gordon Anderson, in 1967 and the couple never divorced, she sued Eastwood for palimony and ultimately prevailed in an out-of-court settlement in 1990.

In 2018, Locke died of a heart attack after more than a decade-long battle with metastatic breast cancer, in Los Angeles, at the age of 74.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at: