Trivia

Former partner of Clint Eastwood (1975-1989). They never married.

She left behind a reported fortune of $20 million.

News coverage of Locke's death was unprecedentedly low-key. After being kept secret six weeks, it got about 15 seconds on ABC News and a mere two sentences in People magazine (which she'd appeared twice on the cover of), and she was omitted from the Oscars' In Memoriam segment despite being a past nominee. Neither her widower nor exes gave a public statement. On top of that, her former friends, co-stars and colleagues (e.g. Louie Anderson, Richard Dreyfuss, Stacy Keach, Sally Kellerman, Ted Neeley, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Cynthia Sikes, Cicely Tyson) were tellingly silent on social media. In absence of any explanation, some have inferred that Locke requested the blackout in her final wishes, perhaps to keep her true age from being exposed. It's deducible, given Locke's vanity and history of deceiving the public, that she coordinated with end-of-life caregivers, mortuary staff etc, to ensure news of her own death would be suppressed as much as possible.

Co-starred with Clint Eastwood in six films: Any Which Way You Can (1980), Bronco Billy (1980), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), The Gauntlet (1977), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983).

Underwent a double mastectomy due to breast cancer. (September 12, 1990)

Friendship with future California first lady Maria Shriver ended over Maria's refusal to take sides publicly in the litigious war between Sondra and Clint Eastwood. The women were 11½ years apart.

She was standoffish toward her family and, upon hearing of her death, her half-brother said she'd only visited twice in 50 years.

Before she sued Eastwood for fraud, Locke met with feminist attorney Gloria Allred. Allred was interested in the case but as gender discrimination. Locke felt that gender bias was not the primary issue and didn't want to risk being stereotyped. She ultimately hired Peggy Garrity to represent her. After a two-week trial, 10 out of 12 jurors were ready to decide in her favor. Eastwood, knowing the jig was up, suddenly offered a sizable settlement, which Locke accepted. Garrity recounts the courtroom drama in a new book, "In the Game: The Highs and Lows of a Trailblazing Trial Lawyer" (2016). In a surprising twist, she ended up having to sue Locke for cutting her out of $1 million in fees. That case, which garnered minimal press, was settled out of court in October 1999.

Blake Edwards promised her one of the two female leads in City Heat (1984) (ultimately played by Jane Alexander and Madeline Kahn) at a stage in development when Burt Reynolds had signed on but the role of the other leading man was yet to be filled. The actress later asserted that Edwards was merely using her to get to Clint Eastwood who'd already seen the script and turned it down, because once Eastwood changed his mind and came on board, Edwards dropped the idea of casting Ms. Locke.

Lost custody of her parrot Putty in breakup with Clint. The parrot was still alive as of 2003, renamed Paco.

She was robbed of her purse at knifepoint in 1974. Following the incident, she kept a .25 caliber automatic pistol in her house and often took it along when she went out alone.

In 1971, fifth-graders at Eastside Elementary in Shelbyville were left star-struck when Locke made a visit and held pretend auditions in the class to show them what it was like in Hollywood. One student, Cameron Watson, was inspired by Locke and is now an actor/director. Watson later wrote a screenplay, Our Very Own (2005), which paid homage to Locke and the influence she had on his group of friends. Naturally, she felt honored and accepted an invitation to be a special guest at the movie's premiere.

For publicity purposes, the spelling of her name was changed from Sandra to Sondra, six years chopped off her age, and her residence in Nashville, where she was employed by WSM-TV, wiped out. (July 28, 1967)

First job was as a bookkeeper at Tyson chicken processing plant, circa 1961.

Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982) and Clean and Narrow (2000) are the only movies in which she plays a mother. However, the former is told in a nonlinear manner, and in the latter her character's deceased son is never shown.

In 1990, Locke was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. She died on November 3, 2018, at the age of 74 from a cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancers. Her death was not publicly announced and was confirmed by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health six weeks after she died. There was no funeral or memorial service, and no explanation of why not. Her body was cremated and the ashes were given to her widower, Gordon Anderson, whom she married in 1967.

Locke was first introduced to future long-term love Clint Eastwood by screenwriter Jo Heims on the Universal lot in 1972. When she chatted with Eastwood in his office bungalow, he held a golf club the whole time and chipped balls across the room while she sat on the couch with her legs folded up underneath her, trying to convince him that she was the *only* actress to play the title role in his sophomore directorial effort, Breezy (1973). Producer Robert Daley was also there, but Locke never got an audition because she was simply too old to be credible in the part. They didn't see each other again until 1975.

On March 10, 1994, she filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Warner Bros. claiming that the studio coaxed her into dropping a palimony suit against ex-significant other Clint Eastwood in exchange for a development deal; Locke claimed that she'd proposed some 30 projects - including what later became Junior (1994) and Addicted to Love (1997) - which were all rejected. Warner moved for summary judgment (typically requested when one side believes the case has no merit), which the court granted. Locke appealed. On August 26, 1997, the case was reinstated. A settlement was reached behind closed doors on May 24, 1999, minutes before jury selection was scheduled to begin. Eastwood was listed as a material witness for the lawsuit had it gone to trial, Locke's attorney Neil Papiano said.

On 22 August 1987, Sondra and Clint were traveling with Harrison Ford aboard a Gulfstream III when it developed an engine fire and stuck landing gear while inbound from Paris and was forced to land in Bangor, Maine. The charter company owning the G-3 sent another jet and mechanics to Bangor, and the group flew out on that plane the next day.

Stuck to an avocado-and-grapefruit regimen for decades, practiced transcendental meditation (TM), and was a lifelong non-smoker save for a few film roles.

Despite what her publicity suggested, at 5'4" she was not remarkably short - an illusion attributed to usually wearing flat shoes instead of heels and being paired with a tall actor in most of her films. Authentic stars such as Julie Christie and Natalie Wood, for counterexample, were a couple inches shorter than Locke was.

Was naturally a brunette.

In high school she was voted 'Duchess of Studiousness' by her senior class. Grade average was 97.72%. Her ambition then, reads the 1962 edition of SCHS's Aquila yearbook: "Always to take disappointment with a smile".

'Human failing', 'control freak', 'monster' and 'sociopath' are some of the vehement terms she used to describe Eastwood in her book. She also compared him to accused murderer O.J. Simpson. "Others who knew Clint said that I had been 'far too kind' to him," she noted.

Even though she played the leading female role in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), during Oscar season Warner Brothers decided they would suggest that voters consider her for Best Supporting Actress instead of Best Actress, to make winning easier. She lost anyway to Ruth Gordon (for Rosemary's Baby (1968)), who went on to co-star with Locke in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980).

Employees at the box factory where her estranged mother worked were warned not to ask about Sondra, because she'd burst into tears at the mention of her name. Speaking on the record in 1989, Pauline Locke said she hadn't seen her daughter in about 15 years and shared the following thought: "One of those children Clint made her abort could have been the grandson I've always wanted." (Pauline's three grandchildren were all girls.).

While it was common for women of Locke's era, especially actresses, to "fib" about their age, she took it to a whole other level, telling reporters during a junket for The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) that she was a dozen years younger than she really was. The Nashville Tennessean "outed" her in December 1967 and again in May 1989, yet she ceaselessly continued to lie about her age even near the end of her life. In her last interview for a podcast called The Projection Booth, she said that she "was just graduating high school" when she made The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) when she was in fact in her mid-20s. Locke had been the oldest nominee for Most Promising Newcomer at that year's Golden Globes, though she led people to believe otherwise with her retconned narrative. So deep were her stratagems entrenched in the public consciousness, that Australian journalist Dorian Wild, one year Locke's junior, described her at age 45 as "a rather pretty young thing" in an article ostensibly slanted against her.

The aqua sequined gown she wore to the Academy Awards in 1969 was hand-sewn by WB seamstresses from her husband's design.

Was the subject of Our Very Own (2005), a narrative film about five teenagers in Shelbyville, Tenn. who hope to meet Locke when she returns to town for the local premiere of Every Which Way But Loose (1978).

Posed for Playboy's "Sex Stars of 1969" issue in a seminude layout that was meant to change her plain-Jane image. Wrote in her memoir that she still gets those racy Frank Bez snapshots in fan mail for her autograph and cringes when she sees them.

Shed her southern accent in studio diction class.

In 1992, she served as honorary chairwoman for the "Starry, Starry Night" auction in Costa Mesa, Calif. to benefit Human Options, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Alpha Psi Omega alumni.

After starring in Willard (1971), about a boy who trains rats, she directed and starred in Ratboy (1986), about a boy who is half rat.

Had a maternal half-brother named Donald Locke (born Donald Joseph Elkins on 26 April 1946), who ran an air-conditioning and refrigerator business. It wasn't until grammar school that Sandra found out not only did she and Don have different fathers, Alfred Locke - the man they called "Dad" - wasn't related to either of them. Alfred was the third husband of their mother Pauline, who also had an annulled marriage to painter Thomas H. Nelson.

Appeared in commercials for clothing store Rich-Schwartz, Belle Camp chocolates and Southerland mattresses during her modeling days in Nashville. As late as 1972 local stations still aired the mattress spot.

While receiving cancer treatment at Cedars Sinai Hospital, she linked up with surgeon Scott Cunneen, seventeen years her junior. Cunneen's father was born in 1926 and his mother in 1941, just three years older than Locke. The romance ended because of their age difference.

Widower Gordon Anderson is a sculptor very much in demand by private collectors. One of his creations, a miniature set of characters from Alice in Wonderland, was eventually acquired by Demi Moore.

Autobiography "The Good, the Bad & the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey" released. (1997)

At the peak of her fame, late '70s, dabbled in music on the side and sung in small venues like LA's Palomino Club and on television, where she performed duets with Eddie Rabbitt, Phil Everly and Tom Jones.

Name always was pronounced Sondra - or so she claimed - only spelled with an A. People kept calling her Sandy, so she cinched it with an O.

The role of Gus Mally in The Gauntlet (1977) was originally slated for Barbra Streisand, but Clint Eastwood grew impatient with her hesitance about taking the role and opted to cast his far less bankable live-in. 12 years later, Streisand would date Eastwood for a brief period immediately after he and Locke broke up. Coincidentally, she is now married to James Brolin whose first ex-wife, the late Jane Cameron Agee, was an old friend of Locke's - and alleged side piece of Eastwood's.

Was a no show at her mother's funeral. (June 14, 1997)

Director Brian De Palma supposedly interviewed Locke for Carrie (1976), but her manager at the time advised against the studio's proposed scale salary. After she declined to do a screen test, the role was given to Sissy Spacek. What's ironic is that Locke was 32 in 1976 - twice the age of the character - and De Palma chose 29-year-old Betty Buckley to play Carrie's gym teacher.

Threw shade at John Wayne for wearing a toupee and Clint Eastwood for getting hair transplants. Locke herself wore wigs when she went bald in her seventies.

Did summer theater in Washington D.C. and summer stock in the East, but when she tried to become a professional actress in New York everyone told her to catch a bus back home.

Lobbied for the role of Pookie Adams in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) which went to Liza Minnelli.

She had Scottish ancestry through her maternal side.

Attended Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, on a full scholarship, dropping out after two semesters to work in real estate.

Appeared in a 1966 UPI wire photo that showed her frolicking in new fallen snow.