Sondra Locke (born May 28, 1947 in Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA) is a American actress and film director, best known for frequently starring in films with Clint Eastwood. She made her film debut in 1968 in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter with Alan Arkin, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Sondra Locke was the valedictorian of the Shelbyville Central High School class of 1965. Locke attended Middle Tennessee State University for a year, before moving to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. She won a nationwide talent search for the role of Mick in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the role which earned her an Oscar nomination.
In 1968, Locke married Gordon Anderson, a sculptor she had been best friends with since elementary school. Anderson was a homosexual, though he was not outed until 1997, when Clint Eastwood talked about him in an interview. Locke says that she did not have sexual relations with her husband and knew he was gay when she married him. When she began her affair with Eastwood, Anderson was already living with another man. However, they are still very close friends and remain legally married to this day.
Locke co-starred with former partner Clint Eastwood in six films, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact. They lived together for 14 years.. Her autobiography The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly includes a harrowing account of her years with Eastwood. When their relationship ended in 1989, Locke filed a palimony suit against Eastwood, asking for $1.3 million. Locke claimed that Eastwood changed the locks on the home they shared and put all of her belongings in storage. She also claimed that he made her have two abortions and a tubal ligation. Eastwood has adamantly denied the allegations.
In 1990, they agreed to meet privately and reach an agreement; it consisted of Eastwood giving Locke a "pay or play" directing deal with Warner Bros., but the studio never produced her proposed films nor hired her to direct. In 1996, they were back in court. Locke hired famed entertainment attorney Neil Papiano and filed another lawsuit, this time against Warner Bros., alleging that the company had never intended to make any films with her, and that Eastwood had compensated Warner Bros. for the contract. In 1999, they settled out of court for a reportedly large settlement, details of which were not publicly disclosed.
Locke recently sold her home in L.A. (at a considerable profit), and bought a much larger estate in the Hollywood Hills where she resides with her companion of the last 12 years, Scott Cunneen, a director of surgery at Cedars Sinai Hospital. Locke is a breast cancer survivor.
