Back in 1992, Clint Eastwood starred in, produced and directed Unforgiven, one of the greatest Westerns ever made.
The Best Picture winner (which lost in eight other Oscar categories) co-starred Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris.
The latter was cast as English Bob after Eastwood phoned the future Dumbledore star at his house in the Bahamas.
Yet the Irish actor thought it was one of his friends pulling his leg, pretending to be the Hollywood legend, as he was in his basement watching High Plains Drifter.
After offering to send him a script, Harris simply replied: “Oh, you don’t need a script… I’ll be there!” Yet upon reaching the Canadian set, he was in for a shock from Eastwood.
Filming on Unforgiven took place 40 miles south of Calgary, Alberta, where production designer Henry Bumstead built the Wild West town of Big Whiskey. During filming, Eastwood would take cast members for scenic helicopter rides. According to Shawn Levy, author of new biography Clint: The Man and the Movies, Harris recalled: “During a lunch break, he took me for a spin in it. And he took me all over the countryside and up the valleys, up the mountains. And all of a sudden, I looked at my watch.”
Harris, who died in 2002, added: “I said, ‘Christ! Look, we’ve got to land this plane quick. I’m going to be late for shooting. We’re ten minutes late.’ And he said, ‘How late can you be? The director is here beside you.’”
Clint: The Man and the Movies by Shawn Levy is out July 1, 2025.
