The Truth About Sondra Locke And The Lawsuit That Shocked Hollywood

The Truth About Sondra Locke And The Lawsuit That Shocked Hollywood

Sandra Lock went from A-list to obscurity. When she did, she didn’t even make it to the Oscars in Memoriam segment, and the reason why is utterly heartbreaking. Sandra Lock had an extraordinary Hollywood career that refused to follow any typical playbook. She lived a mysterious life, one which included questions about her real age in her unorthodox marriage. When she hooked up with a major Hollywood star, it seemed like her career was ready to truly take off. Instead, Lock’s life began a downward spiral, leading to an almost complete disappearance from Hollywood. Lock’s life is a cautionary tale like no other. Sandra Lock was born Sandra Louise Smith in Shelbyville, Tennessee on May 28, 1944. Her father left while her mother was still pregnant with her. Although her mother denied it, Lock was pretty sure that her parents were never actually married. When her mom did eventually have a husband, Lock and her brother took his name. But Lock’s family was about to become part of her distant past. In 1962, Sandra Lock ended up studying theater on a full scholarship at Middle Tennessee State University. After appearing in just two plays, she surprisingly dropped out of the program.

But that’s not everything she dropped out of. She ruthlessly cut all contact with her family. Her brother Donald has a theory about why. While still in high school, Lock became friends with classmate Gordon Anderson. When she cut off ties with her family, her brother Donald blamed Anderson, and what he said about him was chilling. He claimed that Anderson had an almost hypnotic effect on her. The two were certainly close. Little did Lock know, but Anderson would be around for the rest of her life. Sandra Lock got her start working on radio and TV in Nashville, and then she heard about a huge audition. Lock joined the 590 actors competing for a role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Before her first audition, Anderson gave her a makeover. You see, the part Lock wanted was for a teenager, and she was already 23 years old. This was going to be tricky. Anderson had made Lock look more like a teenager, but Lock wanted to go big or go home. She decided to lie about her age and cut it by 6 years. She passed the initial audition in Birmingham and then two more in New Orleans and Manhattan. After knocking down almost 600 competitors, she got the role. This was a dream come true, but it was also the beginning of a nightmare. While filming The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Sandra Lock decided to marry Anderson. This was weird timing, and some speculated that Lock had an ulterior motive for getting married at this busy time in her life. Apparently, her reputation back at the TV station in Nashville was nasty, and she thought getting married might help in case she got famous. Well, she was right about one thing. She was about to get very famous. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter got a lot of attention from critics and audiences. When awards season came along, Lock was nominated for best supporting actress at the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Considering this was her first film, this was stunning news. But now Lock would have to come clean about her real age.

Or would she? To mask her true age, press materials about The Heart is a Lonely Hunter removed any mention of Sandra Lock attending university. They also didn’t talk about her time working on Nashville radio and TV. It looked as though Lock had auditioned for the first time right out of high school. Lock would have to carry this secret for most of her life. When it came time for the Academy Awards, like many actors, Lock wanted to look her best. Anderson stepped in and designed a $7,000 sequin gown. Anderson was not a professional designer, but fashion critics had favorable comments about the dress. Then Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen requested their own versions of Anderson’s creation. Things were looking up for the pair, who had gone from unknowns to a Hollywood power couple basically overnight. Sandra Lock somehow survived all the questions about her age and took some time to decide what her next film project would be. While waiting, she declined offers to be in True Grit and Zabriskie Point. The former was a huge hit and the latter a huge disaster that has turned into a cult classic. What she did instead was totally forgettable. Instead of these important films, Lock made a film called Cover Me Babe. Here, Lock plays a college sophomore. So, once again, her true age was something that had to be hidden. What she really needed to hide was this film. The critics hated it, and it was a financial loss for the studio. But something else came out of this movie. While making Cover Me Babe, Sandra Lock had a relationship with co-star Robert Fields. Wait a minute. Wasn’t Lock a newlywed? Well, it turns out there was something different about Lock’s relationship with Anderson. Something that Lock was keeping a secret for now. What happened after Cover Me Babe was a series of missed opportunities. Lock’s management team said no to a teen drama called Last Summer and Lock passed on the lead in My Sweet Charlie. Her replacement, Patty Duke, received an Emmy for her performance. Her third missed opportunity was They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, which received nine Academy Award nominations. Lock was rejecting films left, right, and center.

But sometimes it went the other way around. To her humiliation, Sandra Lock lost two film roles to Liza Minnelli. As a result, she became so desperate that she tried out for a horror movie. Part of the horror of appearing in A Reflection of Fear was realizing that she was almost twice the age of her character. Lock was still lying about her age, now saying she was 23 and playing the part of a 15-year-old when she was actually 28. Lock got good reviews for this film, but it wasn’t a success. Lock had an Academy Award nomination under her belt. Certainly, they could find better projects than horror films. For her next feature film, Lock went for art house. The Second Coming of Suzanne, about a filmmaker obsessed with a female Christ, did little to amuse critics or audiences. But there was one thing that stood out. A very racy scene between Lock and co-star Paul Sand, who Lock was also seeing off camera. It seemed that every film Lock did meant another romance with a co-star despite the fact that she was still married. After a fling with the also married David Soul, Sandra Lock started up with another man. This was Bo Hopkins, who she starred with in the made-for-TV movie Gondola. This was a top-secret relationship, but for some reason, Lock agreed to something strange. They appeared as a couple on the TV game show called Tattletales. Before anyone noticed this inconsistency, Lock made a speedy exit. After appearing on TV as Hopkins’ girlfriend, Lock headed off to Arizona to make The Outlaw Josey Wales. Lock was desperate to appear in a successful film and thought for sure this was it. To make sure she got the part, she accepted a pay cut. Even though she was the female lead, she only got $18,000 for this film. She was putting all of her eggs in one basket. It had to be a success.

Things in Arizona got off to a shaky start. Both the lead actor Clint Eastwood and the director Phil Kaufman had a crush on Lock and both asked her out to dinner, but Eastwood had an edge. He heartlessly removed the competition by getting the director fired and taking his place at the helm of this movie. Eastwood got his date with Lock and things got serious fast. There is evidence that the romance between Lock and Eastwood was quite serious from the start. The two were staying in a hotel while filming The Outlaw Josey Wales and Eastwood’s next move would have shocked anyone nearby. He stepped out of their hotel, not wearing a stitch of clothing, and announced to the world that he was in love. This was not typical Eastwood behavior. Even though Lock had a husband and Eastwood was on his second marriage, Lock later said something surprising. She said that it was the first time either of the two had been in love. Eastwood had never been monogamous with any woman. But Lock said he wrote a song for her called She Made Me Monogamous. These two had successfully found love. Let’s hope their film was half as good. Despite, or maybe because of, Lock and Eastwood’s off-screen affair, The Outlaw Josey Wales was a huge hit. Critics loved it, and audiences went in droves. While it only got a music nomination from the Academy, it did go on to make over $30 million from a less than $4 million budget. Lock had finally found someone she could make successful movies with. It was becoming quite clear that both Lock’s and Eastwood’s marriages were of mostly convenience. Eastwood and his then-wife Maggie Johnson were living almost completely separate lives. Because of the state of each of their relationships, Lock and Eastwood felt free to start their own lives together as a couple. They were also ready to work together again. Lock and Eastwood were ready to make their first feature as a couple. The first thing on the agenda for The Gauntlet was deciding where their names went on the poster. Eastwood must have truly been in love. Even though he was a much bigger star, he let them put Lock’s name with his above the title of the movie. This was the first and last time he did this. With only a couple of exceptions, Sandra Lock now only made films with Clint Eastwood. This was Eastwood’s idea, as she later said that he didn’t like the idea of me being away from him. Maybe Eastwood had issues with Lock’s performance in The Gauntlet, because in their next film, he moved her name below the title. He also took her right off the poster. The promotional material for The Gauntlet showcased a muscled Eastwood and a scantily clad Lock. However, for Every Which Way but Loose, Lock didn’t even make it to the poster.

Instead, Eastwood posed with an orangutan named Manis. He later called Manis one of the most natural actors he had ever worked with. You couldn’t blame Lock if she took that personally. Life back at home was also starting to feel uncomfortable because Eastwood had mostly avoided monogamous relationships until that point. He had a number of children out of wedlock. The exact number is still under dispute, and when it came to having a child with Sandra Lock, the official word was that neither of them wanted them. When Lock became pregnant, she had a decision to make, and it was not an easy one. Lock actually became pregnant twice with Eastwood, and she terminated both pregnancies. At the time, she suggested that she was not mother material. However, there was a reason she kept getting pregnant. She said that she’d removed her IUD because Eastwood found it uncomfortable. To avoid future pregnancies, Eastwood had a solution. Eastwood had concerns about Lock having abortions. So, he came up with a plan. He thought Lock should undergo sterilization. In his view, it was best, as they had agreed to not have children. Lock later said that she cried but agreed. Afterwards, she wondered why they hadn’t discussed him having a procedure instead. Eastwood must have felt a little guilty as he had a reward for Lock because Sandra Lock had agreed to end the possibility of her ever having children. Eastwood made one of those grand gestures that men often make when they feel guilty. He sold his home in Sherman Oaks and bought Lock a dream home in Bel-Air. In her autobiography, Lock said that the house would be her baby, but this house would be the beginning of the end for this couple. While living in their dream home, Sandra Lock began to feel a little in the dark about her relationship with Eastwood. You see, the still fertile Eastwood continued fathering children. He had two in the late 1980s that Lock had no idea about. What she did know was that the feeling in the house was tense. She was having trouble recognizing the man she had fallen in love with. On January 6, 1989, Lock and Eastwood attended the American Cinema Awards together.

This would be their final public appearance. They spent a very unromantic two nights together at their Bel-Air home, and then Eastwood was gone. After that, he slept in the caretaker’s quarters or at his Burbank apartment. This fairy-tale romance was coming to a speedy end, and Lock had her theories about why. Lock called Eastwood’s behavior acting out and explained it with two reasons. She claimed that Eastwood was getting old and had thoughts about mortality. He was also losing it at the box office, and that made him feel less powerful. Even though she wasn’t ready to give up on Eastwood, she made a call to a divorce lawyer. She was about to find out what kind of man Eastwood really was. Even though Lock and Eastwood had never tied the knot—in fact, she was still married to her first husband—she met up with Norman Oberstein, who was a divorce lawyer. She wanted to know what her options were if Eastwood never came home. While her conversations with Oberstein were private, Eastwood played a dirty trick. He used a wiretap to listen to her talk to her lawyer. Something Eastwood heard made him take very serious action. Sandra Lock had taken up directing, and in April of 1989, she was working on Impulse, her second film. When she came home to the Bel-Air mansion, she found security guards outside blocking her way in. It wouldn’t have mattered anyways, as Eastwood had already changed the locks. Also, he’d moved all of her possessions into a storage facility. Basically, Eastwood had kicked her out of the house. It was now time for Lock to get serious with her lawyer. She started with a lawsuit that asked for $70 million. On the list of charges against Eastwood were emotional distress, forcible entry, possession of stolen goods, and breach of contract. She wanted half of everything Eastwood earned and had. But there was more. Even in this stressful time of her life, Lock’s thoughts went to her husband. Anderson was living in one of Eastwood’s homes, and Lock was demanding the title to the house. By this time, Lock had come clean that Anderson was gay and that they had never consummated their marriage. But there was something more that Lock needed to address with Eastwood. During the proceedings, Sandra Lock also accused Eastwood of making her get two abortions and a sterilization procedure. Eastwood’s denial fueled the flames of this legal battle, which went on for a staggering 19 months. Lock was becoming exhausted as lawyers fought it out in the courtrooms. Then Lock received some very bad news. She had breast cancer. Too exhausted to continue, Lock decided to settle. Suddenly, after all that fighting, Lock was at the mercy of Eastwood and the lawyers. Sandra Lock didn’t end up receiving anything close to what she had originally asked for. She did get the West Hollywood house where her husband lived. She also got $450,000 in cash and some monthly payments as well. More interestingly, Eastwood offered her a directing and developing film deal with Warner Bros. worth $1.5 million. The bright side was that Lock was going to be making films once more.

Once Lock had gotten over the stress and trauma of a very public breakup, she was ready to get started working on her film deal with Warner Bros. She brought over 30 scripts to the studio, and they rejected each one. Strangely, other directors made two of the scripts, Addicted to Love and Junior, that she had put forward. It turns out that her development deal came with a problem, and Lock smelled a rat. Sandra Lock put on her detective hat and found some disturbing evidence. She now believed that Warner Bros. had no deal or money for her. The money was actually coming from Eastwood’s own assets. Even more troubling, she thought he was using his film Unforgiven to launder the money. There were two ways to look at this. An optimist might see Eastwood as a supporting ex, making sure Lock was financially okay. A second option was that Eastwood was using the bogus Warner Bros. deal to get Lock to agree to a settlement and was now spitefully using it to stop her from working in Hollywood. Lock believed the latter, and she was ready to lawyer up once more. Lock sued both Eastwood and Warner Bros. and ended up settling outside of court with both. What we don’t know is what she got, but on the courthouse steps, she said that this has been the best day in a long, long time. Lock had fought against powerful studios and an equally powerful Hollywood star and won. Next, Eastwood would get in his few words. Eastwood had no kind words for the woman who had temporarily stopped his womanizing ways. He called her his occasional roommate and accused her of lazily going for a money grab. He then went one tragic step further. He accused Lock of using her cancer diagnosis to win points with the jury. If Lock had won points with the jury, she certainly deserved them. Sadly, because of her cancer, Sandra Lock needed a double mastectomy. The operation was a success, and Lock began her recovery. Intern Scott Cunneen got the job of checking up on her, and some sparks flew during their time together. There was a 17-year difference between the two, and in fact, Cunneen’s mother was only 3 years older than Lock. With her new love, Lock just wanted to disappear and recover. Lock had taken in a great deal of money from her lawsuit with Eastwood and Warner Bros. With this cash and likely some of her own, she bought a mansion in the Hollywood Hills for her and Cunneen to live in. While she called it a supportive and equal relationship, it fizzled out after 11 good years. Lock seemed content to live out her remaining days tucked away in her mansion, far from the public eye. Sadly, she didn’t have long to live. In 2015, after 25 years in remission, Lock’s cancer came back. On November 3, 2018, she passed in her home from cardiac arrest. Anderson was still Lock’s husband, and he accepted her ashes. He also accepted $20 million as an inheritance. Their relationship may have been unusual, but it did last over 50 years.

Now, the world was ready to mourn. Lock may have passed, but no one in the media seemed to know. None of her friends, ex-lovers, her husband, not even Eastwood said anything about her demise. More than a month after she passed, Radar Online finally broke the story. Wasn’t it strange that an Academy Award nominee could pass without even a mention? Of course, people started to speculate about what was going on. Sandra Lock had spent a lifetime lying about her age. It started with her first film role and snowballed into something bigger than she could handle. Some say that she knew her time was up. She had requested a media blackout because she feared having her real age announced. Even the Academy Awards ceremony that year made no mention of her in the in-memoriam segment. But there was something a media blackout could not control. Even after Lock’s passing, Eastwood’s name would haunt her when obituary articles finally began to surface. Many publications had Eastwood’s name at the top of the story. It was as if all she’d ever been was Eastwood’s girlfriend and not a director and Academy Award nominee. The backlash against these publications came quickly, but the truth was she believed that he destroyed her career. Lock’s love affair with Eastwood shouldn’t define her life, but it did have a huge impact. She believed that he sabotaged her career and had her blacklisted in Hollywood. But remember, she took both him and Warner Bros. to court and won. There’s another way to look at Sandra Lock’s story. Back in 1967, critic and journalist Rex Reed did a profile on Lock for the New York Times. Reed believed that Lock lied through her teeth about many details of her life. After Lock passed, Reed said that he initially thought that even her death may have been a publicity stunt. If you enjoyed this fact in a video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more incredible stories. Your support means everything to us. Want to say in who we cover next? Join our membership program through the link in the description for exclusive perks and check out the videos on screen for more amazing fact and rare stories.