Sondra Locke obit

Oscar-nominated actress Sondra Locke dies at 74

She was not on the list.

Actress and director Sondra Locke, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her first film role in 1968's "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and went on to co-star in six films with Clint Eastwood, has died.

Locked died Nov. 3 at her Los Angeles home of cardiac arrest stemming from breast and bone cancer, according to a death certificate obtained by The Associated Press. She was 74. Authorities were promptly notified at the time, but her death was not publicized until RadarOnline first reported it Thursday. It is not clear why it took nearly six weeks to come to light.

Locke was best known for the six films she made with Eastwood — whom she dated for 13 years — starting with the Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales" in 1976 and ending with the Dirty Harry movie "Sudden Impact" in 1983.

Born Sandra Louise Smith — she would later take on a stepfather's last name and take on the stage name Sondra — Locke grew up in Tennessee, where she worked at a radio station and appeared in a handful of plays before winning a nationwide talent search in 1967 to be cast opposite leading man Alan Arkin in the movie adaptation of Carson McCullers' 1940 novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."

She would win raves for the role along with nominations for a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Both awards went to Ruth Gordon for "Rosemary's Baby."

She had a run of unmemorable film and TV roles until meeting Eastwood on the set of "Josey Wales," which he both directed and starred in.

Her career would mirror his for the next several years. The pair's hit films also included the 1978 street-fighting and orangutan comedy "Every Which Way But Loose" and its 1980 sequel "Any Which Way You Can."

Locke also played singer Rosemary Clooney in a 1982 TV biopic, and directed the 1986 film "Ratboy," which flopped in the U.S. but was popular with critics in Europe.

In 1989, Locke's charmed life came to an end as Eastwood broke up with her, she later wrote. The locks were changed and her things were placed outside a home she thought had been a gift from Eastwood.

She sued Eastwood for palimony then later sued him for fraud saying a movie development deal he arranged for her was a sham to get her to drop the palimony suit. They settled the highly publicized lawsuit for an undisclosed amount during jury deliberations in 1996.

The following year she released her memoir, titled "The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey," which also detailed the double mastectomy and chemotherapy that came with her first bout with breast cancer.

She told the AP at the time that the title, a play on one of Eastwood's films, was "applicable to the story."

"I try to cover the good years as well as the bad and the ugly," Locke said. "Also, that in even the worst ugly things there can sometimes be a lot that will make you a better person."

Locke had married actor Gordon Anderson in 1967. According to her death certificate, the two were still legally married when she died, and he was the person who reported her death. She described their relationship to the AP in 1997 as just good friends. A phone number listed in Anderson's name rang without being picked up.

Filmography

As actress

Year       Title       Role       Notes    Ref.

1968      The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter       Margaret 'Mick' Kelly      Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer — Female

Nominated—Laurel Award for Female Supporting Performance

Nominated—Laurel Award for Female New Face               

1970      Cover Me Babe Melisse                                

1971      Willard Joan                      

1972      A Reflection of Fear         Marguerite                        

1972      Night Gallery      Sheila Gray          Episode: "A Feast of Blood"         

1972      The F.B.I.             Regina Mason    Episode: "Dark Christmas"           

1973      Cannon                 Trish      Episode: "Death of a Stone Seahorse"    

1973      The ABC Afternoon Playbreak     Nora Sells            Episode: "My Secret Mother"      [

1973      Gondola               Jackie    TV movie            

1974      The Second Coming of Suzanne Suzanne                              

1974      Kung Fu                Gwyneth Jenkins              Episode: "This Valley of Terror"

1974      Planet of the Apes           Amy       Episode: "The Cure"       

1975      Barnaby Jones   Alicia     Episode: "The Orchid Killer"        

1975      Cannon                 Stacey Murdock                Episode: "A Touch of Venom"    

1976      Joe Forrester      N/A        Episode: "A Game of Love"          

1976      The Outlaw Josey Wales                Laura Lee                            

1977      Death Game       Agatha Jackson                 

1977      The Shadow of Chikara Drusilla Wilcox                 

1977      The Gauntlet      Augustina 'Gus' Mally                    

1978      Every Which Way but Loose        Lynn Halsey-Taylor                         

1979      Friendships, Secrets and Lies       Jessie Dunne      TV movie            

1980      Bronco Billy        Antoinette Lily   Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actress      

1980      Any Which Way You Can               Lynn Halsey-Taylor                         

1982      Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story          Rosemary Clooney           TV movie            

1983      Sudden Impact Jennifer Spencer                             

1984      Tales of the Unexpected               Edna      Episode: "Bird of Prey"  

1985      Amazing Stories                Vanessa Sullivan               Episode: "Vanessa in the Garden"            

1986      Ratboy Nikki Morrison   Also director

Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actress      

1999      The Prophet's Game       Adele Highsmith (adult)                                

1999      Clean and Narrow            Betsy Brand       

2018      Ray Meets Helen              Helen    Final film role    

As director

Year       Title       Ref.

1986      Ratboy

1990      Impulse               

1995      Death in Small Doses     

1997      Trading Favors  

Stage

Year       Show     Role       Location              

1962      Life with Father                 Mary Wickes      Tucker Theater, Murfreesboro, Tennessee          

1963      The Crucible       Mary Warren     Tucker Theater, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

1964      Life with Mother              N/A        Belcourt Playhouse, Nashville, Tennessee            

1964      The Innocents   Flora      Circle Theater, Nashville Tennessee        

1964      A Thousand Clowns         Dr. Sandra Markowitz     Circle Theater, Nashville, Tennessee       

1965      Night of the Iguana          Charlotte Goodall             Circle Theater, Nashville, Tennessee       

1965      Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad            Rosalie Circle Theater, Nashville, Tennessee     

1965      The Glass Menagerie      Laura Wingfield                 Circle Theater, Nashville, Tennessee       

1967      Tiger at the Gates            Helen of Troy     Vanderbilt Theatre, Nashville, Tennessee