Sondra Locke#Death

File:Sondra Locke 1956.jpg

Sandra Louise Smith was born on May 28, 1944,{{efn|Various dates were given by the press for Locke's birth. Contradictory sources have either directly cited, or implied, 1940See Evening Standard (London), Apr. 27, 1989. "The 48-year-old actress has filed a palimony suit in Los Angeles Superior Court..." and every year from 1943 to 1950,{{cite web|last=Hieronymus|first=Clara|title=Nashvillians in the Times|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=December 24, 1967|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/113239153|quote=The spelling of her name has been changed to 'Sondra,' her age lowered to 17 years for publicity purposes, and her residence in Nashville, where she was employed by WSM, wiped out.}}{{cite web|title=Just Ask|work=Town & Country|date=May 10, 1969|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QPJNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5963%2C1238919|quote=Sweet little Sondra is actually 25 years old and married. Because of the movie, people think she's about 13, so she's now considering offers to do a nude layout for a magazine to prove she's no kid, and pave the way for adult roles.}}Adams, Marjory (August 27, 1968). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/434558070 "Sondra Locke opens door to fame"]. The Boston Globe.Gilmour, Clyde (December 9, 1972). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/945918466 "A talk with Sondra Locke: She wants to start playing It tough"]. The Toronto Star.Wilson, Earl (December 1, 1977). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/232763768 "Clint, Sondra Loom As Big New Team"]. Fort Lauderdale News.Mills, Nancy (August 19, 1986). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-19-ca-17164-story.html "Locke Exercises Control Over 'Ratboy,' Her Career"]. Los Angeles Times.Siskel, Gene (May 6, 1990). [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-05-06-9002060768-story.html "Sondra Locke's Step"]. Chicago Tribune.{{cite book|first=Jerry|last=Roberts|title=Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810863781|page=345}} with some of the more brazen PR gimmicks even purporting it to be as late as 1952Jack Hurst, The Charlotte News, 3.24.79 or 1956.Barbara Lewis, Salina Journal, 8.8.76 Her most commonly reported year of birth was 1947; Locke's publicist gave that year on several occasions when asked to clarify the inconsistency.{{cite web|last=Slaughter|first=Sylvia|title=Sondra vs. Clint in palimony suit|work=The Sunday Tennessean|date=May 28, 1989|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49099067/the-tennessean|quote=Don Locke loves his sister. He misses her, and he regrets the fact that his three daughters don't have any knowledge of Sondra other than what they see on TV or in print or hear from gossipmongers. 'Sondra's not this kind of bad character,' he says. 'Maybe she's changed, but she was my big sister who used to play baseball with me. Sondra's gonna be 45 May 28 ...' Locke's publicist claims Sondra will be 42 today.}}[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/404899550 "Sondra's a Nice Girl, Despite What Studio Says"]. Dayton Daily News. August 10, 1968.Kay, Terry (June 6, 1971). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/398533522 "One Way to Gain Stardom"]. The Atlanta Constitution. However, Locke's marriage license,{{cite web|title=Gordon Leigh Anderson, Sondra Louise Locke|url=http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=tnstatemarriages&h=1213366|work=Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002|publisher=Ancestry.com|quote=Date: 9-25-67; Name of Female Applicant: Sondra Louise Locke; Born: 5-28-44; Age: 23}} death certificate,Trock, Gary; Walters, Liz (December 15, 2018). [https://theblast.com/clint-eastwood-sondra-locke-death-certificate-cardiac-arrest "Clint Eastwood's Longtime GF, Sondra Locke Died from Cardiac Arrest"]. The Blast. yearbooks,[https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Shelbyville-Central-High-School/4182770392 1959 Shelbyville Central High School Yearbook][https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Shelbyville-Central-High-School/1000251503 1960 Shelbyville Central High School Yearbook][https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Shelbyville-Central-High-School/4182758984 1961 Shelbyville Central High School Yearbook][https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Central-High-School/19692 1962 Shelbyville Central High School Yearbook] and her entry on public records indexes FamilySearch[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KT79-SC3 United States Public Records, 1970-2009] and Intelius[https://www.intelius.com/search/people/Sondra-L-Anderson/Los%20angeles-CA Intelius search under name Sondra L Anderson] establish the year as 1944. "Untruths have been a way of life for her," one former associate wrote to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette when the disparity came up. Said another past acquaintance who knew Locke in the 1950s: "She was two years younger than me in Central High, but it is really strange now, because she has now become five years younger."}}{{efn|Sources are divided as to whether she was born in Alabama or Tennessee.Pendreigh, Brian (December 16, 2018). [https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/17301544.obituary-sondra-locke-actress-known-for-her-troubled-association-with-clint-eastwood "Obituary: Sondra Locke, actress known for her troubled association with Clint Eastwood"]. HeraldScotland.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/886047235|title=Talented 'New Faces' Brighten Movie Scene|work=Omaha World-Herald|date=November 3, 1968|quote=One of the more prepossessing actresses of the younger generation is Alabama-born Sondra Locke....}} Locke said the latter.{{cite book|first=Douglas|last=Thompson|title=Clint Eastwood: Billion Dollar Man|year=2005|publisher=John Blake Publishing|isbn=9781857825725}} While not dispositive, the 1950 census, which misspells the family name as Lacke, upholds this.[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHN-GQHW-L9Z8-Q "1950 Census"]. U.S. National Archives.}} the daughter of New York City native Raymond Smith, then a soldier stationed at Camp Forrest,{{efn|Smith may have died before Locke learned of him. The actress wrote in her autobiography that she found out he was her father "sometime during grammar school," but phrased all references to him in ambiguous past tense and evaded specifying years.}} and Pauline Bayne, a pencil factory worker from Huntsville, Alabama, who was of mostly Scottish descent, with matrilineages in South Carolina extending back to the late 18th century.Various compilers, "Vaughn Family Group Sheets"; Jim Freeman received these Family Group Sheets at a Bell family reunion for descendants of David Vaughn.{{efn|Bayne's surname was also given as Bane, Bain, Baine, or Baines.[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-huntsville-times-obituary-for-edgar/141722962 "Baines Victim of Car Mishap"]. The Huntsville Times. March 12, 1939.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/554399029 "Both of Man's Legs Broken"]. The Huntsville Times. December 25, 1938.[https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531787_00126 "1930 Census"]. U.S. National Archives.[https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-03872-00240 "1940 Census"]. U.S. National Archives. According to census documents, Locke's maternal grandfather could neither read nor write, hence the variant spellings/versions.}} Locke's parents separated before her birth.Furtado, David (August 31, 2013). [https://thewandrinstar.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/sondra-lockes-the-good-the-bad-and-the-very-ugly-the-woman-with-a-name-en "Sondra Locke's The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: The Woman with a Name"]. Wand'rin' Star. In her autobiography, Locke noted, "although Momma would not admit it, I knew Mr. Smith never married my mother."{{cite book|last=Locke|first=Sondra|title=The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey|publisher=William Morrow and Company|year=1997|isbn=9780688154622}} She had a maternal half-brother, Donald (born April 26, 1946), from Bayne's subsequent brief marriage to William B. Elkins.[https://www.genlookups.com/al_marriages/al-madison-brides29.htm "Alabama – Madison County Brides"]. GenLookups. p. 29.{{efn|Bayne was also wed to painter Thomas H. Nelson between marriages to William Elkins and Alfred Locke, for less than eight months.[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZK7-ZRV "Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950"]. FamilySearch.org.}} When Bayne married Alfred Locke in 1948, Sandra and Donald assumed his surname.[http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/walker/vitals/marriages/grlyt.txt "Walker County, Ga – Vital Records Marriages"]. USGenWeb.{{efn|In 1945, Locke briefly took the surname of her then-stepfather, Elkins, before her mother changed it again in 1948. Her legal name was changed four times during her first 24 years of life: from Sandra Smith to Sandra Elkins, to Sandra Locke, to Sondra Locke, to Sondra Anderson.}} She grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where her stepfather owned a construction company.{{cite news|url=https://people.com/archive/cover-story-taking-up-the-gauntlet-vol-9-no-6|title=Taking Up The Gauntlet|first=Lois|last=Armstrong|work=People|date=February 13, 1978}} The family later moved to nearby Wartrace.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/367622358 "MTSC Presents"]. The Daily News Journal. November 2, 1962. Self-described as introspective and ambitious, Locke started working part time at age 16, drove her own car, and had a phone installed in her bedroom.Lane, Lydia (January 3, 1971). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/383106507 "Sondra Relates to True Self"]. Los Angeles Times.Kleiner, Dick (October 9, 1968). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/184733938 "Sondra un-Lockes Film Golden Gates"]. Philadelphia Daily News. She was raised a Baptist, but stopped going to church as an adult.

File:Locke HS Yearbook.jpg

Locke was a cheerleader and class valedictorian in junior high, as well as editor-in-chief of The Royal yearbook and a star player on the girls' basketball team.{{cite book|first=James Robert|last=Parish|title=The Hollywood Book of Breakups|year=2006|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc|isbn=9781630262082}}Shelbyville Mills School (1958). [https://www.flickr.com/photos/strolling_jim/8440092350 The Royal]. Shelbyville, TN. Jacket copy."Recreation". The Volunteer. December 18, 1957. p. 5. From 1958, she attended Shelbyville Central High School, where she again served as valedictorian and was voted "Duchess of Studiousness" by classmates. She continued to play basketball at SCHS, served as parent–teacher–student association representative, and was president of the French club. Regardless, she was not considered "date material" by the more socially prominent boys in her class. Locke's first beau, according to locals' reminiscences, was Fred Thomas Jones, a carpenter's son."Obituaries". The Tennessean. October 31, 2006. 4B. Her graduation yearbook listed her grade average 97.72% and her ambition "always to take disappointments with a smile." In 1962, Locke matriculated at Middle Tennessee State University (then Middle Tennessee State College) in Murfreesboro on a full scholarship. Majoring in theatre, she was a member of the Alpha Psi Omega honor society while at MTSU, and appeared on stage in Life with Father and The Crucible.DeGennaro, Nancy (December 14, 2018). [https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2018/12/14/sondra-locke-dies-74-tennessee-native-oscar-nominated-actress-clint-eastwood/2309536002 "Oscar-nominated actress, Tennessee native Sondra Locke dies at 74"]. USA Today.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/367675380 "The Crucible Next College Production"]. The Daily News Journal. February 24, 1963.{{cite web|url=http://content.mtsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fmtsu1&CISOPTR=1540&CISOBOX=1&REC=6|title=Sondra Locke in The Crucible : MTSU theater production, 1963|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328001053/http://content.mtsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fmtsu1&CISOPTR=1540&CISOBOX=1&REC=6|archive-date=March 28, 2012|url-status=dead}} She dropped out after completing two semesters of study.{{cite web|first=Tony|last=Pendergrass|url=https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/bitstream/handle/mtsu/1850/28037.pdf|title=Sondra Locke to return via cinema|date=February 12, 1971|work=Sidelines}}

In or around 1963, Locke essentially broke off contact with her family, concluding: "It made no sense for any of us to spend our lives pretending to have relationships that did not really exist."{{cite book|first=Iain|last=Johnstone|title=The Man with No Name: Clint Eastwood|year=1981|publisher=Plexus|isbn=9780859650267}} She never knew her biological father,Barnes, Mike (December 13, 2018). [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sondra-locke-dead-oscar-nominated-actress-was-74-1169048 "Sondra Locke, Oscar-Nominated Actress for 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,' Dies at 74"]. The Hollywood Reporter. and did not attend the funerals of her mother (deceased 1997)"Services today for Pauline Bayne Locke". The Tennessean. June 14, 1997. 7B. or stepfather (deceased 2007),[https://www.t-g.com/story/1294314.html "Alfred Taylor Locke"]. Shelbyville Times-Gazette. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130215407/http://www.t-g.com/story/1294314.html|date=November 30, 2010}}. nor did she have anything to do with her brother, sister-in-law and three nieces.{{cite web|first=David|last=Melson|title=Picturing the Past 160: Sondra Locke on TV|date=May 23, 2012|work=Shelbyville Times-Gazette|url=https://www.t-g.com/blogs/davidmelson/entry/47864|archive-date=June 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616031801/http://www.t-g.com/blogs/davidmelson/entry/47864}}{{cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/suing-clint-eastwood-sondra-locke-strikes-with-magnum-force-vol-31-no-19|title=Suing Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke Strikes with Magnum Force|first1=Joanne|last1=Kaufman|first2=Jacqueline|last2=Savaiano|date=May 15, 1989|work=People}}{{efn|Notwithstanding their ongoing estrangement, Bayne vocally supported her daughter during the litigious war between Locke and Clint Eastwood. She told journalist Leon Wagener: "One of those children Clint made her abort could have been the grandson I've always longed for."{{cite book|last=Munn|first=Michael|title=Clint Eastwood: Hollywood's Loner|publisher=Robson|year=1992|isbn=9780860517900|pages=228–229}}}} Donald blamed Gordon Anderson—Locke's best friend since adolescence and future husband—for the rift, claiming Anderson had "an almost hypnotic spell on her."{{efn|Hostility between the in-laws appears to be permanent. Seven years after his half-sister's death, Don Locke lambasted Gordon Anderson on the internet, calling him "a weirdo in every sense of the word."{{cite web|first=Don|last=Locke|url=https://www.facebook.com/joann.bills.3/posts/pfbid02a3edxEZ1pcLZL7vYSePWFpDnbsFFkzfG5qzTMnfhztk5KaaLjWXRXL5W4ayLtH6el?comment_id=1197150395123919|title=[untitled comment]|publisher=Facebook|date=May 2, 2025}}}}

Locke held a variety of jobs, including as a bookkeeper for Tyson Foods and receptionist in a real-estate office. For a time, she lived at South Water Apartments in the commuter town of Gallatin.Hinton, Elmer (June 30, 1965). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112020071 "Down to Earth"]. The Nashville Tennessean. In 1964, she joined the staff at radio station WSM-AM 650 in Nashville, and was promoted to its television affiliate WSM-Channel 4 the following year.[https://www.wsmv.com/oscar-nominated-actress-channel-alum-sondra-locke-dead-at/article_5c441e28-ff43-11e8-b1bf-03009c64ebe1.html "Oscar-nominated actress, Channel 4 alumna Sondra Locke dead at 74"]. WSMV. December 13, 2018.Home Office Shield, September 1966{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/121957024614428/permalink/1566392453504204|title=The Official Tennessee Radio Hall Of Fame Community|publisher=Facebook}} Locke's biggest coup while employed there was hosting actor Robert Loggia when he visited Nashville to promote his TV pilot T.H.E. Cat, during which he "flirted outrageously" with Locke. She also modeled for The Tennessean fashion page, acted in commercials for Rich-Schwartz ladies apparel and Southerland Gel mattresses, among others, and gained further stage experience in productions for Circle Players Inc.Haun, Harry (August 30, 1968). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112215685 "Sandra of Shelbyville Becomes Sondra of the Cinema"]. The Nashville Tennessean. In 1966, the 22-year-old appeared in a UPI wire photo that showed her cavorting in new fallen snow.{{cite news|title=Winter's Prelude|agency=United Press International|work=Lodi News-Sentinel|date=November 3, 1966|page=1|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FWgzAAAAIBAJ&pg=6095%2C2719075}} Within one year of this exposure, she decided to pursue a career in film, and changed the spelling of her first name to avoid being called Sandy.

In July 1967, Locke competed with 590 other Southern actresses and dozens of New York hopefuls for the part of Mick Kelly in a big-screen adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter opposite Alan Arkin.{{cite news|first=Clara|last=Hieronymus|title=Nashville Actress Gets Starring Movie Role|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=August 15, 1967|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112143819}}{{efn|After-the-fact publicity claimed 2,000 actresses tried out for the role.{{cite news|first=Linda|last=Loftus|title=Meeting Sondra Locke Was Groovy!|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|date=August 10, 1968|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/101421206}}}} For the first audition in Birmingham, Alabama, then-fiancé Gordon Anderson gave his bride a so-called Hollywood makeover; he bound her bosom, bleached her eyebrows, and carefully fixed her hair, makeup, and outfit so as to create a more gamine appearance.Oppenheimer, Peer J. (November 23, 1968). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BSYsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2999%2C4190584 "Sondra Locke– They Call Her 'The Beautiful Fake'; A selfless husband with a flair for fooling catapulted this shy officeworker to overnight stardom"]. Family Weekly.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/376659762 "New face in the movie world"]. Chicago Tribune. August 12, 1968. Locke lied about her age, shaving off six years to make herself seem younger—a pretense she would keep up not only for the rest of her career, but also the entirety of her public life.{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/sondra-locke-obituary-c0fqztgr5|title=Sondra Locke obituary|date=December 15, 2018|work=The Times}}{{efn|Bonnie Bedelia told the 8 October 1967 Los Angeles Times that "they decided I was too old" when she auditioned for the same role as Locke.{{cite news|first=Cecil|last=Smith|title=Bonnie's Westward Stage Trek|work=Los Angeles Times|date=October 8, 1967|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-la-times-08-oct-1/136374248}} As it turns out, Bedelia was four years younger than Locke, who had lied about her age. Wayne Smith, a University of Alabama student five years Locke's junior, played her love interest in the movie, though his character is described as being a couple of years older than she.{{cite news|first=Wanda|last=Hale|title=Screen McCullers Novel|work=New York Daily News|date=July 28, 1968|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/406148819}}}}{{efn|In the 1960s, Town & Country magazine and The Nashville Tennessean outed Locke for lying about her age, but the mass media took decades to catch on, and most publications continued to use the incorrect birth year(s).{{cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/790/000024718|title=Sondra Locke|publisher=Notable Names Database}} Locke admitted in The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly that she lied about her age early in her career, but claimed to have knocked only three years off, rather than six. In one of her final interviews, conducted in 2015 for The Projection Booth podcast, Locke lied that she "was just graduating high school" when she made The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, when she was in fact in her mid-20s.{{cite podcast|host=White, Mike|date=January 16, 2016|title=Special Report: Death Game / Knock Knock|others=Interviews with Larry Spiegel, Sondra Locke, David Worth|work=The Projection Booth|url=http://projection-booth.blogspot.com/2016/01/special-report-death-game-knock-knock.html}} Moreover, an international press release from 1967 omits Locke's time at MTSU, as well as her residence in Nashville, where she had moved in 1963 after dropping out of college.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/421243057|title=Cinderella Story Of Young Actress|date=September 19, 1967|work=Montreal Gazette}}}} After callbacks in New Orleans and Manhattan, she was cast in the role by recommendation from entertainment coordinator Marion Dougherty.William Barclift, Birmingham Post-Herald, 7.29.67 The film's shooting wrapped in the fall of 1967. Locke, who had quit her post at WSM, opted to wait until its release before choosing a follow-up project.The Selma Times-Journal, 12.10.67 In the nine-month interim, she was asked to play the female protagonists in True Grit and Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. She said she turned down the former on the grounds that it was too similar to the role she had just done, and the latter because of the nudity required.

By 1968, advertising for Heart was prolific; the film came out that summer to critical acclaim but only modest grosses.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120554953 "Sondra Takes a Film by Storm"]. The Sydney Morning Herald. August 4, 1968.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/493402129 "Sondra Locke May Fit 'Star Is Born' Description"]. Chicago Daily Defender. August 31, 1968. Locke's performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination, as well as a pair of Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer – Female.{{cite web|title=Winners & Nominees: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture 1969|url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years#year-1969|publisher=Hollywood Foreign Press Association|archive-date=September 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912135619/https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years#year-1969|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1969|title=Oscar Ceremony 1969 (Actress In A Supporting Role)|publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|access-date=18 August 2018}}{{efn|Though Locke played the leading female role, during awards season, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts campaigned for Best Supporting Actress instead of Best Actress, seemingly to make winning easier. She lost to Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby. Ruth Gordon later appeared with Locke in Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can.}} Being the oldest nominee in the latter category, she concealed this distinction through retconning with aid from studio publicists. At a film exhibitor convention in Kansas City, she won the Show-A-Rama Award from the Motion Picture Association of America as "Most Promising New Star of the Year".{{efn|Locke's plaque was stolen at Kansas City International Airport.Harrison Carroll, Danville Advocate-Messenger, 3.12.69}} Although her salary for the film was reported as $15,000 in contemporary articles, Locke later claimed it was less than one-third that amount.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/283867991 "It's a Woman's World"]. Shenandoah Evening Herald. January 27, 1969.

File:Sondra Locke & Gordon Anderson - The Tennessean.jpg's book The Brownies at Home, 1971]]

Hoping to shed the plain image she had accentuated in her screen debut, in January 1969 Locke posed for a seminude pictorial by photographer Frank Bez, which was published in the December issue of Playboy.{{cite news|title=Behind the Scenes in Hollywood|work=Wilkes-Barre Record|date=April 1, 1969|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/427093317}}{{cite magazine|first1=Arthur|last1=Knight|first2=Hollis|last2=Alpert|date=December 1969|volume=16|issue=12|title=Sex Stars of 1969|magazine=Playboy}} The Playboy layout established Locke's status as a sex symbol, and the images were recycled in other men's magazines as her fame increased.See, e.g., Club International, Vol. 13, iss. 3 (UK: Paul Raymond, 1984). Nearly three decades later, Locke said she still got those photos in fan mail requesting her autograph.

Her next role was as Melisse in Cover Me Babe (1970), originally titled Run Shadow Run,Heffernan, Harold (August 14, 1969). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=d9weAAAAIBAJ&&pg=7253,5211235 "Sondra Valuable Behind the Scene"]. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. opposite Robert Forster. She made it as part of a $150,000 three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, and was compensated for the other two which never materialized.{{cite web|url=https://filmmakeriq.com/dailies/may-28-1944-sondra-locke-was-born|title=May 28, 1944 Sondra Locke was born|date=May 28, 2019|publisher=FilmmakerIQ}}{{cite news|first=Abe|last=Greenberg|title=Hard Work vs. Jinx, or The Luck of Sondra Locke|work=Valley Times|date=June 11, 1969|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-times/49123872}} It was announced that she would play the lead in Lovemakers—a film adaptation of Robert Nathan's novel The Color of Evening—but no movie resulted.{{cite news|first=Betty|last=Martin|title=Sondra Set for 'Lovemakers'|work=Los Angeles Times|date=March 3, 1969|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/383073726}} Locke was offered Barbara Hershey's role in Last Summer (1969), but her management turned it down without telling her.{{cite book|first=Eila|last=Mell|title=Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others|year=2005|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=9781476609768|pages=142, 229}} Shortly afterwards, she passed on the lead in My Sweet Charlie (1970), which won an Emmy for its eventual star Patty Duke.{{cite news|first=Harry|last=Haun|title=Charade for Hollywood|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=May 16, 1971|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112817921}} She also declined the part of Bruce Dern's pregnant wife in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).Robert Taylor, Oakland Tribune, 11.1.72 Projects Locke actively pursued but got rejected for included The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), with director Alan J. Pakula instead choosing Liza Minnelli.

File:David carradine sondra locke kung fu 1974.JPG in Kung Fu, 1974]]

In 1971, Locke co-starred with Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine in the psychological thriller Willard, which became a surprise box-office smash.Browning, Norma Lee (August 4, 1971). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZBo0AAAAIBAJ&pg=3582,1185644 "Hollywood"]. Bangor Daily News. Locke felt overqualified for her role, but did it as a favor to Davison, who at the time was her unofficial paramour.{{cite web|url=https://gruesomemagazine.com/2017/06/26/willard-1971-episode-53-decades-horror-1970s|title=[Podcast] Willard (1971) — Episode 53— Decades of Horror 1970s|date=June 26, 2017|work=Gruesome Magazine|last1=Rotten|first1=Doc}}{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/887081156|title=Sondra Did 'Willard' 'For the $, Frankly'|date=November 20, 1972|first=Peter|last=Citron|work=Omaha World-Herald}} She was then featured in William A. Fraker's underseen mystery A Reflection of Fear (1972), which required her to project the image of a character half her age, and held the title role in first-time director Michael Barry's avant garde drama The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974), winner of three gold medals at the Atlanta Film Festival.{{cite journal|title=Industry Activities|first=Herb A.|last=Lightman|date=September 1974|volume=55|issue=9|journal=American Cinematographer|page=1225|publisher=ASC Holding Corporation}}Tate, Eleanora (November 15, 1972). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/325083745 "Someone Who Likes The Snow"]. Des Moines Tribune. Both films were shelved for two years before finally opening in arthouse cinemas, attracting little attention at first. Over time, Suzanne has accrued a cult following, while Reflection is cited as an early example of media portrayals of transgender people.Gambin, Lee (February 15, 2016). [https://www.comingsoon.net/horror/news/748692-exclusive-interview-actress-sondra-locke-gender-bender-chiller-reflection-fear "Exclusive Interview: Actress Sondra Locke on Gender-Bender Chiller A REFLECTION OF FEAR"]. Comingsoon.net.{{efn|A Reflection of Fear was not the first time Locke was considered to play a transsexual. In 1969, Christine Jorgensen, the trans woman famous for having sex-reassignment surgery in Denmark in 1953, mentioned Locke and Mia Farrow as contenders for a planned film version of her life. A fan of Locke's performance in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Jorgensen observed, "in scenes where she didn't wear any makeup, Sondra looks very much like I did in my younger days. I think she might make an excellent choice."Charles Petzold, Philadelphia Daily News, 5.28.69}}

In 1973, Locke was attached to star in Terminal Circle. "It's a woman's role that comes along once in a lifetime," she said.Miller, Jeanne (August 30, 1973). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/460378294 "The Actress Couldn't Resist"]. San Francisco Examiner. The San Francisco-based film was to be directed by Mal Karman and shot by cinematographer Robert Primes, who did camerawork for Gimme Shelter, but it was scrapped for lack of funds. She was up for a big part in Earthquake (1974), but lost out to Geneviève Bujold.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dvdinfatuation.com|title=2,500 Movies Challenge|website=DVD Infatuation}}

Locke guest starred on top-rated television drama series throughout the first half of the 1970s, including The F.B.I., Cannon (as two different characters), Barnaby Jones, and Kung Fu. She was advised by her agents to stay away from TV, but thought it foolish to sit around not working between films.Jones, Will (December 3, 1972). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/181104850 "Actress says TV creates automatons"]. Minneapolis Tribune. In the 1972 Night Gallery episode "A Feast of Blood", she played the victim of a curse planted by Norman Lloyd; the recipient of a brooch that devoured her.{{cite web|url=http://nightgallery.net/night-gallery-episode-guide-season-two|website=NightGallery.net|title=Rod Serling's Night Gallery: the Second Season; A Feast of Blood (Night Gallery #22 – original air date January 12, 1972)|publisher=Universal Television|archive-date=May 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501195834/http://nightgallery.net/night-gallery-episode-guide-season-two|url-status=dead}} Lloyd acted with Locke again in Gondola (1973), a racially themed, three-character PBS teleplay co-starring her real-life significant other at the time, Bo Hopkins, and commended the actress for "a beautiful performance – perhaps her best ever."{{cite book|first=Norman|last=Lloyd|title=Stages: Norman Lloyd|year=1990|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810822900|page=220}} Ron Harper, who worked with Locke on the short-lived 1974 show Planet of the Apes, was even more effusive: "After acting with her in a couple of scenes, there was something so feminine about her that I could picture myself easily falling for her ... She's one of those women who exudes femininity, and you just become so attracted to that."{{cite book|first=Tom|last=Weaver|title=I Talked with a Zombie: Interviews with 23 Veterans of Horror and Sci-Fi Films and Television|year=2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786452682|page=154}}

File:Locke-Eastwood-1975.jpg

In mid-1975, Locke was cast in The Outlaw Josey Wales as the love interest of Clint Eastwood's eponymous character.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/210963432|title=Eastwood co-star set|date=October 28, 1975|work=Lansing State Journal}} Locke said she chose the role for its exposure, following a run of unremarkable credits.Miller, Jeanne (July 1, 1976). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/460990593 "A long time between breaks"]. San Francisco Examiner.Eichelbaum, Stanley (November 3, 1972). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/461122361 "Career Off to Great Start, and Then..."]. San Francisco Examiner. She took a pay cut just to be in the film; her salary for Josey Wales was $18,000—less than half of what she had earned for her previous job.{{cite book|first=Patrick|last=McGilligan|title=Clint: The Life and Legend|year=1999|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780002555289}} The film emerged as one of the top 15 grossing films of 1976 and revived Locke's career.{{cite web|url=http://www.allrovi.com/name/sondra-locke-p100009|first=Hal|last=Erickson|title=Sondra Locke - Movie and Film Biography and Filmography|publisher=AllRovi|archive-date=July 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705163343/http://www.allrovi.com/name/sondra-locke-p100009}}{{cite web|url=https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-1976|title=Top 1976 Movies at the Domestic Box Office|publisher=The Numbers}}{{cite web|first=Vernon|last=Scott|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/5292582|title=Locke Is Big With Eastwood|date=December 20, 1977|work=Lebanon Daily News}} She followed it up with a lead role alongside Eastwood in the popular action road film The Gauntlet (1977), the duo replacing Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand, who bowed out from the production owing to a reported clash of egos.Wilson, Earl (April 17, 1977). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/721946013 "Eastwood getting a lock on Locke"]. Independent Press-Telegram.{{cite book|first=Marc|last=Eliot|title=American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood|year=2009|publisher=Harmony Books|isbn=9780307336897}} Its pre-publicity touted Locke as "the first actress ever to be in a Clint Eastwood movie and get equal billing on screen with the macho star."Pat O'Haire, New York Daily News, 11.11.77 Eastwood predicted that she would win an Oscar for her performance.Earl Wilson, Fort Lauderdale News, 11.16.77 Locke was not even nominated, and received mixed critical response at best: on the upside, Vincent Canby of The New York Times said, "Locke is not only pretty, but also occasionally genuinely funny"{{cite web|first=Vincent|last=Canby|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/22/archives/screen-eastwood-gauntlet.html|title=Screen: Eastwood 'Gauntlet'|date=December 22, 1977|work=The New York Times}} and Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas stated that Locke "has not received such a rich opportunity since her Academy Award-nominated debut";{{cite news|first=Kevin|last=Thomas|title='The Gauntlet' Lives Up to Its Title|work=Los Angeles Times|date=December 21, 1977|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37475307}} in contrast, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune said, "she's wasted here"Siskel, Gene (December 22, 1977). [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37475174 "Lots of bullets fly, but 'Gauntlet' is full of blanks"]. Chicago Tribune. and TV Guide felt that "Locke is simply repulsive."{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/the-gauntlet/review/124217|title=The Gauntlet – Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings|publisher=TV Guide|archive-date=May 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529171012/https://www.tvguide.com/movies/the-gauntlet/review/124217/}}

Over the course of their decade-and-a-half-long personal relationship, Locke did not work in any capacity on any theatrical motion picture other than with Eastwood except for 1977's experimental horror Western The Shadow of Chikara.Puig, Claudia (May 18, 1989). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/374397328 "Sandra Locke bitter, shocked about split with Eastwood"]. Hartford Courant. Co-starring Joe Don Baker, The Shadow of Chikara is noted for being the first film to be shot on the Buffalo National River.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/945105104|title=Bloody warfare, mining renewed on Buffalo River|work=The Mountain Echo|date=November 4, 1976}} Eastwood accompanied Locke on the shoot and spent his days touring the countryside and fishing while she filmed. The home-invasion potboiler Death Game (1977), though released after they became an item, was actually shot in 1974.Anderson, George (October 21, 1974). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/88525430 "Local Angle"]. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Clint wanted me to work only with him," said Locke. "He didn't like the idea of me being away from him."Errico, Marcus (September 11, 1996). [http://www.eonline.com/news/33559/eastwood-s-ex-lover-says-he-torpedoed-her-career "Eastwood's Ex-Lover Says He Torpedoed Her Career"]. E! News.

File:Eastwood Locke The Gauntlet 1977.jpg

In 1978, Locke and Eastwood appeared with an orangutan named Manis in that year's fourth-highest grossing film, Every Which Way but Loose.{{cite web|url=https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-1978|title=Top 1978 Movies at the Domestic Box Office|publisher=The Numbers}} She portrayed country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor in the adventure-comedy. Its 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can—for which Locke earned a six-figure salary plus a share of the profits—was nearly as successful.{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1980|title=1980 Yearly Box Office Results|publisher=Box Office Mojo}} Locke recorded several songs for the soundtracks of these films, and was whispered to be shopping for a record deal at the time. On the coattails of the franchise's success, she performed live in concert (one-off gigs) with The Everly Brothers, Eddie Rabbitt, and Tom Jones.Aaron Gold, Chicago Tribune, 2.1.79

During this period, Eastwood did a few movies that had no prominent female character for Locke to play. In the meantime, she accepted some television offers, co-starring with an all-female ensemble cast in Friendships, Secrets and Lies (1979) and portraying big band-era vocalist Rosemary Clooney in Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982).{{cite web|first=Dick|last=Kleiner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/537154129|title=Locke Steps Into Big Band Era Role|date=July 28, 1982|work=The Daily Advertiser}} While the biopic followed Clooney from ages 17 to 40, Locke was 38 when she played the role, and though hardly counting as a proper exception due to its nonlinear structure, this marked the only time she played a mother onscreen. As part of the promotional push behind Rosie, Variety{{'}}s Rick Du Brow wrote a flattering article in which he called Locke "one of the most-watched and popular motion picture actresses in the world."Du Brow, Rick (August 22, 1982). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/530822449 "ShowBiz"]. The Scrantonian.

File:Any Which Way You Can.jpg

Locke starred as a bitter heiress who joins a traveling Wild West show in Bronco Billy (1980), her only film with Eastwood not to reach blockbuster status, though it still ranked among the annual box-office top 25. The New York Times critic Janet Maslin noticed that "each of them works more delicately here than they have together previously"{{cite news|first=Janet|last=Maslin|title=Eastwood Stars and Directs 'Bronco Billy'|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/06/11/arts/eastwood-stars-and-directs-bronco-billy.html|date=June 11, 1980}} and the film's director of photography, David Worth, enthused how "being able to capture the true love between Clint and Sondra was very special."{{cite web|title=David Worth on working with the Legendary, Clint Eastwood|url=https://www.actionreloaded.com/david-worth-on-working-with-the-legendary-clint-eastwood|website=Action Reloaded|date=December 14, 2023|archive-date=December 14, 2023|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231214195513/https://www.actionreloaded.com/david-worth-on-working-with-the-legendary-clint-eastwood}} Locke cited Bronco Billy and The Outlaw Josey Wales as her favorites of the movies they made.{{cite web|url=http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2015/12/ridiculous-6-c-bar-reviewed-plus-josey.html|first=Henry C.|last=Parke|title=Outlaw Josey Wales – Forty Years Later|date=December 15, 2015|work=Henry's Western Round-up}} The couple's final collaboration as performers was Sudden Impact (1983), the highest-grossing film in the Dirty Harry franchise, in which Locke played an artist with her own code of vigilante justice.{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=dirtyharry.htm|title=Dirty Harry Movies|publisher=Box Office Mojo}} Her fee was a reported $350,000.

Locke never appeared in a wide release after Sudden Impact.{{cite web|url=https://www.the-numbers.com/person/86870401-Sondra-Locke#tab=acting|title=Sondra Locke – Box Office|publisher=The Numbers}} The film premiered five months short of her 40th birthday, declared by People as "the pre-Fonda age cutoff for actresses."Sue Reilly, People, 5.5.80 Despite Locke's past nomination for an Academy Award and repeat appearances in box-office hits, she had failed to achieve first-magnitude stardom or win the affection of the moviegoing public. By 1979, the year Eastwood and she made their fourth film together, accusations of nepotism arose.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/437415871|title=Husband-wife Teams Draw Cry 'Nepotism'|date=December 3, 1979|work=Citizens' Voice}} Cultural critic Joe Queenan, writing for Mail & Guardian, would express particular contempt for her in a 2010 editorial about Eastwood's career, believing that "his worst movies, without question, are the ones he made with Sondra Locke, who briefly played Linda McCartney to Eastwood's Sir Paul."{{cite web|title=Clint Eastwood: Man with no equal|first=Joe|last=Queenan|work=Mail & Guardian|date=April 30, 2010|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2010-04-30-clint-eastwood-man-with-no-equal/}} In late 1983, Locke announced plans to develop and star in a movie about Marie Antoinette, but the project fell apart.Lou Lumenick, The North Jersey Record, 12.30.83 Eastwood then directed Locke in a 1985 Amazing Stories episode entitled "Vanessa in the Garden", with Harvey Keitel.

Locke made her feature directorial debut with Ratboy (1986), a parable about a youth who is part rat and part human, produced by Eastwood's company Malpaso.{{cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1985/09/25/locke-wearing-two-caps-for-ratboy|title=Locke wearing two caps for 'Ratboy'|date=September 25, 1985|work=Orlando Sentinel}} When asked why she had been absent from her longtime beau's recent star vehicles, Locke replied simply, "I wasn't right for the roles."Mann, Roderick (March 23, 1986). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/401762853 "Locke Turns To 'Ratboy' To Escape Clint's Maze"]. Los Angeles Times.{{efn|Locke's autobiography provides a convoluted recollection of the casting process for City Heat (1984). Blake Edwards was originally slated to direct the film, and Edwards supposedly promised Locke one of the two female leads at a stage in development when Burt Reynolds had signed on, but the role of the other leading man was yet to be filled. Locke asserted that Edwards was merely using her to lure in her superstar boyfriend—who had seen the script and turned it down—because once Eastwood came on board, Edwards stopped talking to Locke and cast Madeleine Kahn in the role she had been eyeing. Edwards ultimately withdrew and was replaced by Richard Benjamin. Nevertheless, Eastwood disappointed Locke by not using his clout to get her in the movie.}} Ratboy had very limited distribution in the United States, where it was a critical and financial flop, but was well received in Europe, with French newspaper Le Parisien calling it the highlight of the Deauville Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/405096157|title=Locke glides into directing with 'Ratboy'|first=Patricia|last=Lyons|date=September 21, 1986|work=Wisconsin State Journal}} Locke, who also appeared in the lead role alongside Sharon Baird as the title character, was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. Amidst this setback, Locke conceded that plum acting offers had dried up,Behar, Henri (December 19, 1986). [https://www.proquest.com/docview/386336676 "Getting a Locke on Hollywood: When roles dried up, she started to direct"]. The Globe and Mail. though she never backed down from the ruse she had begun in 1967, masquerading ceaselessly about being younger.{{cite web|last=White|first=Adam|date=May 26, 2024|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/sondra-locke-clint-eastwood-b2550936.html|title=Sondra Locke, Clint Eastwood and the tragic disappearance of a Hollywood trailblazer|work=The Independent}}

Locke's second foray behind the camera was Impulse (1990), starring Theresa Russell as a police officer on the vice squad who goes undercover as a prostitute. Siskel & Ebert gave the film "two thumbs up".[https://www.listal.com/list/siskel-ebert-1990-ratings "Siskel and Ebert 1990 Ratings"]. Listal.com. In a subsequent interview with Siskel, Locke said she was not eager to act again. "If you love the craft of filmmaking as much as I do, it's hard to go back to acting after you've tasted the high of directing."

Immediately following the completion of Impulse, two of its co-stars, Jeff Fahey and George Dzundza, were hired by Locke's now ex-boyfriend Eastwood to appear in White Hunter Black Heart, a move which raised eyebrows among the film community.

{{blockquote|It's true: I went from a picture with Sondra to one with Clint. A lot of people ask about that ... I go out of my way not to be involved in other people's situations. Clint and Sondra were very professional. No one ever put me in the middle of anything. All I can say is that they are two very individual, professional filmmakers.|source=Jeff FaheyBob Thomas, Staten Island Advance, 9.27.90}}

After a long interruption in her career due to legal difficulties and health issues, Locke directed the made-for-television film Death in Small Doses (1995), based on a true story, and the independent feature Trading Favors (1997), starring Rosanna Arquette.

File:One of the last photographs of Sondra Locke.jpg

In 1997, Locke's autobiography The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey was published by William Morrow and Company. In it, she called Eastwood "a completely evil, manipulating, lying excuse for a man." Eastwood's lawyers sent a warning letter to the publisher, and although no slander charges arose, Entertainment Tonight canceled a scheduled interview with Locke.Waxman, Sharon (November 19, 1997). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/11/20/make-her-day/c88a1970-c896-48ba-b321-a63541d437b5 "Make Her Day"]. The Washington Post. She was also bumped from The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in her words, "shut out of most venues to promote the book, in particular the networks."{{cite web|url=https://thewandrinstar.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/exclusive-interview-with-sondra-locke-magic-in-films-and-the-real-world-en|title=Exclusive Interview with Sondra Locke: Magic in films and the real world|first=David|last=Furtado|date=October 19, 2013|work=Wand'rin' Star}} The book received a supportive rave review from New York Daily News writer Liz Smith,{{cite web|first=Liz|last=Smith|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/172650857|title=Struggling Locke strikes back at Eastwood|date=October 22, 1997|work=The Baltimore Sun}} while Entertainment Weekly{{'}}s Dana Kennedy dismissed the book as a "peculiar, not terribly consequential, life story."{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1997/10/31/book-review-good-bad-and-very-ugly|first=Dana|last=Kennedy|title=Book Review: 'The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly'|date=October 31, 1997|magazine=Entertainment Weekly}}

Locke told a Portuguese website that she had been informed that Entertainment Weekly originally planned to publish a positive review, but for reasons unclear, it was pulled and a negative review appeared instead. The Advocate, a monthly LGBT-interest magazine, was set to do a big article on Locke's book; suddenly and uncharacteristically, Eastwood gave The Advocate an interview, and they decided not to run the piece. She reflected in 2012: "Clint has said so many bad things about me to the media since we split up, and he has so much more access and power to do that. He's said things that were hurtful to my character and hurtful to me professionally."L'album secret de Clint Eastwood (2012, dir. Pierre Maraval). Chérie 25. Locke was nonetheless grateful to have a platform at all, stating: "It was a miracle that a major publisher took it."

The day after the book's release, Eastwood on Eastwood, a feature-length overview of her ex's career directed by Richard Schickel, premiered on TNT. John Hartl of The Seattle Times emphasized that "clips from the Locke/Eastwood movies have been edited so carefully that she doesn't appear to have been in any of them. It's like making a documentary about Humphrey Bogart and failing to mention Lauren Bacall."{{cite web|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19971102/2569774/eastwood-on-eastwood-where-is-sondra-locke|title='Eastwood on Eastwood': Where Is Sondra Locke?|first=John|last=Hartl|date=November 2, 1997|work=The Seattle Times}} Locke would once again be notably deleted from a montage commemorating Eastwood at the 2002 Maui Film Festival.[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.gossip.celebrities/c/9JtPVfSZSp4 "Clint wants no trace of Sondra Locke"]. Google Groups. June 18, 2002.

After 13 years away from acting, Locke re-emerged in 1999 to appear opposite Dennis Hopper in The Prophet's Game and Wings Hauser in Clean and Narrow, the latter shot in Texas. Both films went straight to video. About that time, she planned to direct "a two-guys-on-the-run film" called The Hard Easy, which did not eventuate.Edward Klein, Parade, 7.23.00 In 2014, Locke served as an executive producer on the Eli Roth film Knock Knock, starring Keanu Reeves.Kay, Jeremy (April 28, 2014). [http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/voltage-taking-knock-knock-to-cannes/5071058.article "Voltage taking Eli Roth's Knock Knock with Keanu Reeves to Cannes"]. ScreenDaily. She came out of retirement once more in 2016, shooting Alan Rudolph's indie Ray Meets Helen with Keith Carradine.Onofri, Adrienne (June 3, 2016). [https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Interview-Keith-Carradine-on-the-New-Encores-Cast-Album-of-PAINT-YOUR-WAGON-20160603 "BWW Interview: Keith Carradine on the New Encores! Cast Album of PAINT YOUR WAGON"]. BroadwayWorld. The film had only a brief run in three theaters in May 2018, less than six months before Locke died.Moore, Michael C. (April 30, 2018). [https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/entertainment/2018/04/30/indie-filmmakers-latest-premieres-la-ny-and-bainbridge-island/561222002 "Indie filmmaker's latest premieres in LA, NY ... and Bainbridge Island"]. Kitsap Sun. Despite increasing infirmities, she traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan a few days after her 74th birthday to attend the Cinetopia Film Festival, where Ray Meets Helen was received poorly.[https://www.yesnodetroit.com/2018/06/2018-cinetopia-film-festival-movie.html "2018 Cinetopia Film Festival movie reviews"]. Yes/No Detroit. June 7, 2018. Writer-director Alex O Eaton wanted Locke to play an eccentric Appalachian grandmother in Mountain Rest (2018), but she did not take the role, which ultimately went to the decade-younger Frances Conroy.Haruch, Steve (May 3, 2018). [https://www.nashvillescene.com/arts_culture/coverstory/reel-nashville-2018-talking-to-alex-o-eaton-about-her-debut-feature-i-mountain-rest/article_90feb26f-2d2e-5eb0-a81a-940400225d49.html "Reel Nashville 2018: Talking to Alex O Eaton About Her Debut Feature Mountain Rest"]. Nashville Scene.

File:Sondra Locke 1950s.jpg

In the 1960s during her tenure at WSM, Locke participated in the annual United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) telethons. One year, she toured Birmingham with folk singer Richard Law.{{Cite web|url=https://www.feenotes.com/database/artists/law-richard|website=Feenotes|title=Law, Richard}}

Following her then-partner's April 15, 1986, inauguration as the 30th mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, Locke became the de facto First Lady of Carmel.

In 1992, she served as honorary chairwoman for the "Starry, Starry Night" silent auction in Costa Mesa, California, to benefit Human Options, a shelter for victims of domestic violence. "Being a woman, I have great empathy for these women. I can understand how stranded they must feel, how hard it is to change one's life," Locke said.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/177363321 "For Human Options, the Light Is Bright"]. Los Angeles Times. December 16, 1992.

By the end of the 1970s, Locke became a follower of research scientist Durk Pearson's views on longevity. In the book Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach (1982), which promotes the theory that free radicals are a primary cause of aging and recommends antioxidant supplements to prevent the damage they supposedly do, Locke was written about as a pseudonymous celebrity (Miss Jones) using the principles.{{cite book|first1=Durk|last1=Pearson|first2=Sandy|last2=Shaw|title=Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach|year=1982|publisher=Warner Books|isbn=9780446512725|pages=757–761}}

Locke was an avid sportswoman. In 1979 and 1982, respectively, for instance, she competed in the John Denver Celebrity Pro-Am ski tournament at Heavenly Mountain Resort and the Senator's Cup at John Gardiner's Tennis Ranch.Star Newspaper Service, San Angelo Standard-Times, 2.18.79Betty Beale, The Anchorage Times, 1.31.82

Throughout her career, Locke appeared on several magazine covers including Club International, Family Weekly and People. Australian rock band The Sports named their 1981 album Sondra in her honor.Creswell, Toby (September 1997). [https://lovetown.net/articles/97juice.html "The Good Sport"]. Juice. She became a significant subject of widespread media interest while dating Clint Eastwood, and they were dubbed a "golden couple" by Vanity Fair.Sales, Nancy Jo (May 27, 2022). [https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/05/before-johnny-depp-and-amber-heard-sondra-locke-and-clint-eastwoods-harrowing-court-battle "Before Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Sondra Locke and Clint Eastwood’s Harrowing Court Battle Dominated the Tabloids"]. Vanity Fair. Known for her wiles and feminine prowess, Locke possessed a certain mystique that left a lasting impression on audiences of the opposite sex. About her appeal, photographer Rick McGinnis said: "She made every male around her default to a courtly version of themselves, keeping their voice down, their manners in check, and their eagerness to see that she was comfortable at the foremost."[https://www.tumblr.com/thatrickmcginnis/779147865856573440/sondra-locke-toronto-1990 SONDRA LOCKE Toronto 1990]

File:Sondra Locke with husband Gordon Anderson.jpg in July 1968]]

On September 25, 1967, Locke married sculptor Gordon Leigh Anderson{{efn|Gordon Anderson went by the stage names 'C.B. Anderson'{{cite news|title='All Pure Pleasure,' Veteran Of Theater Flight Reports|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=September 19, 1965|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/111984017}}{{cite news|title=Theater To Hold Tryouts|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=October 17, 1965|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112090155}}{{cite news|title='Menagerie' Opens|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=November 21, 1965|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/111833460}} and 'Gordon Addison'{{cite web|url=http://www.iobdb.com/CreditableEntity/26197|title=Gordon Addison|publisher=Internet Off-Broadway Database}}{{cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Gordon-Addison|title=Gordon Addison Broadway and Theatre Credits|publisher=BroadwayWorld}}{{cite news|first=William|last=Glover|title=Sophisticates' World Explodes in New Play|work=Corpus Christi Times|date=June 21, 1966|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/758601891}} during a brief acting career before he married Locke. In 1969 it was announced that they would star in a film adaptation of Venable Herndon's play Until the Monkey Comes, which Anderson had done off-Broadway in 1966, but the project never came to fruition.Associated Press (December 21, 1969). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1189842945 "Ex-Local Man And Wife To Star In Film"]. The Jonesboro Sun.}} (born August 2, 1944, Batesville, Arkansas) at the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville,{{cite news|title=Hunting Sondra|work=The Tennessean|date=November 2, 1975|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112093927}} one week after The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter commenced principal photography. Dr. Walter Rowe Courtenay presided over the ceremony. They remained married for 51 years until her death in 2018.{{efn|For a long time it was falsely presumed that Locke and Anderson had divorced.Hank Grant, San Francisco Examiner, 3.18.79Vernon Scott, Sun-Sentinel, 10.24.86Lloyd Shearer, The Boston Globe, 8.5.84}}

Locke had known Anderson since at least the late 1950s; accounts as to when they met vary by as much as four years.{{efn|In magazine interviews, Locke and Anderson would variously claim to have met when they were 10, 11 or 12,Daniel Chapman, Look, 4.2.68 while Locke's memoir states that they met in high school. Anderson, like his late wife, always subtracted several years off his age, thus contributing to the plethora of discrepancies.}} In 1968, as Locke was flooded with script offers amid Oscar buzz for Heart, Anderson and she left Tennessee and moved into a condo at The Andalusia in West Hollywood.Franklin, Rebecca (August 4, 1968). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1149021211 "Sondra 'arresting' in old lace curtain at film premiere"]. The Birmingham News.

According to a 1989 affidavit, the marriage was "tantamount to sister and brother" and they never consummated it.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/546484379 "Live-in lover married to someone else"]. The Muscatine Journal. May 9, 1989. Anderson was gay.Hiscock, John (September 13, 1996). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/486151781 "Eastwood's lover remained married to gay husband"]. Calgary Herald.{{cite news|last=Bradshaw|first=Peter|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/14/sondra-locke-a-charismatic-performer-defined-by-a-toxic-relationship-with-clint-eastwood|title=Sondra Locke: a charismatic performer defined by a toxic relationship with Clint Eastwood|work=The Guardian|date=December 14, 2018}}{{cite web|title=Companions for Sondra Locke|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/115332%7C141343/sondra-locke#family-companions}} Locke, testifying under oath to a jury, characterized her husband as being "more like a sister to me" and explained, "it's funny the sort of cultural changes, but in those days males and females never lived together unless they were married." According to her death certificate, the two were residing at the same address when she died, and he was the person who registered her death.{{cite news|first=Andrew|last=Dalton|title=Oscar-nominated actress Sondra Locke dies at 74|date=December 13, 2018|url=https://apnews.com/5faad1c691354c2bb57dbcba4f849f65|publisher=Associated Press}}

Anderson is a central presence in Locke's autobiography, but she does not elaborate on her reasons for marrying him beyond the following passage:

{{blockquote|However conventional or unconventional our marriage might turn out to be honestly did not concern me that much. I was very young,{{efn|Actually, Locke was three years past the median age of first marriages for women in that era.National Center for Family & Marriage Research To obscure this—and accommodate her revisionist narrative—she often peddled the fallacy of having gotten married "right out of high school," or as one ill-informed AP reporter put it, "during [her] childhood." Locke also was older than her husband Anderson, though some profiles of the actress misstate that he was the elder spouse.Miller, Edwin (April 1968). "A Searching Kind of Person". Seventeen. Vol. 27, no. 4. As a side effect of their changing age claims, dates erroneously attributed to the Andersons' wedding have ranged from as early as 1961[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/936041301 "Clint – so macho, so remote"]. Manchester Evening News. April 29, 1989. to as late as the early 1970s.O'Neill, Ann W. (September 29, 1996). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-29-mn-50142-story.html "Locke Feels Vindicated After Lawsuit"]. Los Angeles Times.}} but I had come to feel that, for me, sex was the least important element in a relationship and the one thing that time had proven to me was that my love for Gordon came from such a deeply connected place that it transcended everything else.}}

File:Gondola 1973.jpg (center), seen here next to Norman Lloyd in 1973's Gondola]]

Given that Locke waited decades to confirm that her marriage was platonic, most of her actual romantic attachments went unpublicized. In the mid-1960s, she dated her supervisor at WSM-TV's advertising department, Brad Crandall.{{cite magazine|date=April 8, 1967|title=Videotapers' Syndication $$ Whopper for Nashville|magazine=Billboard|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=79|issue=14|page=40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DygEAAAAMBAJ}}{{cite web|url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6wj5nsg|title=Locke, Sondra, 1944-2018|publisher=SNAC}} She had started as secretary to Tom Griscom in local sales for WSM Radio.The Nashville Tennessean, 1.25.64 According to co-worker Alan Nelson, fellow staff members perceived Locke's promotion as an act of nepotism.{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/nelsonperson/posts/10156861642964420|title=Alan Nelson|publisher=Facebook|date=December 13, 2018}}

George Crook, a cameraman for WSM, squired Locke to Nashville society events such as the 1965 hunt ball.{{cite news|title=Hunt Ball To Climax Weekend|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=May 7, 1965|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/111821856}}{{cite news|title=Federation Dance Tonight|work=The Nashville Tennessean|date=December 15, 1965|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/112130980}} He later got into local politics and was elected mayor of Belle Meade in 2000.{{cite news|first=Ken|last=Whitehouse|title=Ex-Belle Meade mayor passes away|publisher=NashvillePost.com|date=November 1, 2012|url=https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/article/20466932/exbelle-meade-mayor-passes-away}} Another early boyfriend, personal injury attorney Gary Gober,{{cite web|url=https://profiles.superlawyers.com/tennessee/nashville/lawyer/gary-r-gober/2f7e28ce-5219-410f-a077-6eed9aa3776f.html|title=Gary R. Gober Attorney Profile|publisher=SuperLawyers.com|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202429/https://profiles.superlawyers.com/tennessee/nashville/lawyer/gary-r-gober/2f7e28ce-5219-410f-a077-6eed9aa3776f.html}} starred with Locke in Circle Players' productions while attending Vanderbilt University Law School. Locke also dated sportscaster Larry Munson prior to marrying Anderson.{{cite tweet|user=BTC_Playboy|number=1797626065906696382|title=Speaking of stories. Larry Munson had some about Clint Eastwoods former girlfriend Sondra Locke working in Nashville media back in the day.}}

During her marriage, Locke was rumored to have been linked amorously to co-stars Robert Fields (Cover Me Babe), Bruce Davison (Willard), Paul Sand (The Second Coming of Suzanne), and Bo Hopkins (Gondola), as well as producer Hawk Koch, real-estate agent Herb Goldfarb, and John F. Kennedy's nephew Robert Shriver.Bruce Davison, DVD audio commentary, 2017, Shout! FactoryLloyd Shearer, St. Petersburg Times, 10.15.89{{efn|Locke and Hopkins appeared as a couple on the game show Tattletales when Locke was still talking up her marriage in the press.{{YouTube|yzNifrXdNEQ}} Incredulously, the conflicting gestures attracted no news commentary.}} For a while in the early 1970s, she shared a liaison with married actor David Soul after they played siblings in an episode of Cannon.Haber, Joyce (November 8, 1972). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/385663511 "Locke, Soul Set for Cannon Roles"]. Los Angeles Times.

Locke referred to these intervals as "casually exploring for a romantic relationship," noting that she had not fallen in love with any of the men. "Love ... was not something to search out actively; it finds you, I believed."

{{See also|Personal life of Clint Eastwood}}

File:Eastwood Locke Josey Wales 1975.jpg, 1975]]

Locke and actor/director Clint Eastwood entered a domestic partnership in October 1975. She first met Eastwood in 1972, when she unsuccessfully lobbied for the title role in his film Breezy (1973);{{cite book|last=O'Brien|first=Daniel|title=Clint Eastwood: Film-Maker|publisher=B. T. Batsford|year=1996|isbn=9780713478396|location=London}} they became involved upon arrival at the shooting location of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) in Page, Arizona. "It was just an immediate attraction between the two of us," Locke recalled in a 2012 documentary. She further revealed that they made love on their first date. Locke had simultaneously been wooed by screenwriter Philip Kaufman, but chose Eastwood over him.{{efn|Philip Kaufman started to direct Josey, but was fired at Eastwood's command on October 24, 1975, three weeks into filming.{{cite news|date=July 7, 1975|title=Clint Eastwood gets top role in outlaw film|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/27294521|work=Greeley Daily Tribune}} Although Eastwood had conquered Locke within 48 hours of her arrival on set, initially she had declined his advances, having already said yes to a date with Kaufman at the costume fitting. According to biographer Patrick McGilligan, Eastwood begrudged the fact that a younger man had beaten him to the punch and therefore felt inclined to assert his dominance by getting rid of Kaufman. The love triangle resulted in the Director's Guild passing new legislation, known as the "Eastwood Rule", which prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then becoming the director himself.[http://www.hollywoodlexicon.com/eastwoodrule.html Eastwood Rule - Hollywood Lexicon]}} After wrapping the film in December 1975, the couple shuttled between Eastwood's houses in Carmel and L.A.'s Sherman Oaks neighborhood, as well as rented homes in San Francisco and its elite suburb Tiburon. They eventually settled at 846 Stradella Road in Bel-Air, which Eastwood still owned at the time of Locke's death.[https://www.alamy.com/los-angeles-california-usa-14th-february-2021-a-general-view-of-atmosphere-of-actordirector-clint-eastwoods-homehouse-on-february-14-2021-in-bel-air-los-angeles-california-usa-photo-by-barry-kingalamy-stock-photo-image404719605.html "A general view of atmosphere of actor/director Clint Eastwood's home/house on February 14, 2021 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA"]. Alamy.

Eastwood was married during the early years of their relationship,Young, Josh (May 4, 1997). [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1259606.html "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"]. The Independent.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/62880176 "Eastwood won't wed girlfriend"]. The San Bernardino County Sun. September 8, 1979. before their affair became public in 1977, but his marriage was a nominal one just as Locke's was; he had sired at least two publicly unacknowledged children outside the marriage{{cite news|title=Clint's Bombshell Secret – He Has Illegitimate Daughter & Grandson|first1=Mike|last1=Kerrigan|first2=Brian|last2=Williams|date=July 11, 1989|work=National Enquirer}}{{cite episode|url=https://www.insideedition.com/clint-eastwood-appears-public-his-secret-daughter-first-time-49254|title=Clint Eastwood Appears in Public With His Secret Daughter for the First Time|series=Inside Edition|network=ABC|airdate=December 14, 2018}} and confided he had "never been in love before."Miller, Victoria (December 14, 2018). [https://www.inquisitr.com/sondra-locke-clint-eastwood-inside-their-tumultuous-hollywood-romance "Sondra Locke & Clint Eastwood: Inside Their Rocky Hollywood Romance"]. Inquisitr. Locke claimed Eastwood even sang "She Made Me Monogamous" to her.{{cite book|last=Radner|first=Hilary|title=The New Woman's Film: Femme-centric Movies for Smart Chicks|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781317286479|page=60}} Eastwood's wife Maggie Johnson lived on a colossal estate in Pebble Beach, where Eastwood rarely stayed, and Johnson and he were understood to have had an open marriage from the start.{{cite book|last=Eden|first=Barbara|title=Jeannie Out of the Bottle|year=2011|publisher=Crown Archetype|isbn=9780307886958|page=110}} "I never knew I could love somebody so much, and feel so peaceful about it at the same time," Locke said he told her. Conversely, the media's going myth was that Eastwood "left" or "walked out on" his wife for Locke as opposed to simply giving up the facade. Locke resented having her romance with Eastwood labeled merely as an affair and being made to feel sordid as if she had "stolen" a married man, but did not contemporaneously refute such notions.

File:Josey Wales publicity.jpg with Locke and Eastwood at a barbecue in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1976]]

Late in the 1970s, Locke became pregnant by Eastwood twice; she terminated both pregnancies.{{cite news|url=https://catholicsentinel.org/Content/News/Local/Article/Hollywood-love-affair-with-abortions-topic-of-The-Choices-We-Made-/2/35/7248|title=Hollywood love affair with abortions topic of 'The Choices We Made'|date=April 4, 1991|work=Catholic Sentinel}}{{efn|Locke explained in her autobiography: "Before I had met Clint my gynecologist had suggested and fitted for me an IUD. Because my sex life was not very active, he did not think I should be constantly taking birth control pills. Clint complained of the IUD{{spaced ndash}}it was uncomfortable for him, he said. And he too was not in favor of birth control pills, so he suggested a special clinic at Cedars Hospital where they taught a 'natural' method of birth control. It was the same 'rhythm' system that historically has been used to determine the fertile days for those who are attempting to achieve pregnancy. Of course, it could be used for the opposite results as well. Not only was I taught their method but I was constantly monitored with regular pregnancy checks. The whole process was awkward and entailed taking my temperature every morning and marking the calendar, etc. It was demanding and ultimately it had failed twice."}} "I'd feel sorry for any child that had me for a mother," she told syndicated columnist Dick Kleiner in 1969.The Times and Democrat, July 29, 1969, [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/344035192 p. 9] In 1979, at the age of 35, Locke underwent a tubal ligation at UCLA Medical Center, citing Eastwood's adamancy that parenthood would not fit into their lifestyle.{{efn|According to the National Library of Medicine, the median age for a woman getting tubal ligation in America is 33.{{cite journal|title=Simple and relative frequencies of the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients who underwent videolaparoscopic tubal ligation|journal=Sao Paulo Medical Journal|date=2014|volume=132|issue=6|pages=321–331|pmc=10496775|url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10496775/table/t01|last1=Dias|first1=D. S.|last2=Dias|first2=R.|last3=Nahás-Neto|first3=J.|last4=Nahás|first4=E. A.|last5=Leite|first5=N. J.|last6=Bueloni-Dias|first6=F. N.|last7=Modotti|first7=W. P.|doi=10.1590/1516-3180-2014-1326687|pmid=25351752}}}} When this became public knowledge a decade after the fact, Eastwood issued a statement:

{{blockquote|I adamantly deny and deeply resent the accusation that either one of those abortions or the tubal ligation were done at my demand, request or even suggestion. As to the abortions, I told Locke that whether to have children or terminate her pregnancies was a decision entirely hers. Particularly with regard to the tubal ligation, I encouraged Locke to make her own decision after she had consulted with a physician about the appropriateness of and the necessity for that surgical procedure.{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Schickel|title=Clint Eastwood: A Biography|year=1996|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=9780679429746}}}}

Locke professed mixed feelings on the matter, stating in one chapter of her autobiography that she was grateful she had not had Eastwood's children, while writing in another, "I couldn't help but think that that baby, with both Clint's and my best qualities, would be extraordinary." Eastwood claimed Locke told him on multiple occasions that she never wanted to have children.

Eastwood and Locke were still cohabiting, when in the latter half of the 1980s, he secretly fathered another woman's two children—a fact that did not come to light for almost 20 years.{{cite news|first=Jeremy|last=Fuster|title=Sondra Locke, Oscar-Nominated Actress and Longtime Clint Eastwood Partner, Dies at 74|date=December 13, 2018|website=TheWrap|url=https://www.thewrap.com/sondra-locke-oscar-nominated-actress-dies-74}}Strout, Paige (September 11, 2024). [https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/celebrity-dads-who-welcomed-kids-outside-of-their-relationships "Celebrity Dads Who Welcomed Kids Outside of Their Relationships"]. Us Weekly.{{efn|Although the existence of Eastwood's offspring by Jacelyn Reeves was reported in tabloids such as Star and in Locke's autobiography during the 1990s, it continued to be ignored by reputable media sources until about 2006.{{cite news|title=Clint Eastwood's Secret 4-Year Love Comes Out of Hiding|first1=Bob|last1=Smith|first2=Stephen|last2=Viens|date=February 27, 1990|work=Star}}The Reeves children are not included in the count, for instance, at {{cite news|url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20143212,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907031305/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20143212,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 7, 2015|title=Passages|work=People|first=Jeremy|last=Helligar|date=January 13, 1997|quote=News anchor Dina Ruiz, 31, more than made husband Clint Eastwood's day when she gave birth to the couple's first child, an 8-lb. 4-oz. girl named Morgan, on Dec. 12 in Los Angeles. This is the 66-year-old actor-director's fifth child....}} As late as 2003, for instance, A&E produced a two-hour, authorized Biography episode on Eastwood, which gave the false impression he had a total of only four children,Dallas Morning News, 10.4.03 when he in fact has at least eight.}} Despite her affirmed ignorance, Locke sensed growing tension in the relationship around 1985, recollecting, "although I definitely still loved Clint, I didn't much like him, nor did I much trust him anymore." In retrospect, she gathered, "either he changed from white to black, or I had been living with somebody I didn't even know."

File:Reagan with Locke and Eastwood.jpg with Locke and Eastwood in the Oval Office, 1987]]

According to court testimony, Locke confronted Eastwood over his passive-aggressive behavior on December 29, 1988,{{efn|Eastwood's passive-aggressive gestures toward Locke included inviting Jane Brolin—a woman he was having an affair with—to join Locke and himself on their annual ski trip to Sun Valley. The two women got into a row just before New Year's Eve, Locke recalling, "I wanted to hit her, to pull every hair out of her head."}} eliciting estrangement between the couple. Locke testified that after Eastwood and she made their final joint appearance on January 6 at the American Cinema Awards, they spent exactly two nights together, without intimate contact. Eastwood then effectively vacated their Bel-Air mansion, sleeping in the adjacent caretakers' quarters or at his apartment in Burbank. Locke thought Eastwood was acting out "because he wasn't number one at the box-office anymore, or because he was facing his mortality." (Eastwood was 58 at the time.) As far as she was concerned, their relationship was still salvageable.{{cite news|url=https://50plusworld.com/celebrating-seniors-clint-eastwood-turns-85-politics-and-passion-4-of-5|title=Celebrating Seniors – Clint Eastwood Turns 85 – Politics and Passion|first=Anita|last=Hamilton|publisher=50+ World|date=June 3, 2015}} At any rate, she called divorce lawyer Norman Oberstein to explore her options should the separation be permanent. Unbeknownst to Locke, Eastwood eavesdropped on those consultations by means of a wiretap that he placed on their home phone in early March.

On the morning of April 3 or 4, Eastwood complained in the kitchen that Locke was "sitting on [his] only real estate in Los Angeles" and bolted. Locke later defensively declared: "Clint is not good at direct communication. He really is a man of few words. You might just as well have a direct confrontation with a wall."{{cite news|url=https://www.questia.com/article/1G1-61171112/clint-v-sondra-for-a-fistful-of-dollars-magnum-farce|title=Clint v Sondra for a Fistful of Dollars|first=Allan|last=Hall|work=Daily Record|date=September 12, 1996}} On April 10, 1989, Malpaso employees changed the locks on the family residence, moved Locke's possessions into storage, and posted security guards at the front gate per Eastwood's order. Locke was shooting Impulse at the time of the lockout.[http://people.com/archive/cover-story-after-the-loving-counting-the-cost-vol-32-no-6 "When Harry Left Sondra"]. People. August 7, 1989. She filed a $70 million palimony suit on April 26, charging Eastwood with breach of contract, emotional distress, forcible entry, and possession of stolen goods.Wright, Jeanne (June 2, 1989). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/71311911 "Eastwood's private life stranger than fiction"]. The San Bernardino County Sun. Forced abortions and compulsory sterilization were also cited, though Locke later recategorized those operations as a "mutual decision".{{efn|Locke's initial account provoked backlash from her peers. Joan Collins, who is openly postabortive herself, told the press, "apart from being married already, she didn't have to stay with Clint. She wasn't chained to the bedpost."Robin Adams Sloan, Democrat and Chronicle, 6.18.89}}

File:Eastwood Bird Cannes.jpg, Eastwood, Locke, and Forest Whitaker promoting Bird (1988) at the Cannes film festival]]

During their 14 years as husband and wife de facto, Locke and Eastwood had occupied seven homes and acquired four, including a retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the Rising River Ranch near Cassel, California.{{cite web|url=http://imn.stparchive.com/Archive/IMN/IMN11301978P01.php|title=Eastwood buys ranch|work=Inter Mountain News|date=November 30, 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229022851/http://imn.stparchive.com/Archive/IMN/IMN11301978P01.php|archive-date=December 29, 2019}}[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/102-Wedeln-Ln-Sun-Valley-ID-83353/112908082_zpid 102 Wedeln Ln, Sun Valley, ID 83353] Zillow Locke sought half of Eastwood's earnings and an equal division of property, requesting title to the house in Bel-Air and to the Gothic-style West Hollywood place Eastwood had leased to Gordon Anderson since 1982.{{cite web|first=Hank|last=Gallo|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/467901394|title=She Won't Be Locked Out|date=April 5, 1990|work=New York Daily News}} She also asked Judge Dana Senit Henry to bar Eastwood from the Bel-Air house "because I know him to have a terrible temper ... and he has frequently been abusive to me."

Locke battled Eastwood in court for 19 months; she developed breast cancer during proceedings, and said the treatments sapped her will to fight. In November 1990, the parties reached a private settlement wherein Eastwood set up a $1.5 million multiyear film development/directing pact for Locke at Warner Bros. in exchange for dropping the suit. She was awarded the West Hollywood property (valued at $2.2 million), $450,000 cash, and unspecified monthly support payments, as well.

The breakup affected Locke's social life. Her closest friends had been the wives of Eastwood's colleagues: Maria Shriver, Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, and Lili Fini Zanuck, all 10–11 years younger than Locke and married to film industry heavyweights Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bud Yorkin, and Richard D. Zanuck, respectively. Locke's friendships with those women gradually faded as their husbands ghosted her. The female comrades Locke credited with loyalty and support were those she had known before Eastwood—art director Elayne Barbara Ceder, whom she met on The Second Coming of Suzanne, and realtor Denise Fraker, wife of A Reflection of Fear director William A. Fraker.

Between 1990 and 1993, Warner Bros. rejected more than 30 scripts that Locke pitched to the studio—including those for Junior (1994) and Addicted to Love (1997)—and refused to let her direct any of their in-house projects.{{cite web|first=Josh|last=Young|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/916656755|title=Life after Clint hasn't been easy for Sondra Locke|date=March 26, 1995|work=The Idaho Statesman}}{{cite magazine|first=Yohana|last=Desta|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/sondra-locke-obit|title=The Triumph and Tragedy of Sondra Locke|date=December 14, 2018|magazine=Vanity Fair}}Ryfle, Steve (September 12, 1996). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/159244412 "Eastwood Undermined Locke's Directing Career, Attorney Says"]. Los Angeles Times. When her contract had yielded no directing assignments three years in, Locke became convinced the deal was a sham.Smith, Liz (April 30, 1994). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/133127248 "Locke cries foul at producing deal"]. The Palm Beach Post. She began to seek corroboration, and came across incriminating printouts from WB's bookkeeping records. Locke contended that the money WB pretended they were paying her came from Eastwood's pocket and was laundered through the operating budget of Unforgiven (1992).Wilmington, Michael (August 8, 2002). [https://www.chicagotribune.com/2002/08/08/the-good-the-bad-and-the-controversy-2 "The good, the bad and the controversy"]. Chicago Tribune. In June 1995, she sued him again, for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/167185240|title=Eastwood is target of another Locke Lawsuit|date=June 7, 1995|work=Chicago Tribune}}{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/817795263|title=Locke says behind-the-scenes deal humiliated her|date=September 13, 1996|work=The Columbian}} According to Locke's attorney Peggy Garrity, Eastwood committed "the ultimate betrayal" by arranging the "bogus" deal as a way to keep her out of work.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/340206155 "Eastwood, Locke settle privately; jury sent home"]. The Tampa Tribune. September 25, 1996. Garrity added that Eastwood had held out the allegedly counterfeit deal "like a dangled carrot" to persuade Locke to drop the earlier palimony suit. Locke said that she "was stunned and outraged at the way I had been tricked and cheated a second time."

The case went to trial in September 1996. One juror divulged that the panel sided with Locke by a 10-to-2 vote (nine votes are needed for a verdict) and were only debating the amount.Errico, Marcus (September 24, 1996). [http://www.eonline.com/news/33601/clint-eastwood-pays-off-sondra-locke "Clint Eastwood Pays Off Sondra Locke"]. E! News. Before any court decision could be made, Locke settled the case with Eastwood for an undisclosed amount of money. The outcome, Locke said, sent a "loud and clear" message to Hollywood, "that people cannot get away with whatever they want to just because they're powerful." According to Locke, "in this business, people get so accustomed to being abused, they just accept the abuse and say, 'Well, that's just the way it is.' Well, it isn't."

For his part, Eastwood waved the lawsuit off as a "dime-novel plot," continuing, "it's all about money ... about getting something for nothing."{{cite web|first1=Ann W.|last1=O'Neill|first2=Efrain Jr.|last2=Hernandez|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-25-mn-47374-story.html|title=Eastwood Settles Fraud Suit With Ex-Lover Locke|date=September 25, 1996|work=Los Angeles Times}} He accused Locke of using her cancer to gain the jury's sympathy,Bernard Weinraub, Playboy, March 1997 and cryptically suggested that karma would catch up with her.Anne Thompson, The Sunday Telegraph, 4.11.99

Locke brought a separate action against Warner Bros. for allegedly conspiring with Eastwood to sabotage her directorial career.{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/EASTWOOD'S+EX+SETTLES+WITH+WARNER+BROS-a083612488|author=Huffaker, Donna|title=Eastwood's ex settles with Warner Bros.|work=Los Angeles Daily News|date=May 25, 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211043/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/EASTWOOD'S+EX+SETTLES+WITH+WARNER+BROS-a083612488|archive-date=March 3, 2016}} As had happened with the previous lawsuit, this ended in an out-of-court settlement, in May 1999.{{cite web|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/38212/vindication-for-clint-eastwood-s-ex-lover|title=Vindication for Clint Eastwood's Ex-Lover|publisher=E! News|first=Joal|last=Ryan|date=May 25, 1999}}[http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/News/9905/26/showbuzz/#story4 "Showbuzz"]. CNN. May 26, 1999. By then, Locke had fired Garrity and hired Neil Papiano to represent her.O'Neill, Ann W. (June 6, 1999). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jun-06-me-44776-story.html "This Time, Judge Judy's a Defendant"]. Los Angeles Times.{{efn|In June 1999, Garrity sued Locke to get paid for persuading the appellate court to reinstate Locke v. Warner Bros. Inc. WB had requested summary judgement after the original March 1994 filing, which the court granted, but in August 1997, the decision was reversed. Garrity put 2,500 hours of work into the case, only to be ditched by Locke and replaced by Papiano in May 1998. Garrity won her lawsuit, and remarked that the payment would not have cost Locke a dime more than what was already going to legal fees, since it would simply have come out of Papiano's one-third contingency fee.{{cite book|first=Peggy|last=Garrity|title=In the Game: The Highs and Lows of a Trailblazing Trial Lawyer|year=2016|publisher=She Writes Press|isbn=9781631521065}}}} The agreement with Warner Bros., Locke said, was "a happy ending."[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20128608,00.html "The Battle's Over for Eastwood's Ex"]. People. July 5, 1999. "I feel elated. This has been the best day in a long, long time," she told reporters on courthouse steps. The case is used in some modern law-school contract textbooks to illustrate the legal concept of good faith.{{cite book|editor1-first=Nathan|editor1-last=Crystal|editor2-first=Charles|editor2-last=Knapp|editor3-first=Harry|editor3-last=Prince|title=Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials|edition=6th|publisher=Aspen Publishing|location=New York City|date=2007|isbn=9780735598225|pages=470–80}}

A lifelong nonsmoker (save for a few film roles), Locke practiced Transcendental Meditation and worked out with weights, though she hated running.Interview with Leta Powell Drake. KOLN/KGIN-TV (Lincoln, NE). 1982.Mills, Bart (June 25, 1978). [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/385411978 "Sondra Locke: The cynic proves to be equal to Eastwood"]. Chicago Tribune.Chase, Chris (December 23, 1983). [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/23/movies/at-the-movies.html "Sondra Locke and her career as sidekick"].The New York Times. In September 1990, she confirmed reports that she had breast cancer.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/175862564 "Sick-bay report"]. The Philadelphia Inquirer. September 20, 1990. "Due to factors in my personal life, I have sustained two years of extreme and unnecessary stress, which my doctors tell me has been my enemy," Locke said at the time. She added that Eastwood never reached out to her after her diagnosis: "He doesn't care if I live or die."[https://www.amazon.com/Sondra-Locke-Clipping-Magazine-photo/dp/B00CBLD9FY "Sondra Locke Clipping Magazine photo orig 1pg 8x10 M7797 at Amazon's Entertainment Collectibles Store"]

Locke underwent a double mastectomy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, followed by chemotherapy. During treatment, she began dating Scott Cunneen (born September 10, 1961, Long Beach, California), an intern assigned to perform the postsurgical checkup.{{cite magazine|date=June 1991|title=Swingers and Roundabouts|magazine=Film Review|publisher=Orpheus Pub|page=27}}{{cite web|url=http://www.annonline.com/interviews/971111/biography.html|title=Biography: Sondra Locke|publisher=AnnOnline|archive-date=January 10, 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980110165523/http://www.annonline.com/interviews/971111/biography.html}} Unfazed by their 17-year age difference—and the fact Locke was only three years younger than his mother—they soon went public with the romance, dining at paparazzi hotspot Spago on one of their early dates in November 1990.[https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actress-sondra-locke-and-boyfriend-scott-cunneen-on-news-photo/156132068 "Actress Sondra Locke and boyfriend Scott Cunneen on November 10, 1990... News Photo"] – via Getty Images.{{cite web|url=https://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/mary_ann_forman_born_1941_2335322|title=Mary Ann Forman, Born 01/19/1941 in California|publisher=California Birth Index}}{{cite web|first=Alva|last=Yaffe|title=A Diagnosis and New Relationship|url=https://historybyday.com/pop-culture/sondra-locke-a-talented-actress-defined-by-her-relationship-with-clint-eastwood/24|website=History by Day|date=April 20, 2020}} Cunneen moved in with her in the spring of 1991. She called it a "real, supportive, and equal relationship."

In February 2001, Locke purchased a six-bedroom gated mansion in the Hollywood Hills, where she resided for the remainder of her life.[http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/sondra-lockes-house "Sondra Locke's House"]. VirtualGlobetrotting. February 25, 2009. Built in 1925, the home's interior was redesigned to look like Locke's old house on Stradella Road. Cunneen and she eventually broke up, albeit without publicity, since she had faded from public view.{{cite book|first=Kirk|last=Henderson|title=Hollywood v. Beauty and the Synchronicity of the Six|year=2020|publisher=Austin Macauley Publishers|isbn=9781643781655}}{{efn|The exact year of this breakup is not known with certainty. The Notable Names Database, generally considered to be an unreliable source, cites 2001. Seeing as how the split was never formally announced, the timeframe aforesaid might be an approximation inferred from Locke's real-estate transactions, as L.A. Times newshound Ruth Ryon reported she offloaded one of her properties that year.Ryon, Ruth (December 22, 2001). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=itxOAAAAIBAJ&pg=4215%2C1112766 "Heading Out of the Hills"]. The Ledger. French historian Pierre Maraval's documentary L'album secret de Clint Eastwood (2012), partially filmed at Locke's last home, stated in the narration that she lived alone.}}

In 2004, Locke settled a personal injury lawsuit brought against her in Beverly Hills by one Mark Feigin, whom she had struck with a car the previous year.{{cite web|url=https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la12-feigin-mark-vs-anderson-sondra-lock-1429964|title=Feigin, Mark vs. Anderson, Sondra|publisher=UniCourt}}

In 2015, after a 25-year period of apparent remission, Locke's cancer returned and metastasized to her bones.{{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/oscar-nominee-sondra-locke-has-died.html|title=Sondra Locke, Girlfriend Turned Enemy of Clint Eastwood, Is Dead|first=Bethy|last=Squires|date=December 13, 2018|work=Vulture}}

Locke died at age 74 on November 3, 2018, at her Los Angeles home from cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancer.{{cite web|url=https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2018/12/sondra-locke-dead-clint-eastwood|title=Clint Eastwood's Longtime Partner Sondra Locke Dead At 74|last=Jacob|first=Mary|date=December 13, 2018|website=Radar Online|publisher=American Media, Inc.}} Her remains were cremated on November 9 at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary and the ashes were given to her widower, Gordon Anderson.{{efn|Major media outlets including Variety wrongly reported that Locke "was laid to rest" at Westwood rather than cremated.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2018/film/news/sondra-locke-dead-dies-heart-is-a-lonely-hunter-1203089402|title=Oscar Nominee Sondra Locke Dies at 74|last=McNary|first=Dave|date=December 14, 2018|website=Variety}}}} Locke bequeathed Anderson an estimated fortune of $20 million and seemed to have always supported him financially.

Locke's death was kept secret until December 13, when Radar Online broke the news the day before Eastwood's latest film The Mule (2018) opened in theaters nationwide, citing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The Associated Press said, "it is not clear why it took nearly six weeks to come to light." Anderson, according to the scant AP report, was unreachable, and a representative for Locke ignored People{{'}}s request for comment.Fernández, Alexia (December 13, 2018). [https://people.com/movies/actress-sondra-locke-dead-74 "Actress and Director Sondra Locke, Clint Eastwood's Former Girlfriend of 14 Years, Dies at 74"]. People. So hidden had basic facts been kept, that The New York Times noted 41 days after she died: "A list of survivors was not immediately [sic] available."Jacobs, Julia (December 14, 2018). "Sondra Locke, 74, Is Dead; Oscar-Nominated Actress". The New York Times. D6.

Locke's death received no television coverage except for a 15-second spot on ABC World News Tonight. Eastwood did not comment on the death, nor did any of Locke's other living exes, nor any of her friends or relatives.{{cite web|last=Grove|first=David|date=June 7, 2024|url=https://movieweb.com/what-happened-to-clint-eastwood-sondra-locke|title=What Happened to Clint Eastwood's Forgotten Leading Lady?|work=MovieWeb}} Co-stars such as Richard Dreyfuss, Cicely Tyson, Louie Anderson, Sally Kellerman, Stacy Keach, and Ted Neeley—all active on social media—were equally silent.{{cn|date=June 2025}} On the 91st Academy Awards telecast, broadcast nearly four months after Locke died, she was omitted from the "In Memoriam" segment.{{cite web|first=Carla|last=Baranauckas|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oscars-baffling-omissions-in-memoriam-segment_n_5c73da28e4b00eed0836f3e3|work=HuffPost|title=Oscars Viewers Notice Baffling Omissions From 'In Memoriam' Segment|date=February 25, 2019}} In absence of any explanation, some surmised that Locke must have requested the blackout in her final wishes, perhaps to keep her real age under wraps.

File:Locke HS Yearbook 2.jpg

File:Sondra Locke 1968 press photo.jpg

Locke is remembered as an early pioneer for women in Hollywood.{{cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/sondra-locke-remembered-as-early-pioneer-women-hollywood|title=Sondra Locke Remembered as 'Early Pioneer' for Women in Hollywood|first=Brian|last=Welk|date=December 14, 2018|website=TheWrap}} She was one of 11 female filmmakers in 1990, the year WB released her sophomore feature, Impulse. By the time of Trading Favors (1997), her fourth effort, still only eight percent of all films were made by women, per the Directors Guild of America.

Locke's influence as a feminist icon was duly acknowledged by the mainstream press. In 1989, Claudia Puig of the Los Angeles Times described her lawsuit against Clint Eastwood as a "precedent-setting legal case, as it raises the question of whether a woman, who is legally married to one man, can claim palimony rights from another." Childfree by choice—unusual for a person of her generation—Locke was among the first celebrities to publicly discuss her abortion experiences.[https://www.economist.com/international/2017/07/27/the-rise-of-childlessness "The rise of childlessness"]. The Economist. July 27, 2017. The avowal made Locke "a talking-point in America's sexual politics debate," according to The Guardian{{'}}s Peter Bradshaw. Locke's subsequent relationship with a doctor young enough to be her son added to her notoriety.[https://notoriouswmpod.com/episodes/2018/12/25/65-notorious-women-the-actor-and-the-revolutionary "The Actor And The Revolutionary!"]. Notorious Women. December 25, 2018.

Cinematographer David Worth credits Locke with his big break.Guarisco, Don (March 6, 2012). [http://schlockmania.com/david-worth-part-1 "Warrior of the Lost Drive-In: An Interview with David Worth Part 1"]. Schlockmania. She is admired by such actresses as Frances Fisher and Rosanna Arquette, who applauded the strength of her directorial accomplishments, however short-lived.Gonzalez, Sandra (December 14, 2018). [https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/entertainment/sondra-locke-dead/index.html "Sondra Locke, Oscar-nominated actress, has died"]. CNN.

During the last quarter of her life, Locke maintained she was blacklisted from the film industry as a result of her acrimonious split from Eastwood, while his career continued unscathed. Peggy Garrity, Locke's former counsel, recalled the courtroom drama in her book In the Game: The Highs and Lows of a Trailblazing Trial Lawyer (2016). Garrity revealed that Locke's 1999 confidential settlement from WB "was for many millions more than the settlement with Clint had been." Locke v. Warner Bros. Inc also catalyzed changes within the legal system. In a landmark decision,Fitzgerald, Mark (July 31, 1999). [https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-55534573/go-ahead-make-my-day-locke-vs-eastwood-case-leads "Locke vs. Eastwood Case Leads to Landmark Decision"]. Editor & Publisher. California's Supreme Court ruled that access to civil trials could no longer be closed to the public.{{cite web|url=https://www.rcfp.org/public-media-have-right-attend-civil-trials|title=Public, media have right to attend civil trials|date=August 9, 1999|publisher=Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press}}Dolan, Maura (May 7, 1999). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-07-mn-34779-story.html "Court Leaning Toward Access to Civil Trials"]. Los Angeles Times.

Numerous outlets faced pushback over their chosen headlines for Locke's obituary. Several major publications prefaced news of her death by tagging Eastwood's name atop the article, which drew criticism by some who deemed it a sexist epitaph, with fans online pointing out that Locke was an Oscar nominee prior to meeting Eastwood.{{cite web|url=https://www.themarysue.com/in-memory-of-sondra-locke-obituary|title=In Memory of Sondra Locke, Not Her Relationship|first=Kate|last=Gardner|date=December 14, 2018|work=The Mary Sue}}{{cite web|last=Paine|first=Hannah|title='She deserved better': Star Sondra Locke's obituary slammed online|publisher=News.com.au|date=December 15, 2018|url=https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/she-deserved-better-star-sondra-lockes-obituary-slammed-online/news-story/34a56d7ab7b7211fcd8a70b031d41c75}} Women's blog Jezebel criticized The Hollywood Reporter for ostensibly regarding Locke as a nonentity;{{cite web|url=https://jezebel.com/this-is-how-a-woman-gets-written-out-of-her-own-obituar-1831097072|title=This Is How a Woman Gets Written Out of Her Own Obituary|first=Hazel|last=Cills|date=December 14, 2018|website=Jezebel}} THR subsequently changed its headline. News organization TheWrap—whose editor, Sharon Waxman, reviewed Locke's memoir for The Washington Post in 1997—opined that her story "should stir resonance in this age of the #MeToo movement." In a tribute to the late actress, author Sarah Weinman wrote: "Sondra Locke, like Barbara Loden, deserves to be known for her work, not for the famous man she was disastrously involved with."

Among those voicing an unfavorable opinion of Locke was film scholar Rex Reed, who had interviewed her for a 1967 New York Times profile.{{cite web|first=Rex|last=Reed|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/10/archives/the-stars-fall-on-alabamaagain-stars-fall.html|work=The New York Times|title=The Stars Fall on Alabama--Again|date=December 10, 1967}} "[She] lied so much during her brief but colorful career," Reed wrote in an essay for Observer, "that when she lost her battle with cancer at age 74, I wondered if it was a publicity stunt."{{cite web|first=Rex|last=Reed|url=https://observer.com/2018/12/celebrity-deaths-obituaries-rex-reed-2018|work=Observer|title=In Memoriam: Rex Reed Says Goodbye to the Biggest Stars of 2018|date=December 29, 2018}}{{efn|Locke had been subjected to death rumors in the past, when she was commonly mistaken for actress Jill Ireland.Marks, Michele (May 1, 1993). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=01UzAAAAIBAJ&pg=4127%2C152800 "Locke Lives"]. Lawrence Journal-World.}}

Candid photographs of Locke and Eastwood in their heyday are on display at the Frazetta Art Museum in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, next to Frank Frazetta's exaggerated portrait of the couple that was used on the poster for The Gauntlet (1977). One film in which she appeared—The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)—has been preserved in the National Film Registry.

The end credits of Bad Therapy (2020) pay homage to her.

In 1971, fifth graders at Eastside Elementary in Locke's hometown of Shelbyville, Tennessee, 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's period drama Our Very Own (2005) takes place in Shelbyville in 1978 and concerns a group of teenagers who want to meet Locke when she returns to town for the local premiere of Every Which Way but Loose. Watson decided to do the movie after performing a standup routine about Locke and about how people in Shelbyville were obsessed with her.{{cite web|first=Brad|last=Schmitt|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/244453874|title=Say, is that C.J. Cregg in Shelbyville?|date=April 27, 2004|work=The Tennessean}} Locke attended one of those performances in 2004 at the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood. "The minute she heard the first reference to her or to her family, she threw up her arms: 'What the hell is this?{{'"}} Watson said. "By the end of the reading, she was doubled over."{{cite web|first=Brad|last=Schmitt|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/284184988|title=Hollywood stars to help Shelbyville native's film|date=June 27, 2004|work=The Jackson Sun}} Locke gave the script her blessing and accepted an invitation to be special guest at the film's premiere.{{cite web|first=Ken|last=Beck|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/276024093|title=Shelbyville gets its close-up|date=August 7, 2005|work=The Tennessean}} The movie was a "special gift" to Locke, according to Deborah Obenchain, another Eastside student who said she did not think Locke really understood her impact on the small town she once called home. "I think it meant just as much to her. … In our own way … we got to live out a little bit of our dreams by making the movie and meeting her."

• 1978, "I Seek The Night / Don't Say You Don't Love Me No More", Elektra Records: E46007
• 1980, "Too Loose", Warner Records: WB49674

{{Reflist|25em|group=lower-alpha}}

Sondra Locke, 1959.jpg|Sophomore basketball portrait, 1959

Sondra Locke senior portrait.jpg|Senior yearbook photo, 1962

Sondra Locke 1966.jpg|Modeling wardrobe by Bobbie Brooks, 1966

Sondra Locke 1967.jpg|From the front cover of The Nashville Tennessean Sunday Magazine, 1967

Clint & Sondra & Burt & Loni.jpg|At the City Heat premiere with Eastwood, Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson, 1984

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