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ACTRESS Sondra Locke, who had a long and tempestuous relationship with movie star Clint Eastwood, has died aged 74 after battling cancer.
She looked set for stardom after an Oscar nomination for her first film, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, in 1968.
However Sondra became more famous for her relationship with the Dirty Harry star than her career.
They were both married when they became involved while making The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1975.
During 14 years with Eastwood, she exclusively made films with him, including The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can, both featuring the orangutan Clyde.
Their relationship broke down when Eastwood fathered two love children.
She later claimed he had insisted she had two abortions. She sued him for “palimony” and got a €1.2million contract to create films for Warner Bros, but it did not accept any of her projects.
In 1995 she sued him for fraud alleging the deal was a trick and got £2million.
She also said she had been thrown out of her house by the man she thought was the love of her life. Sondra said the lawsuit “was never about money, it was my professional rights”.
She began directing, making 1986’s Ratboy. After a double mastectomy she began a relationship a surgeon 17 years her junior.
Westworld actress Evan Rachel Wood tweeted a tribute: “#Sondralocke directed me when I was 4 years old. She was fantastic.”
Sondra died in Los Angeles last month after a cardiac arrest stemming from breast and bone cancer. Her husband Gordon Anderson survives her.
■ Grammy winning singer Nancy Wilson has died in California aged 81.
ON WHY SHE SUED CLINT
It was all about my rights, not about money