Doreen Kern "casts" Clint Eastwood in his latest role: as model for a surprise sculpture in 1977. (Photo copyright: Doreen Kern)
By Spencer Lloyd Peet
In 1977, Clint Eastwood was cast as himself; not in
a Hollywood blockbuster movie but as a life-size portrait sculpture. Renowned sculptor, Doreen Kern, immortalised Eastwood
in bronze on the request of his then wife Maggie Johnson who asked for it to be
made as a surprise gift for the Hollywood superstar. During her stay at the Eastwood’s home, Kern
vigilantly studied Eastwood’s face and expressions making notes as he went
about his daily business. Eastwood
suspected nothing as the ladies chatted amongst themselves.
Kern first met Johnson, a former swim-wear model,
in 1974 when she came to London. Â Because
Johnson didn’t really know anybody in London, but a mutual friend of theirs, Connie
De Nave, who was in the music business working in New York at the time,
suggested the two ladies should get together.Â
“I spoke to Connie on the phone,†remembers Kern, “and she said ‘A
friend of mine, Maggie Eastwood, is coming to London and I think it would be
nice for you to meet up with her. You
know, Maggie Eastwood, Clint Eastwood’s wife.’ I hope it doesn’t sound
detrimental, but I really didn’t know who Clint Eastwood was back then. When I told my children they said, ‘Oh,
mother, what planet are you on?’ Anyway,â€
continues Kern, “I spent some time with Maggie and took her to the theater. We had a really enjoyable time together.â€Â Eastwood was directing The Eiger Sanction, at that time and he also played the main
character, Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, a former professor of art and an assassin who
is forced out of retirement to track down the killer of an old friend.  Much
of the filming - in which Eastwood performed his own stunts - took place on
snow-covered mountains and involved some risky mountaineering. During her visit, Johnson told Kern that
Eastwood was extremely upset by the death of David Knowles, a stunt-climber
who, within a few days of shooting, was killed instantly after being hit on the
head by a falling bolder. Eastwood wanted to quit production but was persuaded to
carry on filming by the other professional mountaineers who were working on the
film.
Before Johnson left for America she told Kern that
she was welcome to visit her in Carmel anytime.Â
“Well, I didn’t have any immediate plans to go to America,†recalls
Kern, “but some time after, I was invited by novelist and screenwriter Alistair MacLean, whom I
knew rather well, to stay with him and his wife, Mary Marcelle, at their home
in Los Angeles.â€Â Incidentally, MacLean
had previously commissioned Kern to make a portrait sculpture of him. MacLean was a prolific thriller writer of
Scottish decent whose work has been adapted into several successful films including
The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare starring Eastwood as Lieutenant Schaffer.
“When I arrived at the MacLean’s, I telephoned
Connie, who was also in LA, to let her know I was in town. ‘Great!’ she said.
‘Hang on! I’ll give Maggie a call.’ So she called her and Maggie said, ‘Come on over.’ So we did.â€Â
Johnson met Kern and De Nave at the local Monterey airport and took them
to Carmel where she and Eastwood were living; they stayed for around four days.  “Maggie had been really involved in the
design of the house and worked closely with the architects. I’ll never forget that they had a huge tree
growing through the middle of the house.Â
It was really unusual.â€Â
It was during her stay there that she was asked by
Johnson to make a life-size bust of Eastwood; she would present it to him as a
surprise gift. “Maggie knew I was a
sculptor because when we first met in London she asked me what I did, so I told
her.â€Â
Kern studied under Royal Academician Howard Bates
and then worked for two years as a studio assistant at the Chelsea Studios of
the Morris Singer Foundry, one of the worlds leading art bronze foundries. Through her many commissions, she is
established as a noted portrait sculptor.Â
Among her many portraits she has created are Sir Winston Churchill, John
F. Kennedy, Chaim Topol, Anne Frank and former Emperor of Ethiopia Haile
Selassie, who presented her with a gold medallion in appreciation of the
portrait she did of him. She also
designed the “Dem-Nutâ€, a natural size gold-plated peanut which became a
popular symbol for the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign of 1976. Its sales raised a substantial amount of
dollars for the Democratic Party. Â Her
aunt is the late actress and artist Jean Shepeard, who appeared in Thunder Rock in1942with Michael
Redgrave. And in 1930, Shepeard became the
only woman to have had work exhibited alongside that of Sir Francis Bacon.
(Photo copyright Spencer Lloyd Peet)
During their stay at Carmel, the Eastwoods took Kern
and De Nave to a screening - at their local cinema - of the 1961 Western One-Eyed Jacks directed by, and
starring, Marlon Brando. After the
screening, the Eastwood’s discussed the feature in great depth, particularly
about how much Brando had changed physically.Â
But for Kern, the highlight of the trip was a visit to the famous
restaurant, “The Hog’s Breath Inn†which was part owned by Eastwood. It must have appeared quite surreal to be
sitting opposite Eastwood in his own restaurant eating a hamburger called Dirty
Harry... Other Eastwood film titled dishes on the menu included, Play Misty For
Me Mushrooms, Gauntlet Giant Steak, and the aptly named Spaghetti Western.
When Eastwood was at home during those four days,
he would either be dealing with business, working out in his private gym which,
according to Kern, housed equipment that any top gymnasium would be envious of,
or riding around the grounds on his motorcycle.Â
“He was a quiet man…†reflects Kern, “more of an observer than a
participant in company.â€Â
As a thank you for their hospitality, Kern bought the
Eastwood’s a small-scale sculpture of a seal made by a local artist. She got the idea after noticing that, because
their house looked out across the ocean, they would often get seals coming up
to the shoreline.
When Kern returned to England, she immediately
started work on the sculpture in her studio in Edgware; it was modelled in clay
and cast in bronze. Before she had left
Carmel, Johnson had given Kern some photographs of Eastwood to work with,
showing his profile at different angles.Â
“As the sculpture was progressing, I would send Maggie pictures of it. She would say, ‘Give him more hair, and make his
Adam’s apple larger.’â€
Doreen and "Clint" today. (Photo copyright Spencer Lloyd Peet)
By the end of 1977 the sculpture was completed and
sent off to Johnson in America. She was
very pleased with it. “A little while
after,†says Kern, “Maggie told me that Clint had said, ’Why didn’t you tell me
she was a sculptor? I would have talked
to her about it.’ But she couldn’t say
anything at the time of course because it was meant as a surprise.â€Â  It’s
not known who kept the original as, sadly, they separated not long after -
their divorce was finalised in 1984. But
having the original mould Doreen was able to make a copy of the bust. Kern is happy to take orders for anyone
wishing to own their own bronze bust of the legendary Hollywood superstar – and
it won’t cost you a million dollars, baby… For more information about Doreen Kern’s
work, or if you are interested in purchasing a Clint Eastwood or any other of
her bronze portrait sculptures, please write to her at doreenkern@onetel.com
(Spencer Lloyd Peet is a London staff writer for Cinema Retro. See his article on the films of Bruce Lee in issue #13. Visit his web site by clicking here)