Hollywood tough guy Clint Eastwood won Oscars for best director and best film on Sunday for his boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, dealing a double blow to his main rival Martin Scorsese and The Aviator.
The heart-wrenching movie about the relationship between a grizzled boxing trainer, played by Eastwood, and his eager protege, portrayed by Hilary Swank, dominated the top awards, with Swank winning the best actress prize and Morgan Freeman best supporting actor.
Eastwood was also up for a best actor statuette this year, but lost out to Jamie Foxx for Ray.
The laconic 74-year-old thanked his mother, who accompanied him to the Kodak Theatre event.
"So at 96 I'm thanking her for her genes," he joked.
"I'm just lucky to be here, lucky to be still working and I watched (honorary Oscar winner) Sidney Lumet out there who's 80 and I figure, I'm just a kid. I've got a lot of stuff to do yet," he added.
Scorsese's biography of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, The Aviator, was praised by critics, but this time it was the low-budget movie that outpunched the blockbuster, and Scorsese once again walked away empty-handed. His career score now stands at zero for seven.
{{/usCountry}}Scorsese's biography of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, The Aviator, was praised by critics, but this time it was the low-budget movie that outpunched the blockbuster, and Scorsese once again walked away empty-handed. His career score now stands at zero for seven.
{{/usCountry}}Sunday's Oscars took Eastwood's total tally to four. He won two Academy Awards for directing and producing 1992 western Unforgiven.
Eastwood also was honored in 1994 with a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars.
In his sixth decade in Hollywood, Eastwood is known for playing characters with little to say but a lot to prove. Many of his parts have been masculine without being misogynistic, and Frankie Dunn in Million Dollar Baby is no different.
Dunn is a cantankerous old man whose career has seen better days when Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) walks into his Los Angeles gym. At first, he does not want to train the boxer who, in her 30s, is old to be starting out. More importantly, Dunn does not want anything to do with women boxers.
But he is won over by Maggie's determination and her propensity for knocking out opponents in the first round.
Eastwood also produced Million Dollar Baby, and composed the music for it.