An alumna of Middle Tennessee State University, Locke broke into regional show business with assorted posts at the Nashville-based radio station WSM-AM, then segued into television as a promotions assistant for WSM-TV.

[39] 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.[17][64] In 1966, the 22-year-old appeared in a UPI wire photo that showed her cavorting in new-fallen snow.

[64] 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.

[66][h] 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.

[39][82] Hoping to shed the plain image she 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.

[74][94][95] 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.

[103] Lloyd acted with Locke again in Gondola (1973), a racially themed, three-character 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.

[110][111][112] 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.

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.

"[128] 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.

[125] The New York Times critic Janet Maslin noticed that "each of them works more delicately here than they have together previously"[129] 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.

[131] 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.

"[134] 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.

"[139][n] 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.

"[13] 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.

All I can say is that they are two very individual, professional filmmakers.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.

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.

[157][158] On September 25, 1967,[68] Locke married sculptor Gordon Leigh Anderson[o] (born August 2, 1944, Batesville, Arkansas) at the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville,[165] one week after The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter commenced principal photography.

[4][171][172][173] 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.

[174] Anderson is a central presence in Locke's autobiography, but she does not elaborate on her reasons for marrying him beyond the following passage: However conventional or unconventional our marriage might turn out to be honestly did not concern me that much.

[185] Another early boyfriend, personal injury attorney Gary Gober,[186] starred with Locke in Circle Players' productions while attending Vanderbilt University Law School.

[47] She first met Eastwood in 1972, when she unsuccessfully lobbied for the title role in his film Breezy (1973);[192] they became involved upon arrival at the shooting location of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) in Page, Arizona.

[114][t] 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.

[39][v] When this became public knowledge a decade after the fact, Eastwood issued a statement: 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.

[31][206]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.

[109][y] 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.

[146] 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.

[261] 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.

"[261] 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.

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.