Clint Eastwood is one of the most successful Western actors in history, and he owes his success to a 65-year-old television series. Many of Clint Eastwood’s Western characters are iconic, such as The Man With No Name, and he has epitomized the Western action hero for over six decades. He has acted in a variety of classic movies, demonstrating his range as an actor while remaining committed to his brand as a Western hero.

Westerns have been popular since before movies had sound, and the genre carried over to television, which was ideally suited to stories about heroic cowboys taking the law into their own hands to protect loved ones from violent troublemakers. Television Westerns such as Gunsmoke and Bonanza often launched actors’ careers while providing entertainment centered around heroes who provided stability and safety in the chaotic Wild West. There are some harsh realities about rewatching Westerns regarding how they treated Indigenous people, people of color, and women; however, the series that launched Eastwood’s career was more realistic and gritty than others.

What Is Rawhide About? The Clint Eastwood Western TV Show Explained

The Classic Western TV Show Was Different Than Others

Rawhide was a relatively long-running Western, lasting eight seasons, which focused on the adventures of a group of cattle drovers in the 1860s. From 1959 to 1965, Clint Eastwood co-starred as a cattle driver working for Gil Favor (Eric Fleming), the trail boss who tried to keep his group in line while also dealing with the corruption and violence they encountered while moving cattle from one place to another. Eastwood’s character, Rowdy Yates, was an ex-Confederate soldier who served as a ramrod and was well-liked; however, sometimes he clashed with Favor’s more measured, rule-bound approach to problems on the trail.

Unlike most other television Westerns, Rawhide was about the life of cattle drivers rather than focusing on a single cowboy hero. It strove to illustrate this aspect of life in the Wild West realistically; Gil Favor was based on a real person and the character opened each episode with monologues based on the real cattle driver’s diary entries. Although this series was more of an ensemble than a one-man show, it gave Eastwood plenty of opportunities to shine as the feisty young cowhand who didn’t always do what he was told.

How Rawhide Helped Turn Clint Eastwood Into A Western Star

The Eight Years He Spent On The Series Helped Establish Him as a Western Cowboy

Although several movies define Clint Eastwood’s career, he might not have had the opportunity if he hadn’t first starred in Rawhide. For eight years, he was a major character in a popular Western series, which undoubtedly helped demonstrate that he was capable of doing the job when he auditioned for movies. Additionally, he played a feisty young cowhand who was willing to challenge authority, which allowed audiences to associate him with that type of rebellious but moral character.

Six decades later, Clint Eastwood is still going strong. His movies regularly are the highest-earning at the box office and the prospect of a new Eastwood movie still generates excitement among large audiences. The eight years Eastwood spent on Rawhide paid off, allowing him to launch one of the most successful movie careers in the Western genre.