Thanks to his status as a multi-generational icon, plenty of actors and filmmakers have found themselves looking towards Clint Eastwood as the barometer of how to enjoy a long and storied career both in front of and behind the camera.

First breaking out in the late 1950s as the star of TV’s Rawhide, it was the Dollars trilogy that catapulted Eastwood to fame and fortune on the big screen, before he gradually revealed himself to be every bit as potent a director as he was an actor. Cool, charismatic, and undeniably talented, even into his 90s the four-time Academy Award winner remains a relevant figure in Hollywood, something that doesn’t happen all that often.

There are plenty of performers out there who’ve singled Eastwood out as an influence in one way or another, whether it’s their desire to make a splash as an actor and/or filmmaker over a number of years, or specific performances inspired directly by his signature persona that exuded presence and charisma. For the man himself, there was only one person he’d even go so far as to call himself a fan of.

Growing up as a fan of cinema first and foremost, Eastwood has never been one to freely admit he stole certain elements of his persona or performative approach for those who came before, albeit with one notable exception when he stated in no uncertain terms that “I was never a fan of one particular actor outside of James Cagney.”

Often typecast as a tough guy while proving himself to be one of the best in the business at doing so, Cagney was a staple of the crime movie after finding great success with The Public Enemy, Taxi!, Angels with Dirty Faces, and White Heat, the latter of which is arguably not just his most iconic performance, but one that Eastwood stole from when he was crafting one of his own indelible characters.

“When he comes out in White Heat eating a chicken leg and blasting a guy in the trunk of a car, you go, ‘Yeah, that’s offsetting, but in a nice way,’” he said to Entertainment Weekly of Cagney’s fingerprints being all over Harry Callahan. “The scene in Dirty Harry where I’m eating a hot dog in that shootout, that’s a steal.”

In perhaps the biggest compliment that could be paid to any actor from Eastwood given what he’s achieved during his own legendary time spent in Tinseltown, he remarked that “movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies.” For the Western favourite, the two were “a perfect match,” and the same can be said of him looking at the staggering volume of classics he’s been involved in as either star, director, and in many instances both.