Clint Eastwood in the 1980s Schickel argued that the character of Bronco Billy is Eastwood's most self-referential work. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote that the film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", praising Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new. Later in 1980, he reprised his role in the sequel to "Every Which Way But Loose" entitled "Any Which Way You Can". The film was another box-office success and was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year. Later on Wednesday, December 17, 1980 he appeared in the
Clint Eastwood in the 1950s to attend the studio. There he met up with Sonia Chernus, a story editor now working for NBC and while conversing with her, an executive, Robert Sparks, spotted Eastwood in the canteen. The first thing he said was, "How tall are you exactly"? Clint replied, "6'4". The executive invited him into his office and later arranged for a screen test with Charles Marquis Warren overlooking, in which Eastwood had to recite one of Henry Fonda's monologues from the William Wellman western, "The Ox-Bow Incident". A week later, Shiffrin rang Eastwood and informed him he had won the part of Rowdy