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The Clint Squint: “If I lost my squint, I think my whole career would go down the tubes.” — Clint Eastwood

When Clint Eastwood narrows his eyes, pay attention. A master of the big screen is using them to convey seduction, intimidation, mystery and more.

The squinters, by contrast, draw us to them with the ambiguity of their perspectives, whether they’re old-school seducers, cynical toughs, side-eyed skeptics or one of those heavy-lidded hunks like Steve McQueen, whom Look magazine once waggishly included in the “squint-mumble-scratch-and-think school of acting.” His squint played a more expressive role, becoming a part of his persona in the three westerns he made with the Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, beginning with “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964). Yet even as the lines radiating out from his eyes deepened and his shoulders began to round with age, his squint kept its mysterious draw — what kind of man is this?

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