Eastwood has maintained his cool over the years, taking it from the set to public office (and back again. See: J. Edgar). In 1986 he became mayor of Carmel, a ritzy, seaside town in Northern California, in a landslide victory. His mission? To relax the rigid business restrictions in the place he’d called home for 14 years, such as the ban on selling fast food and ice cream. After two years in office the local celeb-utician returned to acting and directing and went on to win a lot of other things—namely, a fistful of Oscars.