Every Which Way But Loose Cast & Character Guide

Here’s a cast and character guide for 1978 comedy Every Which Way But Loose. While Clint Eastwood is an acting icon, he’s equally revered as a director too. He first made a name for himself on classic western series Rawhide playing Rowdy Yates, before achieving movie stardom with spaghetti western A Fistful Of Dollars. More hits would come in the 1970s, including the Dirty Harry franchise and The Outlaw Josey Wales. Eastwood also had ambitions to move behind the camera, which he first achieved with 1971 thriller Play Misty For Me.

Clint Eastwood went on to direct much of his own work, including films like High Plains Drifter, Dirty Harry sequel Sudden Impact, Pale Rider, Bird, Unforgiven and The Mule. Surprisingly, his most successful movie is Every Which Way But Loose. He was originally handed this script in the hope he would pass it on to friend Burt Reynolds, but after taking a liking to it, he developed it for himself. It was his first outright comedy and it not only became the first film to pass $10 million during its opening weekend, its final gross was over $100 million; when adjusted for inflation that comes to around $320 million, making it his most successful film.

He didn’t direct Every Which Way But Loose, however, with that job going to James Fargo (Sidekicks). Here’s a cast and character guide for the film.

Clint Eastwood – Philo Beddoe

Clint Eastwood plays truck driver/bare-knuckle boxer Philo in Every Which Way But Loose, who sets out on a road trip with his orangutan Clyde to follow a singer he’s fallen for. Along the way, he makes enemies with a biker gang and fights a legend named Tank Murdock.

Manis – Clyde The Orangutan

If Every Which Way But Loose is remembered for one thing today, it’s Clyde, Philo’s loveable pet orangutan. Clyde was played by an orangutan named Manis, who acts as both comic relief and emotional support for Philo. Manis would later appear on Cheers.

Sondra Locke – Lynn Halsey-Taylor

Sondra Locke appeared in many of Eastwood’s movies, including The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Gauntlet, and was his partner for many years in real-life. In Every Which Way But Loose, she plays Lynn, a singer Philo falls for. She later runs off, prompting Philo to follow, though it eventually becomes clear he likes her way more than she likes him.

Geoffrey Lewis – Orville

Eastwood’s frequent co-star Geoffrey Lewis (Thunderbolt And Lightfoot) played his friend Orville in the film. Orville accompanies Philo on his trip and books fights for him.

Beverly D’Angelo – Echo

National Lampoon’s Vacation’s Beverly D’Angelo plays Echo in Every Which Way But Loose. She ends up joining Philo, Clyde, and Orville on their adventure, becoming the latter’s girlfriend and proving to be a good shot with a revolver.

Ruth Gordon – Ma

Ruth Gordon (Rosemary’s Baby) plays Ma in Every Which Way But Loose, Philo’s mother. While not a major role in terms of screentime, Gordon steals just about every scene with her hilariously crabby performance and is especially unhappy about Clyde “stealing” her Oreos.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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