Way before the actor even considered working in the film industry, Clint Eastwood had been working odd jobs before settling as a swimming instructor for the U.S. Army (via Mental Floss). As he was never deployed to serve in the Korean War, which he was initially drafted for, Eastwood spent his time in basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey Bay, California. This training and swimming experience came in handy one fateful day during his time at Fort Ord.

After taking a trip up to Seattle, Eastwood survived an emergency plane landing on the way back to Fort Ord. Deciding to hitch a ride on a Douglas AD, a sort of "torpedo bomber of the World War II vintage" as the actor explained (via the Mirror), Eastwood ended up experiencing everything that could go wrong in an aircraft.

As the actor explained, he and the pilot were faced with their radios and oxygen running out before the fuel decided to run dry too. The plane took a dive into the ocean for an emergency sea landing, which just so happened to be in late October or early November. "Very cold water," Eastwood recalled, adding that he managed to survive by swimming to shore, only because he didn't realize that where they had landed was a white shark breeding ground. "I'm glad I didn't know that at the time or I'd have just died," he concluded.