PARIS, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- France has bestowed its most prestigious civilian award, the Legion d'honneur, on Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood in Paris.
President Jacques Chirac told Eastwood he was the embodiment of "the best of Hollywood," the BBC reported Saturday.
He also talked of the 76-year-old's "immense talent as an actor" and "genius as a director."
Eastwood's latest directorial project, "Letters From Iwo Jima," is up for four Academy Awards. The film tells the story of the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers.
The movie is in Japanese and s companion to Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers," which told the story of Iwo Jima from the U.S. perspective.
Eastwood's wife, Dina, daughter, Morgan, and son, Kyle, accompanied him to the ceremony.
