Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, March 03, 2005, Pages 1 & 10

It would be hard to find a prouder grandfather in Ringgold county this week than Kellerton's James CLOUGH.

"I'm proud, proud, proud," CLOUGH said in an interview this week. "I'm so pleased with her if there is a word that means prouder than that, I'm that too."

CLOUGH has every right to be elated. His granddaughter Hillary (sic) SWANK just won her second Oscar as best actress, putting her in a list of 10 actresses who have doubled up at Oscar ceremonies in their careers.

Only Katherine Hepburn has more Oscars than SWANK has for her performances in a leading role.

Sunday night she received the Oscar for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald in "Million Dollar Baby," the boxing movie awarded the Oscar as the best of the year, which she starred in with best director Oscar winner Clint Eastwood and best supporting actor Oscar winner Morgan Freeman. She was part of quite a sweep of top honors for the film.

Five years ago SWANK won the Oscar for her role in "Boys Don't Cry."

Early this week CLOUGH said he had talked with his daughter, Judy, a couple of times since the big night, though he hadn't visited with SWANK to congratulate her personally yet.

It's been quite an interesting few days for CLOUGH as well, as Iowa news media have contacted him and done stories on the local angle of the Oscar story.

Things have been happening so fast for the Kellerton grandfather that he is falling behind in keeping the scrapbook about his granddaughter's career.

"I've tried to follow her career pretty closely," CLOUGH said. "We are very close and it's so interesting to see how well she has done."

CLOUGH said if he could put all the memorabilia he has collected about her career together it would take several scrapbooks.

CLOUGH has seen "Million Dollar Baby" and notes that though it is not a story with a happy ending, it is a great opportunity for SWANK to act.

"The emotions she displays really get through to the viewer," he said of the story of a woman boxer who makes her way to the top, only to meet with tragedy.

"Some people want a movie that just has a lot of action and then a happy ending," CLOUGH said. "This isn't one of those, but it's a good movie."

Critics have been positive about the movie and its winning the Oscar as the best movie of the year is yet another accolade.

Being the grandfather of One of Hollywood's top actresses had its privileges, as CLOUGH has found.

When SWANK was on location in Prague, Czech Republic, for the film "The Affair of the Necklace," CLOUGH got to make a 10-day visit to the set and the country.

"It was a beautiful place and an experience that I probably would never had had if it weren't for Hilary," he said.

CLOUGH also visited SWANK on the set of the movie "Insomnia" in Vancouver, British Columbia, where SWANK was working with Al Pacino and Robin Williams.

He still often wears the "Insomnia" hat that he was given by Robin Williams.

"It was quite an experience to be able to visit with actors like that during some of the breaks in filming," he said.

The last time he was able to visit face to face with his granddaughter was at Thanksgiving time when he went out to New York City to share Thanksgiving with SWANK and her husband Chad LOWE.

"We had dinner for 10, most of which Hilary and Chad had fixed for us themselves," CLOUGH said.

Its often not easy to have successful marriages for people in the movie business, but CLOUGH said SWANK and her husband have a wonderful relationship.

Their personalities compliment each other and they work hard to make sure their marriage works," he said. "They work together perfectly."

"When you think of the thousands and thousands of people who want to be at the top of the acting world, it's just amazing how well Hilary is doing," CLOUGH said.

He said his granddaughter was able to make her personality stand out in the casting "cattle calls" early in her career and has just gone on from there.

"It takes a lot of talent to get where she is today and I say she's got it," CLOUGH commented.

"It's unbelievable to be a part of it all," CLOUGH said.

There is only one thing that would make it more special.

"I just wish that her grandmother had lived to be able to share in these moments too," he said.

  Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2012