Harrison Ford is an American actor and film producer. He is world-renowned for his role as Han Solo in the Star Wars film franchise, and Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones film series.
History
Early Life
Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois to Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an advertising executive and former actor, and Dorothy (née Nidelman), a former radio actress. A younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945. His father was Catholic and his mother was Jewish. Ford's paternal grandparents, John Fitzgerald Ford and Florence Veronica Niehaus, were of Irish and German descent, respectively. Ford's maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire). When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded, "Democrat," "to be liberals of every stripe". In a television interview shown in August 2000, when asked about what influence his Irish Catholic and Russian Jewish ancestry may have had on his life as a person and as an artist, Ford humorously stated, "As a man I've always felt Irish, as an actor I've always felt Jewish."
Career
Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. He worked at Napowan Adventure BaseScout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year (1959–60). He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness. Ford, a self-described "late bloomer," became fascinated with acting.
In 1964, after a season of summer stock with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin, Ford traveled to Los Angeles to apply for a job in radio voice-overs. He did not get it, but stayed in California and eventually signed a $150-a-week contract with Columbia Pictures' new talent program, playing bit roles in films. His first known role was an uncredited one as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966). There is little record of his non-speaking roles (or "extra" work) in film. Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokovsky after he played a bellboy in the feature. He was told by Tokovsky that when actor Tony Curtis delivered a bag of groceries, he did it like a movie star; Ford felt his job was to act like a bellboy. Ford managed to secure other roles in movies, such as A Time for Killing (The Long Ride Home), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens.
His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967), though he was still uncredited. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film A Time for Killing, but the "J" did not stand for anything, since he has no middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier actor until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ford soon dropped the "J" and worked for Universal Studios, playing minor roles in many television series throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Gunsmoke, Ironside, The Virginian, The F.B.I., Love, American Style, and Kung Fu. He appeared in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point as an arrested student protester. French filmmaker Jacques Demychose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (released in 1969) but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. Ford later commented that the experience had been nevertheless a positive one because Demy was the first to show such faith in him.
Not happy with the roles being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two young sons.
Casting director and fledgling producer Fred Roos championed the young Ford and secured him an audition with George Lucas for the role of Bob Falfa, which Ford went on to play in American Graffiti (1973). Ford's relationship with Lucas would profoundly affect his career later on. After director Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather was a success, he hired Ford to expand his office and gave him small roles in his next two films, The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979); in the latter film he played an army officer named "G. Lucas".
Personal Life
Marriages and family
Ford and Calista Flockhart at the 2009 Deauville American Film Festival Ford is one of Hollywood's most private actors, guarding much of his personal life. He has two sons, Benjamin (born 1966) and Willard (born 1969), with his first wife, Mary Marquardt, to whom he was married from 1964 until their divorce in 1979. With his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, whom he married in March 1983 and from whom he was separated in August 2001 and eventually divorced, he has two more children, Malcolm and Georgia (born 1990). Ford began dating actress Calista Flockhartafter meeting at the 2002 Golden Globes, and together they are parents to her adopted son, Liam (born 2001). Ford proposed to Flockhart over Valentine's Day weekend in 2009. They married on June 15, 2010, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Ford was filming Cowboys & Aliens.
In her 2016 autobiography The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher claimed that she and Ford had a three-month affair in 1976 during the filming of Star Wars.
Ford has three grandchildren. His son Benjamin, a chef and restaurateur, owns Ford's Filling Station, a gastropub at The Marriott, L.A. Live, Los Angeles, and Ford's Filling Station at LAX Terminal 5. His son Willard is the owner of Strong Sports Gym, and was co-owner of Ford & Ching and owner of the Ludwig Clothing company.
Back injury
In June 1983, at age 40, during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in London, he herniated a disc in his back, forcing him to fly back to Los Angeles for an operation. He returned six weeks later.
Ankle injury
On June 11, 2014, Ford injured his ankle during filming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He was airlifted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.
Aviation
Ford touring the Air Force Museum in 2003.
Ford is a licensed pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (320-hectare) ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. On several occasions, Ford has personally provided emergency helicopter services at the request of local authorities, in one instance rescuing a hiker overcome by dehydration.
Ford began flight training in the 1960s at Wild Rose Idlewild Airport in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, flying in a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, but at $15 an hour (equivalent to $121 in 2017), he could not afford to continue the training. In the mid-1990s, he bought a used Gulfstream II and asked one of his pilots, Terry Bender, to give him flying lessons. They started flying a Cessna 182 out of Jackson, Wyoming, later switching to Teterboro, New Jersey, flying a Cessna 206, the aircraft he soloed in.
| Ford's Bell 407GX |
Ford keeps his aircraft at Santa Monica Airport, though the Bell 407 is often kept and flown in Jackson, Wyoming, and has been used by the actor in two mountain rescues during his assigned duty time with Teton County Search and Rescue. On one of the rescues, Ford recovered a hiker who had become lost and disoriented. She boarded Ford's helicopter and promptly vomited into one of the rescuers' caps, unaware of who the pilot was until much later; "I can't believe I barfed in Harrison Ford's helicopter!" she said later.
Ford flies his de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (N28S) more than any of his other aircraft, and has repeatedly said that he likes this aircraft and the sound of its Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine. According to Ford, it had been flown in the CIA's Air Americaoperations, and was riddled with bullet holes that had to be patched up.
In March 2004, Ford officially became chairman of the Young Eagles program of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Ford was asked to take the position by Greg Anderson, Senior Vice President of the EAA at the time, to replace General Chuck Yeager, who was vacating the post that he had held for many years. Ford at first was hesitant, but later accepted the offer and has made appearances with the Young Eagles at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for two years. In July 2005, at the gathering in Oshkosh, Ford agreed to accept the position for another two years. He has flown over 280 children as part of the Young Eagles program, usually in his DHC-2 Beaver, which can seat the actor and five children. Ford stepped down as program chairman in 2009 and was replaced by Captain Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles. He is involved with the EAA chapter in Driggs, Idaho, just over the Teton Range from Jackson, Wyoming. On July 28, 2016, Ford flew the two millionth Young Eagle at the EAA AirVenture convention.
As of 2009, Ford appears in Internet advertisements for General Aviation Serves America, a campaign by the advocacy group Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association(AOPA). He has also appeared in several independent aviation documentaries, including Wings Over the Rockies (2009), Flying The Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project (2014), and Living in the Age of Airplanes (2015).
Ford is an honorary board member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope, and is known for having made several trips to Washington, D.C. to fight for pilots' rights.
Incidents
On October 23, 1999, Harrison Ford was involved in the crash of a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter (N36R). The NTSB accident report states that Ford was piloting the aircraft over the Lake Piru riverbed near Santa Clarita, California, on a routine training flight. While making his second attempt at an autorotation with powered recovery, Ford allowed the aircraft's altitude to drop to 150–200 feet before beginning power-up. The aircraft was unable to recover power before hitting the ground. The aircraft landed hard and began skidding forward in the loose gravel before one of its skids struck a partially embedded log, flipping the aircraft onto its side. Neither Ford nor the instructor pilot suffered any injuries, though the helicopter was seriously damaged. When asked about the incident by fellow pilot James Lipton in an interview on the TV show Inside the Actor's Studio, Ford replied, "I broke it."
On March 5, 2015, Ford's plane, believed to be a Ryan PT-22 Recruit, made an emergency landing on the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California. Ford had radioed in to report that the plane had experienced engine failure. He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was reported to be in fair to moderate condition. Ford suffered a broken pelvis and broken ankle during the accident, as well as other injuries.
On February 13, 2017, Ford landed an Aviat Husky at John Wayne Airport on the taxiway left of runway 20L. A Boeing 737 was holding short of the runway on the taxiway when Ford overflew them.
Roles/Filmography
Filmography
Film
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | The Virginian | Young Rancher / Cullen Tindall | 2 episodes | |
| Ironside | Tom Stowe | Episode: "The Past Is Prologue" | ||
| 1968 | The Mod Squad | Beach Patrol Cop | Uncredited
Episode: "The Teeth of the Barracuda" |
|
| 1969 | My Friend Tony | Episode: "The Hazing" | ||
| The F.B.I. | Everett Giles / Glen Reverson | 2 episodes | ||
| Love, American Style | Roger Crane | Episode: "Love and the Former Marriage" | ||
| 1970 | The Intruders | Carl | Television film | |
| 1971 | Dan August | Hewett | Episode: "The Manufactured Man" | |
| 1972–1973 | Gunsmoke | Hobey / Print | 2 episodes | |
| 1974 | Kung Fu | Mr. Harrison | Episode: "Crossties" | |
| Petrocelli | Tom Brannigan | Episode: "Edge of Evil" | ||
| 1975 | Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley | Frank Crowder | Television film | [1] |
| 1976 | Dynasty | Mark Blackwood | Television film | |
| 1977 | The Possessed | Paul Winjam | Television film | |
| 1978 | The Star Wars Holiday Special | Han Solo | Television special | |
| 1993 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. | Episode: "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues" |
Roles
Trivia
- His parents were Christopher Ford, an advertising executive and former actor, and Dorothy, a former radio actress.
- A younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945.
- Ford’s paternal grandparents, John Fitzgerald Ford and Florence Veronica Niehaus, were of Irish Catholic and German descent, respectively.
- Ford’s maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk, Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire).
- When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded, “Democrat,” “to be liberals of every stripe”.
- In a television interview shown in August 2000, when asked about what influence his Irish Catholic and Russian Jewish ancestry may have had on his life as a person and as an artist, Ford humorously stated, “As a man I’ve always felt Irish, as an actor I’ve always felt Jewish.”
- Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout.
- He worked at Napowan Adventure Base Scout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge.
- Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois.
- His was the first student voice broadcast on his high school’s new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year (1959–60).
- He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
- He took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness.
- Ford, a self-described “late bloomer,” became fascinated with acting.
- In 1964, after a season of summer stock with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin,[13] Ford traveled to Los Angeles to apply for a job in radio voice-overs.
- He did not get it, but stayed in California and eventually signed a $150-a-week contract with Columbia Pictures’ New Talent program, playing bit roles in films.
- His first known role was an uncredited role as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966).
- There is little record of his non-speaking roles (or “extra” work) in film. Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokovsky after he played a bellboy in the feature.
- He was told by Tokovsky that when actor Tony Curtis delivered a bag of groceries, he did it like a movie star; Ford felt his job was to act like a bellboy.
- Ford managed to secure other roles in movies, such as A Time for Killing (The Long Ride Home), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens.
- His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967), though he was still uncredited. He was finally credited as “Harrison J. Ford” in the 1967 Western film, A Time for Killing, but the “J” did not stand for anything, since he has no middle name.
- It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932, and died in 1957.
- Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier Harrison Ford until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Ford soon dropped the “J” and worked for Universal Studios, playing minor roles in many television series throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Gunsmoke, Ironside, The Virginian, The F.B.I., Love, American Style, and Kung Fu.
- He appeared in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film Zabriskie Point, as an arrested student protester.
- Not happy with the roles being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two small sons.
- While working as a carpenter, he became a stagehand for the popular rock band The Doors. He also built a sun deck for actress Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Brazilian band leader Sérgio Mendes.
- Casting director and fledgling producer Fred Roos championed the young Ford, and secured him an audition with George Lucas for the role of Bob Falfa, which Ford went on to play in American Graffiti (1973).
- Ford’s relationship with Lucas would profoundly affect his career later on. After director Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather was a success, he hired Ford to expand his office and gave him small roles in his next two films, The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979); in the latter film he played an army officer named “G. Lucas”.
- Harrison Ford’s previous work in American Graffiti eventually landed him his first starring film role, when he was hired by Lucas to read lines for actors auditioning for roles in his then-upcoming film Star Wars (1977).
- Lucas was eventually won over by Ford’s performance during these line reads and cast him as Han Solo.
- Star Wars became one of the most successful movies of all time and established Ford as a superstar.
- He went on to star in the similarly successful Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), as well as the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978).