Harrison Ford born July 13, 1942 is an American actor. He has been a leading man in films of several genres and is regarded as an American cultural icon. His films have grossed more than $5.4 billion in North America and more than $9.3 billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America He is the recipient of various accolades, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2000, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2002, an Honorary César in 2010, and an Honorary Palme d’Or in 2023, in addition to an Academy Award nomination.Ford made his film debut as an uncredited bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) and went on to play supporting roles in such films as Journey to Shiloh (1968), Getting Straight (1970), American Graffiti (1973) and The Conversation (1974).
Harrison Ford Facts
- Born : July 13, 1942 (No. 81)Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Occupation : Actor
- Years active : 1964–present
- Sponse: Mary Markurdat
- Children: 5
Harrison Ford Early life and education
Harrison Ford He gained worldwide fame for his starring role as Han Solo in the epic space opera film Star Wars (1977), a role he reprised in four sequels over the next four decades. The multimedia franchise became a global cultural phenomenon. He is also known for his portrayal of the titular character in the popular media franchise Indiana Jones, beginning with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); also reprising that role in four sequels over the next four decades. He starred as Rick Deckard in the science fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and as Jack Ryan in the spy thriller films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994).
Harrison Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on July 13, 1942,to former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William “Christopher” Ford His younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945.Their father was a Catholic of Irish descent, while their mother was an Ashkenazi Jew whose parents were emigrants from Minsk, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire. When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded “Democrat” and more seriously stated that they were raised to be “liberals of every stripe”. When asked about what influence his Jewish and Irish Catholic ancestry may have had on him, he quipped, “As a man I’ve always felt Irish, as an actor I’ve always felt Jewish.”
Ford was a Boy Scout, achieving the second-highest rank of 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 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Ford graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice 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. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. A self-described “late bloomer”, Ford took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness and became fascinated with acting. Ford was expelled from college four days before graduation.
Harrison Ford Facts Career
Harrison Ford 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-per-week contract with Columbia Pictures’ new talent program, equivalent to $1,415 in 2022, 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 (or “extra”) roles in film. Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokofsky after he played a bellboy in the feature. He was told by Tokofsky 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.
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, starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton and Inger Stevens, 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. In 1968, he also worked as a camera operator for one of the Doors’ tours.French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (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.
Harrison Ford Not happy with the roles offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two young sons. Clients at this time included the writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, who lived on the beach at Malibu. Ford appears in the documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. He and his wife became friends of the writers.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 profoundly affected his career later. 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, Ford played an army colonel named “G. Lucas”.
Harrison Ford Facts 1998–2014
Harrison Ford Other 2008 work included Crossing Over, directed by Wayne Kramer. In the film, Ford plays an ICEHomeland Security Investigations Special Agent, working alongside Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta. He also narrated a feature documentary film about the Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama Renaissance Ford filmed the medical drama Extraordinary Measures in 2009 in Portland, Oregon.Released on January 22, 2010, the film also starred Brendan Fraser and Alan Ruck. Also in 2010, he co-starred in the film Morning Glory, along with Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton and Patrick Wilson.Although the film was a
disappointment at the box office, Ford’s performance was well received by critics, some of whom thought it was his best role in years. In July 2011, Ford starred alongside Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in the science-fictionwestern hybrid film Cowboys & Aliens. To promote the film, he appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con International and, apparently surprised by the warm welcome, told the audience, “I just wanted to make a living as an actor. I didn’t know about this.” Also in 2011, Ford starred in Japanese commercials advertising the video game Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception for the PlayStation 3
Harrison Ford Facts Personal life
Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. He was first married to Mary Marquardt from 1964 until their divorce in 1979. They had two sons, born 1966 and 1969. The oldest co-owns Ford’s Filling Station, a gastropub located at Terminal 5 in Los Angeles International Airport. The younger son is the owner of Strong Sports Gym, and was co-owner of the Kim Sing Theater and owner of the Ludwig Clothing company.Ford’s second marriage was to screenwriter Melissa Mathison from March 1983 until their separation in 2000 and divorce in 2004. They had a son, born 1987, and a daughter, born 1990. Mathison died in 2015.
Ford began dating actress Calista Flockhart after they met at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards. He 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 They are the parents of a son, born 2001, the son she adopted before meeting Ford.
Ford and Flockhart live on an 800-acre (320-hectare; 3.2-square-kilometre) ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, on which he has lived since the 1980s and approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. They retain a base in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles
Ford is one of Hollywood’s most private actors, guarding much of his personal life In her 2016 autobiography The Princess Diarist, his co-star Carrie Fisher claimed that she and Ford had a three-month affair in 1976 during the filming of Star Wars.