Above: Ford and his third wife, actress Calista Flockhart at the 2009 Deauville American Film Festival.
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Description: Actor, USA
Known For: Films include – Star Wars” – “Indiana Jones” – “Six Days Seven Nights”
Location: IL, United States of America
Date Born: 13th July 1942
Location Born: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States of America
CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site: Harrison Ford
at the Internet Movie Database
Other Links: See below:
YOUTUBE VIDEO
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Harrison Ford
An American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. His career has spanned six decades and includes roles in several Hollywood blockbusters, including Presumed Innocent, The Fugitive, Air Force One, and What Lies Beneath. At one point, four of the top six box-office hits of all time included one of his roles. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
In 1997, Ford was ranked No. 1 in Empire’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list. As of July 2008, the United States domestic box office grosses of Ford’s films total over US$3.5 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the third highest grossing U.S. domestic box-office star. Ford is the husband of actress Calista Flockhart.
Ford was born July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois’s Swedish Covenant Hospital. His mother, Dorothy (née Dora Nidelman), was a homemaker and former radio actress, and his father, Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), was an advertising executive and a former actor. 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 has 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 Eagle Scout director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They also jokingly reversed Ford’s knowledge of reptiles into Jones’ fear of snakes.
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 (1959–1960). He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin,[8] where he was 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.
Early career
In 1964, Ford traveled to Los Angeles, California 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 part 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.
He was then hired to build cabinets at the home of director George Lucas, who subsequently cast him in a pivotal supporting role for his film 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.”
Star Wars
Ford’s carpentry work eventually landed him his first starring film role. In 1975, George Lucas hired him to read lines for actors auditioning for parts in the film Star Wars (1977). Lucas was eventually won over by Ford’s portrayal, and cast him as Han Solo.
Star Wars became one of the most successful movies of all time worldwide, 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). Ford wanted Lucas to kill off Han Solo at the end of Return of the Jedi, saying, “That would have given the whole film a bottom,” but Lucas refused.
Ford is one of Hollywood’s most private actors, guarding his personal life. He has two sons (Benjamin and Willard) with his first wife, Mary Marquardt, as well as two children (Malcolm and Georgia) with his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison.
Ford began dating actress Calista Flockhart after meeting at the 2002 Golden Globes, and together they are parents to her adopted son, Liam. 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.
Ford has three grandchildren: Eliel (born 1993), Giuliana (born 1997), and Ethan (born 2000). Son Benjamin owns Ford’s Filling Station, a gastropub in Culver City, California. Son Willard is co-owner of Ford & Ching showroom, as well as Ludwig Clothing company.
Ford is a private pilot of both planes and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (3.2 km²) ranch in Jackson, Wyoming.
Chin and back injury
Ford injured his chin at the age of 20 when his car, a Volvo 544, hit a telephone pole in Northern California;[citation needed] the scar is clearly visible in his films. An explanation for it on film is heard in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when a young Indiana Jones cuts his chin while attempting to crack a whip to ward off a lion. In Working Girl, Ford’s character explains that it happened when he passed out and hit his chin on the toilet when a college girlfriend was piercing his ear. 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
Aviation
Ford is a private pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (3.2 km2) 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 behest 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 he was unable 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.
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. As a result 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 and flipped 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.”
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 the actor’s assigned duty time assisting the Teton County Search and Rescue. On one of the rescues Ford recovered a hiker who had become lost and disoriented. She boarded Ford’s Bell 407 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.
Films include
2008 – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2006 – Firewall
2003 – Hollywood Homicide
2002 – K-19 The Widowmaker
2000 – What Lies Beneath
1999 – Random Hearts
1998 – Six Days Seven Nights
1997 – Air Force One
1997 – The Devil’s Own
1995 – Sabrina
1995 – L’Univers de Jacques Demy
1994 – Clear and Present Danger
1993 – The Fugitive
1992 – Patriot Games
1991 – Regarding Henry
1990 – Presumed Innocent
1989 – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1988 – Frantic
1988 – Working Girl
1986 – The Mosquito Coast
1985 – Witness
1984 – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1983 – Return of the Jedi
1983 – Return of the Jedi: Special Edition
1982 – Blade Runner
1982 – Blade Runner – The Director’s Cut
1982 – Blade Runner: The Final Cut
1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark
1980 – The Empire Strikes Back
1980 – The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition
1979 – Hanover Street
1979 – Apocalypse Now
1979 – Apocalypse Now Redux
1979 – More American Graffiti
1978 – Force 10 from Navarone
1977 – Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
1977 – Heroes
1977 – Star Wars
1974 – The Conversation
1973 – American Graffiti
1970 – Getting Straight
1967 – Luv
LINKS:
- ^ Rinzer, J. W. (2008). The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films. New York: Del Rey, imprint of Random House, Inc. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-345-50129-5.
Lucas arrived on June 20, [1983]. “Harrison was in really terrible pain,” he says. “He was on the set lying on a gurney. They would lift him up and he’d walk through his scenes, and they’d get him back on the bed.” That same day Ford filmed his fight with the Thuggee assassin in Indy’s suite on Stage 3. “Harrison had to roll backward on top of the guy,” Spielberg says. “At that moment his back herniated and Harrison let out a call for help.”
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford breaks ankle on Star Wars film set at Pinewood studios”
. BBC News. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford’s wife Calista Flockhart travels to be at his hospital bedside | Mail Online”
. Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford credited with helicopter rescue of sick hiker in Idaho”
. CNN. August 7, 2000. Archived from the original
on February 2, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ Mitchell, Mike. “Harrison Ford Receives Legends Aviation Legacy Award”
Aviation Online Magazine January 2010
- Jump up ^ Freeze, Di. “Harrison Ford: Promoting Aviation through Young Eagles”
Aviation Journals. September 2005.
- Jump up ^ AirSafe.com, LLC. “Helicopter Accident Involving Actor Harrison Ford”
. Airsafe.com. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
- Jump up ^ “LAX00LA024”
. National Transportation Safety Board. Archived from the original
on May 15, 2003. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ Picture of Harrison Ford Landing His Private Jet in Santa Monica
www.zimbio.com
- Jump up ^ Donaldson, Lynn. “Harrison Ford Crafts a Masterpiece in Wyoming”
The Land Report. October 2007.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford Discusses Piloting His Beaver into the Bush”
, Huffington Post, May 21, 2008.
- Jump up ^ Per Ford’s remarks on Late Night with David Letterman (viewed July 9, 2008).
- Jump up ^ “GA Serves America”
.
- Jump up ^ “The Official Wings Of Hope Homepage”
. Wings-of-hope.org. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
- Jump up ^ Blankstein, Andrew (March 5, 2015). “Harrison Ford Reported Fair After Plane Crash”
. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Jump up ^ Dillon, Nancy; Blidner, Rachelle (March 6, 2015). “‘My first instinct was to run to the airplane’: Surgeon recalls moment he helped Harrison Ford after crash”
. New York Daily News. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford: There are no great movies on global environmental issues”
. CNN.
- Jump up ^ “About Us”
. Conservation International. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
- Jump up ^ “The Economics of Nature”
. The American Academy in Berlin
. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
- Jump up ^ Conservation International ‘agreed to greenwash arms company’
. The Ecologist. Retrieved on 2013-08-24.
- Jump up ^ The Wrong Kind of Green
. The Nation (2010-03-04). Retrieved on 2013-08-24.
- Jump up ^ Harrison Ford Shocks Indonesian Minister with Heated Climate Interview, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ Harrison Ford Upsets Indonesian Minister with ‘Rude’ Interview, The Sydney Morning Herald
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ FM Bemoans Harrison Ford’s Attitude, The Jakarta Post
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ Harrison Ford’s Environment Documentary Questions ‘Shocked’ Indonesian Forestry Minister, Huffington Post
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ Harrison Ford Interviews Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono On Environment, Huffington Post
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ Harrison Ford, Indonesia President Discuss Climate, The San Diego Union-Tribune
(accessed 11 September 2013)
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford”
. Our Planet. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ “Discover Hetch Hetchy with Harrison Ford Preview”
. Restore Hetch Hetchy. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
- Jump up ^ “Years Of Living Dangerously”
. yearsoflivingdangerously.com. 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
- Jump up ^ “2008 Presidential Donor Watch”
. Newsmeat. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ Khashyar Darvich (January 1, 2009). “Celebrities and others banned from entering Tibet or China”
. Dalailamafilm.com. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
- Jump up ^ Laurence Caracalla, Harrison Ford, Silverback Books, 2007 p.93
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford blasts US Iraq policy”
. The Age (Melbourne, Australia). August 27, 2003. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ “About the AIA”
. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
- Jump up ^ Schou, Solvej (November 21, 2007). “Celebs Serve Holiday Meals to Homeless”
. The Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
- Jump up ^ “Guys Choice 2008 – Harrison Ford”
. Spike TV. Archived from the original
on August 4, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
- Jump up ^ “Guys Choice”
. PR Inside. [dead link]
- Jump up ^ “Sixth Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards”
. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford Receives Freedom of Flight Award”
. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford receives aviation’s highest award”
. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “Harrison Ford Receives Al Ueltschi Humanitarian Award”
. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “51 Heroes of Aviation”
. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- Jump up ^ “AFI Life Achievement Award”
. Retrieved 17 February 2012.