Harrison Ford

For the silent film actor, see: Harrison Ford (silent film actor).

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. He is best known for his performances as the tough, wisecracking space pilot Han Solo in the Star Wars film series, and the adventurous, tenacious archaeologist/action hero Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels.

Ford has also been the star of many high grossing hit Hollywood blockbusters such as Air Force One and The Fugitive which have distanced him from his famous Star Wars and Indiana Jones roles.

As of January 2006, the combined domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total approximately US$3.05 billion ^*, with worldwide grosses at approximately US $5.65 billion.

Ford is an Honorary Chair of the Indianapolis Prize, the world's leading award for animal conservation.

Early life

Ford was born on Monday, July 13, 1942 at 11:41 AM CST in Chicago, Illinois at Swedish Covenant Hospital to Dorothy Nidelman (born Dora Nidelman on October 17, 1917 in New Jersey; died February 10, 2004), a former radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford on November 20, 1906 in New York; died February 10, 1999), an advertising executive and a former actor. Ford's maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk, Belarus who met in Brooklyn and moved to New Jersey. His Catholic paternal grandparents were John Fitzgerald Ford (an Irish American vaudeville performer) and Florence Veronica Niehaus (a German American). Ford's parents were Democrats and not regular churchgoers. Harrison, when asked as to what religion he was raised in, jokingly responded, "Democrat."Jewish as an actor".[http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/16489_celebrities.html" target="_blank" >^*

In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, where he claims he was picked on by bullies and ignored by girls and also voted "Boy Least Likely to Succeed". He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity. He took a drama class in his junior year, chiefly as a way to meet women. Ford, a self-described "late bloomer", became fascinated with acting. Toward the end of his college freshman year, he was a member of a folk band called The Brothers Gross, in which he played gutbucket. In 1964, Ford moved to Los Angeles, California, where he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures for $150 a week in the studio's New Talent program, playing bit roles in three films. Ford was credited as "Harrison J. Ford" for a small role in the 1967 Western, A Time for Killing, but the "J" didn't stand for anything because he does not have a middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with the other actor named Harrison Ford, who died in 1957.

Ford dropped the "J" from his name and worked in minor television roles for Universal Studios. Not happy with the acting jobs being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to better support his then-wife and two small sons. Some of Ford's carpentry work remains in the Hollywood Hills area. While working as a carpenter, he became a stagehand for the popular rock band, The Doors.

Career

Harrison Ford's work as a carpenter would land the actor his biggest role to date. In 1975, director George Lucas, who had cast Ford in a pivotal supporting role in American Graffiti, hired Ford to build some cabinets in his home and used him to read lines for actors being cast for parts in A New Hope. It was Steven Spielberg who first noticed that Ford was well suited for the part of Han Solo.

The 6'1" Ford went on to star as Han Solo in the next 2 Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He wanted George Lucas to write in the death of the iconic Han Solo character at the beginning of the third act of Return of the Jedi, saying that it would lend more dramatic weight to the film, but Lucas refused. ^* He starred as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark and its two sequels to date, and as Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. Ford's other well-known films include Blade Runner, Witness, The Fugitive (1993), and the remake of Sabrina, among others. While often playing the leading man or the hero of many action films, Ford had a change of pace, playing an adulterous husband with a terrible secret in What Lies Beneath.

Many of Ford's major film roles came to him by default and other unusual circumstances: Han Solo, due to his reading lines for other actors; Indiana Jones, because actor Tom Selleck was not available; and Jack Ryan, apparently due to Alec Baldwin's fee demands (Baldwin had previously played the role in The Hunt for Red October).

The 2001 edition of the Guinness Book of Records listed Ford as the richest actor alive: his reported salary for the 2002 film The Widowmaker was more than $25 million. The 27 movies that he has starred in have grossed a combined box office of more than $3.3 billion. However, despite being one of the most financially successful actors of his generation, Ford has received only one Oscar nomination, that of Best Actor for Witness. In 1999, he received the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute and received a star in front of the Kodak Theatre at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. on June 2, 2003.

Ford's star power has waned in recent years, the result of appearing in numerous critically derided and commercially disappointing movies like Random Hearts, The Widowmaker, Hollywood Homicide and Firewall. Even What Lies Beneath, which featured an unusually dark performance from Ford, was widely criticised as predictable and formulaic, and proved to be only a moderate financial success. In January 2005 he was overtaken by Samuel L. Jackson as the top star of the combined highest-grossing films in Hollywood, and Mel Gibson has overtaken him as the richest living actor, largely thanks to the success of The Passion of the Christ, which Gibson produced and directed but did not star in.

In 2004, Ford declined a chance to star in the thriller Syriana, commenting that "I didn't feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake". The role eventually went to George Clooney, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work. ^*. Ford also turned down leading roles in critically acclaimed films The Patriot, Traffic and A History of Violence.

He is currently scheduled to star in a fourth Indiana Jones movie with a story by George Lucas, screenplay by David Koepp, and direction by Steven Spielberg. Some fans of the franchise and its title character have expressed concerns that he is too old at 64 to reprise that role. Others are just happy to hear that he is going to dust off the fedora and pull out the bullwhip one last time. The movie's release, originally intended for May 2007, has now been postponed to 2008, leading some to question if it will ever be made at all. Sean Connery, who announced his retirement from acting in 2004, has confirmed he will not appear in the film.

Personal life

Ford has been married twice. He married Mary Marquardt in 1964, and divorced her in 1979. He had two children with her, Benjamin (born in 1967) and Willard (born in 1969). He married again, to Melissa Mathison, screenwriter of The Black Stallion, Kundun, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, on March 14, 1983. They had two children: a son, Malcolm (born on March 10, 1987), and a daughter, Georgia (born on June 30, 1990). Mathison filed for legal separation on August 23, 2001, and their subsequent divorce in January 2004 has become one of the most expensive in Hollywood history. Ford has since been dating actress Calista Flockhart.

Ford is a private pilot of both planes and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (3.2-km²) ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. On October 23, 1999, Ford crash-landed a helicopter during a training exercise ^*, flipping the helicopter onto its side. Neither Ford nor the instructor were injured. 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.

He is the current Chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagle program, taking over after Chuck Yeager retired. Ford also gives of his time and money for environmental causes. He sits on the board of directors of Conservation International. Ford has assisted musician Jimmy Buffett by recording whip cracks (a skill learned during "Raiders of the Lost Ark") used in the Buffett song "Desperation Samba (Halloween in Tijuana)".

Though he dislikes public speaking, Ford once appeared before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on behalf of the people of Tibet. His goal was to prevent China from gaining Most Favored Nation status, because of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. As a result, Ford is banned by the People's Republic of China from entering Tibet.

Ford is one of Hollywood's most notoriously private actors, rigidly guarding his private life. Outside of film promotion, he rarely appears in the press, preferring to keep to himself at his Wyoming home. In fact, Ford considers the Internet to invade his best intentions of privacy ^*.

In March 2003 various newspapers reported that Ford disapproved of a letter signed by several Hollywood celebrities urging President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq. Some implied that through his disapproval he favored a Bush led invasion of Iraq. Ford responded to the reports through his spokeswoman Patricia McQueeney. He said he favored "regime change on both sides". Ford is a vocal supporter of gay marriage.

In August 2003 Ford condemned the Iraq war in an interview with a Spanish newspaper. He went on to criticize the proliferation of firearms in the United States, something that caused controversy given that he has used handguns in most of his movies.

Ford opposed the recall of California Governor Gray Davis and warned that replacing him with Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a disaster for the state. In September 2003 Ford caused further controversy by presenting his friend, film director Roman Polanski, with his Best Director Oscar for The Pianist in Paris, where the director has been a fugitive since fleeing the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to one count of statutory rape. Ford, who was directed by Polanski in 1987's Frantic, had accepted the Oscar in Polanski's absence at the 75th Annual Academy Awards.

When George Lucas and company began the merchandising for the original Star Wars films, Ford was the head negotiator in what eventually led to the lead actors receiving royalties from their likenesses and use of their images in any sold merchandise.

Trivia

In 1993, the arachnologist Norman Platnick named a new species of spider Calponia harrisonfordi, and in 2002, the entomologist Edward O. Wilson named a new ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi (in recognition of Harrison's work as Vice Chairman of Conservation International).

Harrison Ford cut his chin in a car accident in Northern California when he was about 20.

Ford admitted in a 1997 interview that he managed to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War, because he "did not want to participate in an illegal conflict aimed at maintaining American imperialism".

Prior to the release of Star Wars, Shel Dorf (founder of Comic Con) had a chance encounter with Ford at the production offices and did an interview with him for the comic book adzine then known as The Buyer's Guide for Comics Fandom (now Comics Buyer's Guide). In it Ford derisively spoke of his "so-called career" as an actor.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2008	Indiana Jones 4	Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr	Pre-production
2006	Firewall	Jack Stanfield
2003	Hollywood Homicide	Joe Gavilan
2002	The Widowmaker	Alexei Vostrikov
2000	What Lies Beneath	Dr. Norman Spencer
1999	Random Hearts	Sergeant William "Dutch" Van Den Broeck
1998	Six Days Seven Nights	Quinn Harris
1997	Air Force One	President James Marshall
1997	The Devil's Own	Tom O'Meara
1995	Sabrina	Linus Larrabee
1994	Clear and Present Danger	Jack Ryan
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - "Chicago, April 1920" , "Chicago, May 1920"	Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr (age 50)	Made-for-television
1993	The Fugitive	Dr. Richard Kimble
1992	Patriot Games	Jack Ryan
1991	Regarding Henry	Henry Turner
1990	Presumed Innocent	Rusty Sabich
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr
1988	Working Girl	Jack Trainer
1988	Frantic	Dr. Richard Walker
1986	The Mosquito Coast	Allie Fox
1985	Witness	Detective Captain John Book
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr
1983	Return of the Jedi	Han Solo
1982	Blade Runner	Rick Deckard
1981	Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark	Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Han Solo
1979	More American Graffiti	Officer Bob Falfa (uncredited)
	Apocalypse Now	Colonel Lucas
	The Frisco Kid	Tommy Lillard
	Hanover Street	David Halloran
1978	The Star Wars Holiday Special	Han Solo	Television special
1978	Force 10 from Navarone	Lieutenant Colonel Mike Barnsby
1977	Heroes	Ken Boyd
1977	A New Hope	Han Solo
1974	The Conversation	Martin Stett
1973	American Graffiti	Bob Falfa

Salary history

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) - $25,000,000 + 20% of the Gross
What Lies Beneath (2000) - $20,000,000
Random Hearts (1999) - $20,000,000
Six Days Seven Nights (1998) - $20,000,000
Air Force One (1997) - $22,000,000
The Devil's Own (1997) - $20,000,000
Patriot Games (1992) - $9,000,000
Presumed Innocent (1990) - $12,500,000
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) - $650,000
American Graffiti (1973) - $500/week
''A Time For Killing (1967) - $150/week
''Luv (1967) - $150/week
''Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) - $150

External links

Interviews

Web sites

Harrison Ford: A Web Guide
Defunct Harrison Ford project The Boundaries of Heaven

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