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Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is a BAFTA- and Academy Award-nominated, as well as Golden Globe-winning, American actor. Ford is best known for his performances as the tough, wisecracking space pilot Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the adventurous archaeologist and action hero Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. in the Indiana Jones film series. He is also known for his role as the haunted android tracker Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott's sci-fi cult film Blade Runner. His four-decade career also includes roles in other Hollywood blockbusters such as The Fugitive, Air Force One and What Lies Beneath. At one point, Ford had roles in the top five box-office hits of all time, though his role in 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (as Elliot's school principal) was deleted from the final cut of the film. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.

In 1997, Ford was ranked # 1 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. As of May 2008, the domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total more than US$3.2 billion,[1] with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the No. 3[2] domestic box-office star for lead roles behind only Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks. If counting both supporting movie roles as well as starring roles, Ford would be the 5th biggest movie star,[3] behind that of voice-actor Frank Welker, Samuel L. Jackson (whose biggest grossing films, consist of him as a non-lead, supporting actor), Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks.

Ford was born on Monday, July 13, 1942, at 11:41 a.m. in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, at the Swedish Covenant Hospital. His mother, Dorothy (née Dora Nidelman; October 17, 1917–February 10, 2004), was a homemaker and former radio actress, and his father, Christopher Ford (né John William Ford; November 20, 1906–February 10, 1999), was an advertising executive and former actor.[4][5] His paternal grandparents, Florence Veronica Niehaus and John Fitzgerald Ford, were of German and Irish Catholic descent, respectively.[4] Harrison Ford's maternal grandparents, Anna Lifschutz and Harry Nidelman, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk.[4] When asked in which religion he was raised, Ford jokingly responded, "Democrat";[6] he has also said that he feels "Irish as a person but I feel Jewish as an actor".[7]

Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout, and worked at a Scout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided that the character of young Indiana Jones would be depicted as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They also jokingly reversed Ford's knowledge of reptiles into Jones's 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-FM, and was its first sportscaster during his senior year, 1959–1960. The radio room still bears his graffiti. 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. He did not graduate from Ripon.

In 1964, Ford travelled to Los Angeles, California to pursue a job in radio voice-overs. He did not get the job, but stayed in California, and eventually signed a $150/week contract with Columbia Pictures's 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). A popular myth has him appearing in a scene of The Great Escape but this movie was filmed while he was still attending Ripon.[8] There is little record of his non-speaking roles (or "extra" work) in film. His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967) though he was again uncredited. In his next film, he was credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film, 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 silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932, and who died in 1957. Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier Harrison Ford (who is no relation) until he stumbled across a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ford soon dropped the "J" from his name 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. Then, he played in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point as an airport worker. 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. He also built a sun deck for ­­­Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Sergio Mendes.

He turned to acting again when George Lucas, who had hired him to build cabinets in his home, cast him in a pivotal supporting role for his film American Graffiti (1973). The relation he forged with Lucas was to have a profound effect on Ford's career. After director Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather was a success, he hired Ford to do expansions of his office and Harrison was given a small role in his next two films, The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979).

Ford's work as a carpenter would land the actor his biggest role to date. In 1975, director George Lucas used him to read lines for actors being cast for parts in his upcoming space opera, Star Wars (1977), though Steven Spielberg convinced Lucas that Ford was meant to star in the film, resulting in him being cast as Han Solo. The film was a huge success and boosted Ford's career. Ford went on to star in the Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), as well as in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). He wanted Lucas to write in the death of the iconic Han Solo character at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, saying "that would have given the whole film a bottom", but Lucas refused.

Ford achieved another huge career boost when he starred as Indiana Jones in the Lucas/Spielberg collaboration Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). He reprised the role for the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), which turned Ford himself into a blockbuster phenomenon. Nineteen years after the release of the third film, Ford reprised the role yet again for the new sequel, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Unlike many other actors of the same or similar genre, Ford's authenticity as a daring action hero was supported by his willingness to perform many of his own stunts for the Indiana Jones films.

Ford has been involved in numerous other movies including Heroes (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and Hanover Street (1979). Ford also co-starred alongside Gene Wilder in the buddy-western The Frisco Kid (1979), playing a bank robber with a heart of gold. He then starred in a number of dramatic-action films: Peter Weir's Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), and Roman Polanski's Frantic (1988). He also starred in Mike Nichols's romantic drama Working Girl (1988) and as Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott's cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982).

The 1990s brought Ford the role of Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, as well as leading roles in Alan Pakula's Presumed Innocent (1990) and The Devil's Own (1997), Andrew Davis's The Fugitive (1993), Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina (1995), and Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One (1997). During production of The Fugitive, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in an episode of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Ford has also played straight dramatic roles, including an adulterous husband with a terrible secret in both Presumed Innocent (1990) and What Lies Beneath (2000), and a recovering amnesiac in Mike Nichols' Regarding Henry (1991).

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

Despite being one of the most financially successful actors of his generation, Ford has received just one Oscar nomination, that of Best Actor for Witness. On June 2, 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On October 6, 2006, Ford was awarded the Jules Verne Spirit of Nature Award for his work in nature and wildlife preservation. The ceremony took place at the historic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California

Ford's star power has waned in recent years, the result of appearing in numerous critically derided and commercially disappointing movies, including Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Random Hearts (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), Hollywood Homicide (2003), and Firewall (2006). One exception is 2000's What Lies Beneath, which ended up grossing over $155 million in the United States and $300 million world-wide.

In 2004, Ford declined a chance to star in the thriller Syriana, later commenting that "I didn't feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake."[11] 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 the critically acclaimed films Traffic and A History of Violence as well as The Patriot.

Also in 2004, Ford appeared in the straight-to-video Water to Wine, credited as "Jethro the Bus Driver", as a favor to his son Malcolm.

Ford enjoyed recent success with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, another collaboration between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Production of the movie lasted from June to October 2007 and it was released on May 22, 2008.[12]

He has also completed filming on a film called Crossing Over, directed by Wayne Kramer. He will play Immigrations officer Max Brogan alongside Sean Penn and Ray Liotta.[13][14]

Ford has also finished recording narration for the upcoming feature documentary film about the Dalai Lama entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance.

He recently expressed interest in returning to the Jack Ryan franchise.

Ford is one of Hollywood's most notoriously private actors, zealously guarding his personal life. He has two sons from his first wife, Mary Marquardt, as well as two children from his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, and he is currently (as of 2002) engaged to Calista Flockhart. In 2008, Ford Stated in a Nightline interview that he has no strong religious beliefs.

In June of 1983 at age 40, during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in London, he herniated a disk in his back, resulting in him flying back to Los Angeles for an operation and returning to work just over six weeks later