Profile of Harrison Ford on Famous Like Me

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

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor who, between 1977 and 1983, appeared in what were then four of the top ten highest-grossing movies ever.

In most of his roles, Ford plays a tough, wisecracking action hero, and is well known for his repeated performances as the character Han Solo of the Star Wars films, and Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels.

The U.S. box office grosses of all of Ford's films total about $3.18 billion, with worldwide grosses totaling approximately $5.65 billion. No other actor in history has box-office grosses as large as Ford's.

Biography

Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Dora Nidelman (born in New Jersey, 1917, to Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz) was Jewish; his father, Christopher Ford (born in New York, 1906, to John Fitzgerald Ford and Florence Veronica Niehaus), was Irish/German and a Catholic, as well as a former actor. However, when Harrison Ford was asked in what religion he was raised, he jokingly said, “Democrat.” Actually, Ford’s parents weren’t practicing members of the religions they were born into. However, they did expose the young Harrison to services, now and again, at synagogues and churches.

He graduated from Maine Township High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1960 where he reportedly was picked on by bullies and ignored by girls. He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he took a drama class in his junior year chiefly as a way to meet women, he said. After being failed in a philosophy class his senior year, he was expelled. His graduation was to be only 3 days later. He then asked his favorite professor, Dr. Tyree (who he mentions in The Last Crusade), for a letter of recommendation to avoid the draft. Tyree refused. Since then he has broken contact with Ripon. Once he became famous, Ripon has repeatedly tried to make contact again to use Ford's star power to help their small school, but the damage was done.

Ford, a self-described "late bloomer," became fascinated with acting. While in college, toward the end of his freshman year, he was a member of a folk band called The Brothers Gross. He played the gutbucket (an upside-down wash bucket rigged with a broomstick and a single bass string). He was a brother of Sigma Nu Fraternity.

He married his college sweetheart, Mary Marquardt, in 1964. Ford and his new wife moved to Los Angeles, California, and he contracted with Columbia Pictures for $150 a week in the studio's New Talent program, where he had bit parts in three films. He then went to Universal Studios and did minor television roles. Not happy with the acting jobs being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to better support his wife and two small sons before his break-through role in American Graffiti. Coincidentally, it was his work as a carpenter that would land Ford his biggest role. George Lucas hired Ford in 1975 to build some cabinets in his home and used him to read lines for actors being cast for parts in Star Wars. It was Steven Spielberg who first noticed that Ford was perfect for the part of Han Solo.

Ford went on to star as Han Solo in the first three Star Wars films. He starred as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark and two sequels, and as Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. He also has starred in 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 took to the dark side as an adulterous husband with a terrible secret in What Lies Beneath, playing a man not to be trusted in the end.

Many of Ford's major film roles came to him by default - Han Solo, due to him reading lines for other actors; Indiana Jones, because Tom Selleck was not available; and Jack Ryan, apparently due to Alec Baldwin's fee demands. While some of his most revered work is in the science-fiction category with Star Wars and cult classic Blade Runner, he said the latter was one of his least favorite roles, and he has yet to return to the genre.

The Guinness Book of Records (2001) listed Ford as the richest actor alive. His reported salary for the 2002 film K-19: The Widowmaker was more than $25 million. The 27 movies he made grossed a combined box office of more than $3.3 billion. Despite being one of the most successful actors of his generation, Ford has received only one Oscar nomination, for Best Actor for Witness. However, in 1999, he received the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Although Ford's star has waned in recent years following the critical failures of K-19: The Widowmaker and Hollywood Homicide, he intends to film a fourth Indiana Jones movie with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in 2006.

Ford assisted musician Jimmy Buffett by recording whip cracks (a skill learned for Raiders of the Lost Ark) used in the song "Desperation Samba (Halloween in Tijuana)."

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; Ford does not have a middle name. He was credited as such to avoid confusion with another actor named Harrison Ford (silent film actor) who died in 1957. The first Ford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6665 Hollywood Blvd. in front of famed eatery Musso & Frank. The modern-day Harrison Ford received a star in front of the Kodak Theater at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. on June 2, 2003.

Ford has been married twice. He married Mary Marquadt in 1964, and divorced in 1979. He had two children with her, Benjamin and Willard. He married again, to Melissa Mathison, screenwriter of Black Beauty and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, in 1983. They had two children: a son, Malcolm, and a daughter, Georgia. Their divorce in January of 2004 was one of the most expensive in Hollywood history. He has been dating actress Calista Flockhart for three years. They are supposedly engaged.

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 preserve. On several occasions he personally has provided emergency helicopter services at the behest of local authorities. In one instance, he rescued 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.

Though he dislikes public speaking, he 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. Ford is perhaps one of Hollywood's most notoriously private actors, and unlike many other actors, doesn't appear heavily in the press and mostly keeps to himself at his Wyoming home.

Filmography

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 (1977) - $650,000
• American Graffiti (1973) - $500/week

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