Harrison Ford Actor Harrison Ford loves to play the hero, a role he fills with grace and dignity. One of the most consistent and genuinely talented actors out there, Harrison Ford is probably best known for his heroic roles as Han Solo in Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. However, with an extensive filmography under his belt, he has gained popularity and fame in many other roles. Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to former actors, Irish-Catholic Christopher Ford and Russian-Jewish Dorothy Nidelman. Growing up, Harrison Ford lacked motivation in life; he was voted Boy Least Likely to Succeed in high school. Even into college he lacked focus, until he took an acting class to boost his GPA and ended up finding something he loved. He married his college sweetheart Mary Marquardt in 1964 and together they moved to Los Angeles where Harrison Ford hoped to pursue an acting career.
After landing some minor roles in small films and TV series, Harrison Ford took a carpentry job to pay the bills and support his family, Marquardt and their two sons Benjamin (1967) and Willard (1969), before his breakthrough role in American Graffiti. Through his carpenter job, Harrison Ford developed a relationship with director George Lucas, who had cast him in American Graffiti. George Lucas hired Ford in 1975 to build sets for the first Star Wars movie (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which George Lucas wrote and directed), leading Harrison Ford to his first major role as Han Solo. Harrison Ford starred in the next two Star Wars movies alongside Mark Hamill, as Luke Skywalker, and Carrie Fisher, as Princess Leia. He then starred as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and the two follow-up sequels later in the 80s, all directed by Steven Spielberg and written by George Lucas. The Last Crusade in 1989 also starred Sean Connery as Indiana Jones’s father. Harrison Ford is also well-known for playing Jack Ryan in two Tom Clancy films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, both directed by Philip Noyce.
Ford is also famous for his roles in other Hollywood hits such as The Fugitive, Sabrina, Air Force One, and What Lies Beneath. In recent years, Harrison Ford's success has slightly waned while he has starred in disappointing and criticized films such as K-19: The Widowmaker and Firewall, and for turning down roles in more successful films like Syriana, which starred George Clooney, and A History of Violence, a role that Viggo Mortensen accepted. Harrison Ford's personal life has taken some interesting twists and turns. Shortly after his initial success as Han Solo, Harrison Ford and Mary Marquardt divorced in 1979. Four years later he married screenwriter Melissa Mathison and had two children: Malcolm in 1987 and Georgia in 1990. Their marriage lasted almost twenty years before they separated in 2001 and ultimately divorced in 2004. Since then, Harrison Ford has been dating Calista Flockhart, known for her role as Ally McBeal, a relationship that has elicited much publicity as Flockhart is twenty-two years his junior and is the single mother of an adopted son, Liam, born in 2001. Harrison Ford and Flockhart, who are newly engaged, began dating after they met at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards and she spilled wine on him. Calista Flockhart has been previously romantically linked to actor Ben Stiller and director Sam Mendes. At the age of sixty-five Harrison has resurrected probably his most famous character, Indiana Jones as he finishes the shooting of a fourth Indiana movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with a story by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Along with the movie's much anticipated release in May 2008 came the critisism that Ford is too old to pull off the role. But with such a tongue in cheek role, Ford's age is used as an element of fun in the story line. The movie sees Harrison staring alongside Cate Blanchett, John Hurt and Shia LaBeouf. YUDDY |
