Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford (born 13.7.1942)

Harrison Ford is an award-winning American actor, best known for his lead performances in the original Star Wars trilogy and all four Indiana Jones films.

Harrison Ford: Childhood

Harrison Ford was raised in Illinois, by his mother, Dorothy, a former radio actress and his father Christopher, who was an advertising executive as well as a former actor.

As a child, Ford was a keen boy scout and achieved the second-highest rank of the Boy Scouts of America, Life Scout.

Harrison Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Illinois in 1960, where he had been the first voice to broadcast on the school's new radio system. He later attended Ripon College, in Wisconsin, where he took drama classes in his first year. He did not graduate, but it was here that Harrison Ford became interested in acting.

Harrison Ford: Acting Career

Harrison Ford travelled to Los Angeles in 1964, hoping to land a job doing radio voice-overs. Although his application was unsuccessful, Ford eventually got a contract with Columbia Pictures, earning $150 per week to work as a bit part on their films.

Ford's first credited appearance came in 1967, with the Western film A Time For Killing. He was credited as Harrison J. Ford, to avoid confusion with the silent film actor Harrison Ford.

Although Ford appeared in a number of television programmes, such as Ironside and American Style, he became disillusioned with the roles he was given and taught himself carpentry. He also worked as a stagehand for The Doors. Whilst working as a carpenter, he built a studio for Sergio Mendes.

Ford's return to acting came when he built cabinets for George Lucas' home. Lucas cast him in a lead role in 1973's American Graffiti. Francis Ford Coppola also hired Harrison Ford: firstly as a carpenter, then as an actor, in Apocalypse Now and The Conversation.

Harrison Ford's breakthrough role came in Star Wars, released in 1977. Ford played Han Solo, one of the lead characters, opposite Carrie Fisher as Princess Leah. Ford then went on to star in the two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as well as the lesser-known release The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Harrison Ford would work with George Lucas again, with the Indiana Jones trilogy, which was a collaboration between Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was released in 1981 and was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. In 2008, the franchise was revisited and Harrison Ford returned to his title role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In 1982, Harrison Ford starred in Ridley Scott's seminal sci-fi feature film Blade Runner. In the mid to late 1980s, Harrison Ford starred in a number of action / drama film, including 1985's Witness - for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar - and The Mosquito Coast, the following year. In 1988, Roman Polanski cast him in Frantic.

In 1992, Harrison Ford took the lead role of Jack Ryan in Patriot Games, the adaptation of the novel by Tom Clancy. He went on to land roles in a number of high profile dramas and thrillers, including 1990's Presumed Innocent, 1994's Clear and Present Danger, 1993's The Fugitive and Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One.

In 2000, Ford played an adulterous husband in the widely popular What Lies Beneath. The film grossed over $300 million across the globe.

Harrison Ford: Personal Life

Harrison Ford has two sons with his first wife, Mary Marquardt, named Benjamin and Willard. He also has a son and a daughter with his second wife, Melissa Mathison, named Malcolm and Georgia.

Ford is now engaged to the actress Calista Flockhart. Flockhart has an adopted son, named Liam. Harrison also has three grandchildren.

In 2001, following the terrorist attacks at New York's World Trade Centre, Harrison Ford volunteered as a food server near Ground Zero. He has also volunteered at the Los Angeles Mission, serving food to the homeless at Thanksgiving.