Harrison Ford was born on the 13th July 1942 in Chicago, Illinois to an Irish father and Russian-Jewish mother. He was an unmotivated student and never received more than a grade C average in his studies. He attended Rippon college in Wisconsin but dropped out shortly before the end of the course, although some sources state he was expelled for failing to complete his thesis. Whilst at college he started acting in student productions and also met his future wife Mary Marquit, whom he married in 1964.

The couple moved to Hollywood and Ford signed a contract with Columbia and then later moved to Universal. He had several small roles in television and film including "The Virginian" (1962) and "Ironside" (1967). The acting work soon dried up and Ford taught himself carpentry in order to earn money whilst he was waiting for more acting jobs. He began working for several homeowners in the Hollywood area and it was here, whilst doing some renovations on a friend's house (who happened to be a casting director), that he landed his first big role in George Lucas' "American Graffiti" (1973). The film was an unexpected hit but it failed to completely propel Ford into the limelight.

In 1976 Lucas again cast Ford in one of his productions, "Star Wars" (1977) as the character Han Solo. The film was a worldwide smash and Ford was an instant hit. This success, however, was short lived and Ford starred in several box-office flops including "Force 10 From Navarone" and "Hanover Street" (both 1978). He also had small roles in "Apocalypse Now" and "More American Graffiti" (both 1979), During this period Ford also divorced his wife.

Ford didn't really hit the big time again until reprising the role of Han Solo in 1980 in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back". Ford's second hit role, and probably his second most famous, was that of Indiana Jones in "The Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). Ford starred as Han Solo once more in "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" (1983), the same year he married second wife Melissa Mathison (screenwriter of "E.T- The Extra Terrestrial"), and then starred in Indiana Jones a further two times in "The Temple of doom" (1984)and "The Last Crusade" (1989), in fact Ford's most successful films have all be sequels to his earlier works.

1982 saw Ford finally receive critical acclaim when he starred as a hard-nosed cop in Ridley Scott's futuristic thriller "Bladerunner" which proved that he was more than just a comic book action hero figure. 1985 saw Ford return to the police genre again when he starred as an undercover cop in the film "Witness", for which he won an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He then followed this success with the largely unregarded film "Mosquito Coast" (1986) which Ford considers to be his personal favourite film of all that he's made.

In 1988 Ford tried his hand at romantic comedy in "Working Girl" which was a hit with audiences and critics alike, but yet again he followed up his successful streak with a series of box-office flops including "Presumed Innocent" (1990) and "Regarding Henry" (1991).

"Patriot Games" in 1992, followed by "The Fugitive" in 1993 once again propelled him to stardom, and since then has made several shrewd film choices including "Clear and Present Danger" the 1992 follow-up to "Patriot Games", "Sabrina" (1995) and "What lies beneath" (2000) and "K-19: The Widowmaker" (2002) has lead Ford to be listed as one of Hollywood's highest paid actors and listed in several magazines around the globe as the "Worlds sexiest man".

Ford currently lives on his 800 acre ranch in Wisconsin where he can enjoy his love of flying. In 2001 he came to the rescue of two stranded hikers by flying his helicopter up a mountain to bring them back to safety, he also regularly flies himself between his ranch and Chicago. Ford is currently dating Calista Flockhart (of Ally McBeal fame) who is over 20 years his junior.

Submitted: 5.07.03

Works Cited and Consulted

Internet Movie Database
Yahoo! Movie Guide
Harrison Ford website

Biography