Harrison Ford

It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957.

Ford later said that he was unaware of the existence of the earlier actor until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ford has since starred in the Paramount+ western series 1923 (2022–present) and the Apple TV+ comedy series Shrinking (2023–present).

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor.

Considered a leading man in films of several genres, he is regarded as an American cultural icon.

His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide.

Ford is the recipient of various accolades, including the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, an Honorary César, and an Honorary Palme d'Or, in addition to an Academy Award nomination.

Harrison Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on July 13, 1942, to former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford.

His younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945.

Their father was a Catholic of Irish descent, while their mother was an Ashkenazi Jew whose parents were emigrants from Minsk, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire.

When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded "Democrat" and more seriously stated that they were raised to be "liberals of every stripe".

When asked about what influence his Jewish and Irish Catholic ancestry may have had on him, he quipped, "As a man I've always felt Irish, as an actor I've always felt Jewish."

Ford was a Boy Scout, achieving the second-highest rank of Life Scout.

He worked at Napowan Adventure Base Scout Camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge.

Ford graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois.

His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year.

He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.

A self-described "late bloomer", Ford took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness and became fascinated with acting.

Ford was expelled from college four days before graduation.

Ford soon dropped the "J" 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.

In 1964, after a season of summer stock with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin, Ford traveled to Los Angeles and eventually signed a contract with Columbia Pictures' new talent program.

Ford made his film debut in an uncredited appearance in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) and went on to play supporting roles in such films as Journey to Shiloh (1968), Getting Straight (1970), American Graffiti (1973), and The Conversation (1974).

His first known role was an uncredited one as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966).

There is little record of his non-speaking (or "extra") roles in film.

Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokofsky after he played a bellboy in the feature.

He was told by Tokofsky that when actor Tony Curtis delivered a bag of groceries, he did it like a movie star; Ford felt his job was to act like a bellboy.

His speaking roles continued next with Luv (1967), though he was still uncredited.

He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film A Time for Killing, starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton and Inger Stevens, but the "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name.

He appeared in the western Journey to Shiloh (1968) and had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point as an arrested student protester.

In 1968, he also worked as a camera operator for one of the Doors' tours.

French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor.

He gained worldwide fame for his starring role as Han Solo in the epic space opera film Star Wars (1977), a role he reprised in four sequels over the next four decades.

The multimedia franchise became a global cultural phenomenon.

Ford is also known for his portrayal of the titular character in the popular media franchise Indiana Jones, beginning with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

He played the character in four additional sequels over the next four decades and also starred as Rick Deckard in the cult science fiction film Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and portrayed Jack Ryan in the spy thriller films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994).

Ford's on-screen career spans six decades in both film and television.

His other films include Witness (1985), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, The Mosquito Coast (1986), Working Girl (1988), Presumed Innocent (1990), Regarding Henry (1991), The Fugitive (1993), Sabrina (1995), The Devil's Own (1997), Air Force One (1997), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Random Hearts (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), Firewall (2006), Morning Glory (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011) 42 (2013), The Age of Adaline (2015), and The Call of the Wild (2020).

Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Ford is also an environmental activist, having served as the inaugural vice chair of Conservation International since 1991.

Outside of acting, Ford is a licensed pilot; he has often assisted the emergency services in rescue missions near his home in Wyoming, and he chaired an aviation education program for youth from 2004 to 2009.