Actors - Harrison Ford

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	Actors - Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. He is best known for his performances as the tough, wisecracking space pilot Han Solo in the Star Wars films, and the droll but tenacious archaeologist/action hero Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark
and its sequels.

As of January 2006, the combined domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total approximately US$3.05 billion , with worldwide grosses at approximately US $5.65 billion.

Early life

Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois to Dorothy Nidelman (born Dora Nidelman on October 17, 1917 in New Jersey), a former radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford on November 20, 1906 in New York; died February 10, 1999), an advertising executive and a former actor. Ford's maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk, Russia who met in Brooklyn and moved to New Jersey. His Catholic paternal grandparents were John Fitzgerald Ford (an Irish American vaudeville performer) and Florence Veronica Niehaus (a German American). Ford's parents were left-wingers and not particularly practicing members of any religion , and Ford, when asked as to what religion he was raised in, jokingly responded, “Democrat", though his parents did take him to occasional services. Speaking of his heritage, Ford has said that he feels "Irish as a person but I feel Jewish as an actor" .

In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, where he claims he was picked on by bullies and ignored by girls and also voted boy least likely to succeed. He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, taking a drama class in his junior year, chiefly as a way to meet women. Three days from graduation, Ford was expelled after failing a philosophy class in his senior year. He asked his favorite professor, Dr. Tyree (who he mentions in The Last Crusade
), for a letter of recommendation to avoid the draft into the Vietnam War, but he refused to write it. Since then, Ford broke off contact with the Ripon school. Once he became famous, Ripon repeatedly tried to make contact again to use Ford's star power to help their small school, but the actor refused to aid them.

Ford, a self-described "late bloomer", became fascinated with acting. Toward the end of his college freshman year, he was a member of a folk band called The Brothers Gross, in which he played gutbucket. He was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity. In 1964, Ford moved to Los Angeles, California, where he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures for $150 a week in the studio's New Talent program, playing bit roles in three films. 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 because he does not have a middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with the other actor named Harrison Ford, who died in 1957.

Ford subsequently 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 then-wife and two small sons before his break-through role in American Graffiti
. While working as a carpenter, he became a stagehand for the popular rock band, The Doors.

Career

Coincidentally, it was his work as a carpenter that would land Ford his biggest role. In 1975, director George Lucas hired Ford to build some cabinets in his home and used him to read lines for actors being cast for parts in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It was Steven Spielberg who first noticed that Ford was well suited for the part of Han Solo.

The 6'1" Ford went on to star as Han Solo in the first three released Star Wars films; he had originally wanted his character to die in the third film in the series, saying that it would lend more dramatic weight to the film, but George Lucas disagreed with him. He starred as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark
and its two sequels, and as Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger
. Ford's other well-known films include 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 had a change of pace, playing an adulterous husband with a terrible secret in What Lies Beneath
.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Harrison Ford ]

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Actors - Harrison Ford

Early life

Career

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