Harrison Ford

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Harrison Ford at Comic-Con 2015

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American actor and producer .

Ford, who appeared as Han Solo in five films in the Star Wars series , is one of the most commercially successful actors in film history. Ford achieved particular popularity in the role of the archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones , whom he played in four films since 1981. In films such as Blade Runner (1982), The Only Witness (1985), Mosquito Coast (1986) and In Matters Henry (1991), he was also able to distinguish himself as a character actor . He received an Oscar nomination in 1986 for his role in The Only Witness .

Life

1942–1976: The beginning

Harrison Ford was born and raised in Chicago. His father, Christopher Ford, who had Irish and German ancestry, was a retired actor himself. His mother Dorothy, born in Nidelman, was the daughter of Jewish emigrants from Minsk (then part of the Russian Empire ). Ford has a younger brother named Terence.

Ford was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and reached their second highest rank, the Life Scout . He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin , where he also met his first wife, Mary Louise Marquardt. After being expelled three days before graduating from college, he went to California to become an actor in the mid-1960s . There he worked and learned first at the Laguna Playhouse . In 1966 he was signed to the New Talent program , and in the same year he made his cinema debut in a second- only scene as a page in Always When He Smelled Dollars ... (alongside James Coburn ). Ford was initially unable to assert himself as an actor and only received insignificant roles in film and television productions. For example, he has appeared in television series such as Smoking Colts .

Married since 1964, Ford has been unable to support his family through acting for years. In order to secure himself financially, he therefore began to work as a carpenter in a joinery. During this time he worked for Sérgio Mendes and for the US rock group The Doors , with whom he went on tour as a roadie and camera assistant . (There are short film clips from this time that show the still completely unknown Ford, for example in the background of Jim Morrison .) In June 1967 Ford worked as a security guard at the Monterey Pop Festival , the first major festival in rock and pop history. Since he was in demand as a carpenter, Ford could afford to turn down smaller roles. In 1973 he first drew attention to himself in a successful movie. In George Lucas ' classic American Graffiti he was seen in the important supporting role of the racing driver Bob Falfa. The nostalgic film took place in a single night in 1962, showed the experiences of a group of young friends and, with grossing over 100 million dollars, became one of the great film hits of the year.

Director Francis Ford Coppola gave Ford minor roles in his films The Dialog (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979 - filming took place in 1975 and 1976) in the mid-1970s, but these did not advance Ford's career. He continued to work as a carpenter to make a living.

1977–1989: The breakthrough

In the mid-1970s, George Lucas prepared his large-scale science fiction film Star Wars (1977) and had hundreds of actors audition for the leading roles. Finally, the director transferred the important role of the daring space pilot Han Solo to Harrison Ford. This character was based on a typical western hero in its conception and presentation. Although Mark Hamill played the actual lead role as Luke Skywalker , his portrayal of Han Solo made Ford extremely popular and attracted millions of fans overnight. Star Wars broke all box office records, made almost 800 million dollars to date (as of 2014) and is considered one of the first blockbusters ever. For Harrison Ford, the film marked the breakthrough in the film business after playing only supporting roles for a decade. While filming in 1976, he had a 3 month affair with Carrie Fisher , who played Leia Skywalker in the movie. He was married at the time. He also played the role of Han Solo in the three sequel films The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), which also became great box office hits .

In 1979, after 15 years of marriage, Ford divorced Mary Marquardt, with whom he has two children.

After Harrison Ford starred in a number of films in the late 1970s that had little box office response ( The Navarone Wild Pile , 1978, The Deadly Triangle , 1979), Harrison Ford continued to build his acting reputation in 1981. Steven Spielberg as director and George Lucas as producer were the driving forces behind Raiders of the Lost Ark , an elaborately produced homage to the cheap serial adventure films of the 1930s. Although George Lucas initially refused to use an actor from the Star Wars series in the film, Harrison Ford was eventually hired to play the daring archaeologist Indiana Jones , who has spectacular adventures around the globe and is a virtuoso in the process proves in handling his whip. Staged with large-scale action scenes and self-deprecating undertones, Raiders of the Lost Ark was by far the biggest film success of the year and grossed almost 400 million dollars worldwide. The 39-year-old Ford finally made his breakthrough to the top of Hollywood in the role. The actor made about one movie a year from then on and became one of the most trusted box office stars of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1982 he took on the lead role in Ridley Scott's bleak vision of the future, Blade Runner , an aesthetically groundbreaking cyberpunk film that only achieved moderate box office success but is now widely regarded as a classic and cult film. Ford appeared here as a detective in Los Angeles of 2019.

In 1984 he took on the role of Indiana Jones again in Steven Spielberg's The Temple of Doom . The film was much darker than the previous film and showed, for example, how a man's heart is ripped out of his body while he is alive. The criticism therefore attacked the film sharply and accused Spielberg of overemphasizing the corresponding scenes. Like the first Indiana Jones film, this one too became a worldwide box office success.

From the mid-1980s, Harrison Ford, who until then had been particularly successful in adventure roles, expanded his acting spectrum. In 1985 he played in Peter Weir's crime drama The Only Witness , which was well received by critics and audiences, a die-hard metropolitan cop who is forced to hide for a while with the devout Amish people. At first he reluctantly developed respect for their traditional way of life and fell in love with a young Amish woman. Ford received his only Oscar nomination to date (2019) for his portrayal of the detective John Book. The 1986 film Mosquito Coast , in which Ford, also directed by Weir, plays a civilization-weary inventor who becomes a tyrant in the South American jungle, was less successful . Mosquito Coast became one of the actor's biggest commercial failures (Ford himself considers it his best film).

In 1988, directed by Roman Polański , Ford played an American doctor in the thriller Frantic , whose wife is kidnapped in Paris. While this film also barely made it to the box office , Mike Nichol's comedy The Guns of Women became a box-office hit. However, the film was tailored to the two leading actresses Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver and showed Ford as a businessman Jack Trainer in a prominent supporting role. As expected, The Last Crusade became a worldwide box office hit in 1989. Ford reappeared in his most popular role as Indiana Jones and starred alongside the globally respected character actor Sean Connery , who played his father. This cast secured the film - which was directed by Steven Spielberg according to the successful formula of the first part - a lot of attention. With a global grossing of $ 474 million, the film became the biggest blockbuster of the year and secured Ford's position as the world's most successful actor. He had starred in two of the most commercially lucrative film trilogies, Star Wars and the Indiana Jones series. By 1990, his fee rose to $ 12.5 million.

1990-2007

Ford (2017)

Even in the early 1990s, Ford was regularly able to record great successes. In the court thriller For Lack of Evidence , he was seen as a prosecutor who is charged as a murderer, and acted alongside high-profile character actors such as Raúl Juliá or Brian Dennehy . In 1992 he took over the role of CIA agent Jack Ryan in The Hour of the Patriots , who had previously been played by Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October ). In this action thriller, CIA man Ryan had to protect his family from attacks by fanatical IRA fighters.

In 1994 Ford resumed the role of Jack Ryan in The Cartel , a film dealing with the activities of the Colombian drug mafia. The actor celebrated one of his greatest successes in 1993 in Auf der Flucht , an action thriller based on the 1960s television series of the same name. Ford acted here in the role of the doctor Richard Kimble, who is falsely sentenced to death for murdering his wife. While he is chased across the country by veteran US marshal Samuel Gerard ( Tommy Lee Jones in an Oscar- winning role), he tries desperately to prove his innocence. With a worldwide box office result of 368 million dollars, this film became a worldwide box-office hit, which was largely well received by critics and was particularly praised for the convincing game by Ford and Jones.

The film Regarding Henry , in which Ford plays a man who loses his memory and then rearranges his life, brought him critical acclaim, although one was at the box office but only at a moderate success. The same applies to the romantic comedy Sabrina (1995), in which Ford was seen as a cold-blooded businessman who falls in love with a young woman, and the action drama Confidant Enemy (1997), in which he starred alongside Brad Pitt and in IRA activity became involved.

Much more successful in the same year was Wolfgang Petersen's action thriller Air Force One , in which Harrison Ford was seen as US President James Marshall, who single-handedly takes on a group of terrorists who have hijacked the eponymous presidential machine. The 55-year-old Ford once again proved himself as an action star and was once again able to record a worldwide success. His fee had risen to $ 22 million for this film. (In 2001 he was listed as the richest actor in the Guinness Book of Records .) In 1998, the romantic comedy Six Days, Seven Nights became a solid box office hit. Ford played a grumpy charter pilot who, together with a passenger ( Anne Heche ), has to ditch next to a desert island.

In 2000, Ford (who until then had played almost exclusively positive characters) starred in Robert Zemeckis ' horror thriller Shadows of Truth alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in the unfamiliar role of a villainous husband who wants to murder his wife. While this film was also a worldwide box office hit, other films by the star failed to make it to the box office. The love drama Encounter of Fate (1999), the action drama K-19 - Showdown in the Deep (2002 - with Ford as Soviet submarine commander) and the action comedy Hollywood Cops (2003) fell far short of the box office results of earlier Ford films . The action thriller Firewall (2006), in which Ford was seen again as a family man who has to assert himself against criminals, was also unsuccessful. The criticism complained here that the now 64-year-old Ford was no longer believable in such action roles.

In 2004, after 21 years of marriage, Ford divorced his second wife, Melissa Mathison , with whom he has two children.

2008-2015

Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

In 2008, Harrison Ford appeared again in his most popular role, playing the adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones for the fourth time . In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , which was settled in 1957, the archaeologist - at the side of his son Henry ( Shia LaBeouf ) - had to deal with Soviet agents and dangerous aliens. The film received mixed reviews but became a huge box office hit with grossing $ 786 million worldwide. In an interview with MTV , Ford indicated that a fifth Indiana Jones film was possible. This project was specifically announced in March 2016. In 2012, the Walt Disney group acquired the rights to the Indiana Jones franchise from George Lucas and can now produce further episodes of the successful series. The film is to be shot with Ford in the lead and Steven Spielberg as director.

While he was able to celebrate a huge success as Indiana Jones , other films of the actor could hardly prevail at the box office. Films such as Crossing Over (2009), Exceptional Situation (2010), Morning Glory (2010), Paranoia - Riskantes Spiel (2013) and Ender's Game - Das große Spiel (2013) did not get much feedback from critics and audiences. Ford achieved solid success in 2011 with Cowboys & Aliens (a kind of science fiction action western) and in 2013 with the comedy Anchorman - The Legend Returns . In 2014 he appeared alongside a number of other stars (including Sylvester Stallone , Arnold Schwarzenegger , Mel Gibson ) in the action film The Expendables 3 as commanding officer Max Drummer. Ford received a lot of praise for his portrayal of baseball manager Branch Rickey in 42 - A True Sports Legend (2013) and for his role in Adaline Forever After (2015) alongside Blake Lively .

Since 2015: return to the roots

After more than 30 years, Ford took on the role of Han Solo again in the seventh film in the Star Wars saga in 2014 . Directed by JJ Abrams , he stars alongside Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher , who also star in their well-known Star Wars roles. Filming of Star Wars: The Force Awakens began in May 2014, but was delayed by an accident involving Harrison Ford, who broke his leg on the set of the film in June 2014. After his convalescence, the actor was able to resume filming. The film was released in December 2015 and became the second-largest movie in the series in the US after Star Wars .

After that, after 35 years, Ford took over the role of Rick Deckard again in Blade Runner 2049 . Directed by Denis Villeneuve , he starred alongside Ryan Gosling , Ana de Armas and Jared Leto to mostly positive reviews.

Call of the Wild , which is based on Jack London's novel Call of the Wild , will be shown in German cinemas with Ford on February 20, 2020 ; Directed by Chris Sanders . In the same year, he is said to play the adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones for the fifth time . Again directed by Steven Spielberg . The film is scheduled to be released on July 8, 2021.

Private

Ford with Calista Flockhart (2009)

On June 15, 2010 he married the actress Calista Flockhart , with whom he had lived since 2002, in Santa Fe ( New Mexico ). Harrison Ford is known for always shielding his private life from the public and avoiding Hollywood's party scene. Ford has four sons and one daughter from his three marriages.

In addition to his acting career, Ford is an avid aviator and environmentalist . In 2014 he appeared as a correspondent in the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously and reported from the peat forests of Indonesia on the effects of oil palm cultivation on the climate .

On March 5, 2015, Ford survived an emergency landing in a self -guided small aircraft, a Ryan ST Type ST-3KR, on the Penmar Golf Course in Venice Beach . Ford had to make an emergency landing for the former training aircraft from the Second World War after taking off from the airfield in Santa Monica due to technical difficulties with the engine on the golf course and was injured in the process. No other people were harmed.

Trivia

  • Until 1970 Ford was known under the name Harrison J. Ford in order not to be confused with the silent film actor Harrison Ford . In fact, he doesn't have a middle name at all.
  • Harrison Ford received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 . The silent film actor Ford also received such a star years earlier, so that there are occasional mix-ups.
  • In recognition of Ford's commitment to the environment, the ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi and the spider species Calponia harrisonfordi, discovered in 1993 by Norman I. Platnick , were named after him. He baptized a new species of butterfly in the name of his daughter Georgia.
  • The scar on the chin, which is explained in the third Indiana Jones part Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the fact that the young Indiana Jones (played by River Phoenix ) is clumsy with the whip, comes from a car accident at the age of 22 . The scar is also featured in a scene from Women’s Guns : first Ford pretends to have the scar from a guy with a knife in Detroit, only to admit that his girlfriend should have an ear pierced when he was 19. but passed out and hit the toilet with his chin.
  • Two of his film roles have found their way into the Lego world: Han Solo and Indiana Jones .
  • In 2009, Ford was ranked first in Forbes magazine's list of top-earning male actors with earnings of 65 million US dollars (the equivalent of 46 million euros, today's value 55 million euros).
  • Wolfgang Pampel was first used as Ford's dubbing voice for Star Wars . Since 1980 he has been the actor's sole voice actor.

Filmography

As an actor

As a producer

Awards

Harrison Ford's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

literature

  • Bernd Schulz / Willy Loderhose: Harrison Ford - Hollywood's secret superstar , Bastei, 1989, ISBN 978-3-404-61177-5
  • Paul Honeyford: Harrison Ford - His Films, His Life , Heyne, 1986, ISBN 3-453-03775-8

Web links

Commons : Harrison Ford  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harrison Ford Biography ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , thebiographychannel.co.uk (Retrieved January 20, 2013)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thebiographychannel.co.uk
  2. ^ Brad Duke: Harrison Ford - The Films McFarland & Company Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina 2005. p. 24.
  3. ↑ Kultur-Spiegel May 2008 (issue 5)
  4. ↑ Stephen Davis: Jim Morrison - Life, Death, Legend. Gotham, New York 2004. p. 265.
  5. ↑ When is a man a man? n-tv
  6. ↑ n-tv NEWS: Harrison Ford comments. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  7. ↑ http://www.zwentner.com/indiana-jones-5-ist-bestaetigt-und-kom-am-19-juli-2019-ins-kino/
  8. ↑ Disney Announces Fifth 'Indiana Jones' Movie. In: The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 15, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes: 42 (2103)
  10. ↑ The most successful films of all time, adjusted for inflation, USA. Retrieved January 11, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Blade Runner, 2049. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed January 11, 2018 .
  12. ^ Indiana Jones: Harrison Ford to appear in fifth film , BBC News. March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016. 
  13. ↑ "Indiana Jones 5" comes with Harrion Ford - and a new Indy? March 1, 2019, accessed May 12, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Harrison Ford marries Calista Flockhart on T-Online (accessed June 17, 2010)
  15. ↑ welt.de: Harrison Ford - simply cooler than Luke Skywalker, accessed on March 1, 2013
  16. ↑ Harrison Ford injured plane crash on NBC-News.com
  17. ↑ a b n-tv.de: Crash landing in California - Harrison Ford survived plane crash , accessed on March 6, 2015
  18. ↑ focus.de: Harrison Ford crashes in an airplane , accessed on March 6, 2015
  19. ↑ NTSB Identification: WPR15FA121
  20. ↑ lego.com: 30 years of LEGO® minifigure . ( Memento of June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Accessed September 13, 2012.
  21. ↑ IMDb: Obsessed , accessed July 16, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Ford, Harrison
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , USA