Below is a compiled list of the most interesting facts about Harrison Ford. Check it out!
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, Belarus. Harrison was a lackluster student at Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge Illinois (no athletic star, never above a C average). After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he did some acting and later summer stock, he signed a Hollywood contract with Columbia and later Universal. His roles in movies and television (Ironside (1967), The Virginian (1962)) remained secondary and, discouraged, he turned to a career in professional carpentry. He came back big four years later, however, as Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1973). Four years after that, he hit colossal with the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). Another four years and Ford was Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Interesting Facts about Harrison Ford
- He studied at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, but left without obtaining a degree.
- On 31 July 2000, he piloted his helicopter to rescue dehydrated 20-year-old hiker Sarah George from Table Mountain near his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
- He became the highest grossing actor of all time with the combined gross of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) including forty one of his previous films, totaling $4.7 billion.
- Because of his Blade Runner (1982) popularity, he became a product spokesperson for Japanese electronics in the 1980s.
- He graduated high school in the same class as Robert Piepho, the Dean of the UMKC School of Pharmacy.
- He turned down the role of Judge Robert Wakefield in the movie Traffic (2000), which went to Michael Douglas.
- He said that Blade Runner (1982) was one of the most frustrating films he had ever done, because the actual shoot was very grueling and because of the post-production changes which were meant to (but did not) help the film do better at the box office.
- He has played two (fictional) United States Presidents. In Air Force One (1997), he plays President James Marshall. In Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), based on Tom Clancy’s series of books, he plays Jack Ryan. Although he did not play the actual President in those films, in Clancy’s series Ryan is appointed Vice President and later succeeds to the Oval Office when the President dies.
- He sits on the Board of Directors for Conservation International.
- He appeared in four films with Michael Sheard: Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
- One of his jobs in his early acting days was as a roadie on tour with The Doors.
- He said one of the things he enjoyed most about making both Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986) was getting to apply his real life skills as a carpenter (example: the barn raising scene from Witness (1985)).
Personal Quotes by Harrison Ford
I went down to Venezuela and ended up renting a helicopter and flew with my sons to the tops of the tepuis, these freestanding jungle mesas, ‘lost worlds’ as it were. In fact, it’s almost impossible to access them without one. So we were able to land and spend some time there. We were trapped for about six hours by clouds that came in.
Harrison Ford
Am I grumpy? I might be. But I think maybe sometimes it’s misinterpreted.
Harrison Ford
I am Irish as a person, but I feel Jewish as an actor.
Harrison Ford
Nature doesn’t need people – people need nature; nature would survive the extinction of the human being and go on just fine, but human culture, human beings, cannot survive without nature.
Harrison Ford
The kindest word to describe my performance in school was Sloth.
Harrison Ford
