Biography: Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford has starred in some of the most successful and acclaimed films in cinema history, including the landmark “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises and a total of eight Best Picture Oscar®-nominated movies. Ford earned an Academy Award® nomination for his compelling portrayal of Detective John Book in Peter Weir’s 1985 Oscar®-nominated hit “Witness,” for which he also received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations, all for Best Actor. Ford subsequently garnered three more Best Actor Golden Globe nominations: for his performances in Weir’s 1986 drama “The Mosquito Coast”; the 1994 Oscar®-nominated blockbuster “The Fugitive,” for director Andrew Davis; and Sydney Pollack’s 1996 remake of “Sabrina.”

Over the course of his illustrious career, Ford has also been repeatedly honored for his contributions to the film industry, including the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, in 2002, and the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2000. In 1994, the National Association of Theater Owners named him the Box Office Star of the Century.

A native of Chicago, Ford launched his film career in 1973 with the breakthrough role of hot-rodder Bob Falfa in George Lucas’s seminal hit, “American Graffiti.” Four years later, he reunited with Lucas to play the iconic role of Han Solo in “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.” The sci-fi epic earned 12 Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture, and went on to become the top-grossing film in history, a record it held for 20 years. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the sequels “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi.”

In 1981, Ford created another legendary screen character, Indiana Jones, in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar®-nominated mega-hit “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” During the 1980s, he starred in the blockbuster sequels “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” In 2008, he returned to the title role in the hugely successful “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

Ford’s many other film credits include Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar®-nominated features “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now”; Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction classic “Blade Runner”; Mike Nichols’ Oscar®-nominated romantic comedy “Working Girl”; the title role in the Nichols-directed drama “Regarding Henry”; Alan J. Pakula’s “Presumed Innocent”; Philip Noyce’s “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger,” both based on the Tom Clancy bestsellers; Wolfgang Petersen’s “Air Force One”; Robert Zemeckis’s “What Lies Beneath”; Kathryn Bigelow’s “K-19: The Widowmaker,” which he also executive produced; Roger Michell’s “Morning Glory”; and Jon Favreau’s “Cowboys & Aliens.”

This fall, Ford will star in two much-anticipated films: Gavin Hood’s “Ender’s Game,” a sci-fi film adaptation of the novel by Orson Scott Card; and the Robert Luketic-directed thriller “Paranoia,” based on the novel by Joseph Finder.

This biography/filmography of Harrison Ford is courtesy of Warner Brothers and the film, 42