Monday, June 18, 2012

Harrison Ford: His Career and Life

By Sredna Nesegleh


Harrison Ford is one of the most recognized actors in the entire role. While most people recognize him from his roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, he has been in dozens and dozens of other movies that have had success and failure. While he is a great actor, this is not what his whole life is about, however, as he has many varied interests and has a family as well.

Beginnings

Harrison Ford was born to a former actress and actor on July 13, 1942. His upbringing was that of a normal child, including being in the Boy Scouts and achieving its second highest rank. Chicago, Illinois was his first home and he was raised in an Irish-Jewish household. His mother, Dorothy, stayed at home with the kids, while his father, Christopher, was an advertising executive. In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, where he was the first student voice broadcasted on the school's radio station. He then went on to attend college, where he took a drama class during his senior year to get over his shyness.

Harrison and His Career Start

Although he did not find success in the voice-over world at this time, he did manage to get contract work with Columbia Pictures' New Talent program. He did small bit parts in movies and made $150 a week doing that, even though he was not credited for any of his parts. The first credited role that Harrison Ford had was in the 1967 Western, A Time for Killing. While he had other roles in many different television roles, including Gunsmoke, Ironside, American Style, Kung Fu, and Love, American Style. The roles that he was cast in were not satisfactory to Ford, however, so he taught himself some carpentry skills and took some time away from making movies to make money for his family. He worked for George Lucas-making him some cabinets, and this was the turning point that he never expected.

Cabinet Making to Star Making

His cabinets that he created for George Lucas must have been really nice, because they had a big part of Harrison getting the role in Star Wars that changed his entire life. He was cast in the role of Han Solo by George Lucas, and this moved him from carpentry to superstar. He starred in the other movies in this series and went on to star in the title role of Indiana Jones in this series of movies. This helped him to solidify his stardom. Dozens of other movies followed these, including Air Force One, Patriot Games, Extraordinary Measures, and Cowboys & Aliens.

Harrison and His Personal Life

Ford tends to keep his personal life just that - personal, but he has been married three times, the latest of which is his marriage to Calista Flockhart. He has five children and three grandchildren. His interests include aviation, as well as environmental causes, politics, archaeology, and community work.

Han Solo and Indiana Jones are two of the characters that Harrison Ford has made his own to the great delight of entertainment lovers everywhere. He has a great personal life that is full of joy and fun, and makes time for his career in acting and producing movies and programs that are well loved by people all over the world. His multi-dimensional skills and talents, including being a pilot, are what makes him so interesting and keeps people lining up at the movie theater time and time again. Harrison Ford is one actor that you want to keep an eye on as he continues to entertain.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment