Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. Regarded as a cinematic cultural icon, Ford's accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes and two SAG-AFTRA's Actor Awards. He is also the recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award, Honorary César, Honorary Palme d'Or and SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award. After making his screen debut in 1966 and early supporting roles in the films American Graffiti (1973) and The Conversation (1974), Ford achieved global stardom for portraying Han Solo in the space opera film Star Wars (1977), a role he reprised in four subsequent films for the eponymous franchise spanning the next four decades. He also received recognition for his portrayal of the titular character in the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023); Rick Deckard in the Blade Runner franchise (1982–2017); and Jack Ryan in the action thriller films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These roles established him as an action hero and one of Hollywood's most bankable stars from the late 1970s into the early 2000s. Ford's performance in the thriller film Witness (1985) earned him his sole Oscar nomination for Best Actor. His other films include The Mosquito Coast (1986); Working Girl (1988); Presumed Innocent (1990); The Fugitive (1993); Sabrina (1995); The Devil's Own (1997); Air Force One (1997); Six Days, Seven Nights (1998); What Lies Beneath (2000); K-19: The Widowmaker (2002); Cowboys & Aliens (2011); 42 (2013); The Age of Adaline (2015); The Call of the Wild (2020); and Captain America: Brave New World (2025). Ford has also starred in the Paramount+ western series 1923 (2022–2025) and the Apple TV+ comedy series Shrinking (since 2023), earning two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards for the latter. Outside acting, Ford is a licensed pilot. He has often assisted the emergency services in rescue missions near his home in Wyoming and he chaired an aviation education program for youth from 2004 to 2009. Ford is also an environmental activist, having served as the inaugural vice chair of Conservation International since 1991.
Early life and education Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942, at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in the Lincoln Square community area of Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former vaudeville and radio actor John William "Christopher" Ford. His mother has been described as a radio actress, but Harrison Ford denies this, and the attribution may be due to confusion with the unrelated actress and model Dorothy Ford. Ford's younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945. Their father was an Irish Catholic, while their mother was an Ashkenazi Jew whose parents were emigrants from Minsk, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire. When asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded "Democrat" and more seriously stated that they were raised to be "liberals of every stripe". When asked about what influence his Jewish and Irish Catholic ancestry may have had on him, he quipped, "As a man I've always felt Irish, as an actor I've always felt Jewish." Ford was a Boy Scout, achieving the second-highest rank of Life Scout. He worked at Napowan Adventure Base Scout Camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Ford graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. A self-described "late bloomer", Ford took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness and became fascinated with acting. Ford was expelled from college for plagiarism four days before graduation.
Career
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