Ford, Harrison

Ford, Harrison (1942- ), American film actor, born in Chicago, who established himself as a leading star through his portrayal of the character Indiana Jones in a trilogy of films by Steven Spielberg. Ford started out in 1966 playing small roles in film and on television. He appeared in supporting roles in American Graffiti (1973; George Lucas), and The Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979), both directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Ford’s first leading role was as Han Solo in Star Wars (1977) and its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He was also prominently cast in Force Ten from Navarone (1978) and the cult science-fiction film Blade Runner (1982; Ridley Scott). He became a major star with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which was followed by the sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Ford has also starred in a number of films in which he played characters undergoing moral or emotional crises, including Witness (1985), Frantic (1988), Presumed Innocent (1990), Regarding Henry (1991), Patriot Games (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), The Devil's Own, and Air Force One (both 1997). His talent for comedy was seen in Working Girl (1988), Sabrina (1995), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), and Hollywood Homicide (2003). He starred in the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath, directed by Robert Zemeckis, in 2000, and in K-19: The Widowmaker in 2002, the story of the USSR’s first nuclear submarine. In 2006 Ford played a bank security expert whose family are kidnapped by a gang of ruthless extortionists in the suspense thriller Firewall.