60 Fun Facts About Harrison Ford

In which city was Harrison Ford born?

He was born at Swedish Covenant Hospital in the Lincoln Square neighbourhood, the son of an advertising executive who had been a vaudeville and radio actor.

In which year was Harrison Ford born?

That made him 34 when Star Wars came out and 80 when the western series 1923 premiered.

Ford attended which small college, where he majored in philosophy?

The self-described late bloomer only took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year, to get over his shyness.

For what offence was Ford expelled from college four days before graduation?

He never got the degree, but the drama class he took that final term set him on the road to Los Angeles.

Which Boy Scout rank did Ford reach, later written into young Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade?

As a teenager he worked at a Scout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge, which is one reason Indy hates snakes on screen.

Ford's first known film role, in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), was an uncredited part as what?

A producer reportedly told him Tony Curtis could deliver groceries and still look like a star; Ford shot back that a real actor would deliver them like a bellhop.

Why was Ford briefly credited as "Harrison J. Ford" early in his career?

The J stood for nothing; he has no middle name. He only learned of the earlier Harrison Ford when he spotted the man's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

A Time for Killing (1967) gave Harrison his first screen credit; which unrelated actor sharing his surname starred in it?

The cast also included George Hamilton and Inger Stevens; Ford soon dropped the fake middle initial and drifted into TV bit parts.

Which trade did Ford teach himself to support his family when acting work dried up?

His clients included Hollywood writers, and the skill kept him afloat for years between small television roles.

Which writing couple, living on the beach at Malibu, hired Ford to do woodwork in his lean years?

The families became friends, and Ford later appeared in the documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.

What was the name of the drag-racing character Ford played in American Graffiti (1973)?

Casting director Fred Roos championed him for the part, and the relationship with director George Lucas reshaped his career.

Which director hired the struggling actor to expand his office, then cast him in The Conversation?

The office job came right after The Godfather made its director rich enough to need more space.

Ford's army colonel in Apocalypse Now carries the name of which real filmmaker on his uniform?

It was an in-joke aimed at his American Graffiti director, who was originally attached to make Apocalypse Now himself.

How did Ford end up being cast as Han Solo in Star Wars (1977)?

Lucas had not planned to reuse his American Graffiti actor, but the line readings won him over.

Ford wanted Han Solo killed off in which film, saying it would give the story "a bottom"?

Lucas refused; the character finally met his end more than three decades later.

In the 1979 comedy western The Frisco Kid, Ford played a bank robber opposite which comic star?

The same year he was fourth-billed in Apocalypse Now and led Hanover Street, a run of parts between the first two Star Wars films.

Lucas only agreed to cast Ford as Indiana Jones after which actor was unable to take the part?

Lucas was reluctant because he had already used Ford twice; Spielberg came round after watching The Empire Strikes Back.

What injury forced Ford to fly home from London for surgery during the 1983 shoot of Temple of Doom?

He was 40 at the time and returned to the set six weeks later.

What is the name of Ford's character in Blade Runner?

Ford called the shoot a long slog and has disagreed with director Ridley Scott about the character's nature for decades.

Ford's only Academy Award nomination came for which 1985 film?

He picked up BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for the same performance as a detective hiding among the Amish.

Which director made The Mosquito Coast (1986) with Ford, who credits him with two career-best experiences?

The pair had already worked together the previous year, and Ford has said both experiences were career highlights.

In Working Girl (1988), Ford was the romantic lead opposite which two actresses?

The comedy-drama earned a Best Picture nomination, one of six Ford films to do so between 1977 and 1997.

Ford took over the role of Jack Ryan from which actor, who reportedly resented it for years?

The predecessor had played Ryan in The Hunt for Red October and claimed Ford negotiated with Paramount behind his back.

Ford played Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992) and which other Tom Clancy adaptation?

Anne Archer and James Earl Jones co-starred in both films.

Which actor played the marshal chasing Ford through The Fugitive (1993)?

Roger Ebert wrote that Ford was once again the great modern movie everyman in the film.

Ford's Sabrina (1995) was a remake of a classic film from which year?

It was one of two films he made with Sydney Pollack, a director he collaborated with twice like Weir, Pakula, Nichols and Noyce.

Donald Trump once named which Ford film as his favourite because the character "stood up for America"?

Ford replied that it was just a movie and went on to endorse Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

Which 2000 supernatural thriller was the box-office bright spot in Ford's run of disappointments?

It made over $291 million worldwide while films like K-19: The Widowmaker and Six Days, Seven Nights fell flat.

Ford regrets turning down which 2004 thriller, whose role won George Clooney an Oscar?

He had earlier passed on another Stephen Gaghan script, Traffic, whose role went to Michael Douglas.

In the baseball film 42 (2013), Ford played which real Brooklyn Dodgers executive?

He wore a fat suit and prosthetics and worked with a voice coach; he has since called it one of the roles he is proudest of.

Ford starred opposite which James Bond actor in the 2011 genre mash-up Cowboys & Aliens?

Promoting the film at Comic-Con, a surprised Ford told the crowd he had only ever wanted to make a living as an actor.

What fell on Ford during filming of The Force Awakens in 2014, sending him to hospital in Oxford?

He was off set for about two months, and the crew shot him from the waist up for a while after he returned.

Which director made Blade Runner 2049 (2017), in which Ford reprised his replicant-hunting role?

The sequel was warmly reviewed but grossed $259 million against a reported $400 million break-even point.

Ford's first voice role in an animated film was as a dog named what in The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)?

The gruff farm dog was a natural fit for a voice audiences had known for four decades.

In The Call of the Wild (2020), Ford played which prospector from Jack London's novel?

The film's theatrical run was cut short by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Which co-star of Ford's in the Paramount+ series 1923 had acted with him 36 years earlier?

The two had shared the screen in The Mosquito Coast in 1986.

The comedy series Shrinking, which earned Ford his first Emmy nominations, streams on which service?

He accepted both Shrinking and 1923 without having seen a script.

Ford entered the MCU in 2025 playing which character, taking over from the late William Hurt?

The film was Captain America: Brave New World, opposite Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America.

Ford met his third wife, Calista Flockhart, at which 2002 event?

He proposed over Valentine's Day weekend in 2009, seven years after they met.

Ford and Flockhart married in 2010 in which city, where he was filming at the time?

The shoot was for Cowboys & Aliens, and the wedding took place on 15 June.

Ford's second wife, Melissa Mathison, worked in what profession?

They were married from 1983 and had two children; Mathison died in 2015.

In which 2016 memoir did Carrie Fisher reveal an affair with Ford during Star Wars?

Fisher based the account on diaries she kept on set in 1976, aged 19.

How many children does Ford have in total?

Four are biological, from his first two marriages, and one was adopted by Flockhart before they met.

Which aircraft does Ford say he flies more than any other, praising the sound of its radial engine?

According to Ford, the plane once flew in the CIA's Air America operations and arrived riddled with bullet holes.

Where did Ford crash-land his vintage plane in March 2015 after it lost engine power?

He broke his pelvis and ankle in the crash of what was believed to be a Ryan PT-22 Recruit.

Which famous pilot replaced Ford as chairman of the EAA's Young Eagles programme in 2009?

He had flown more than 280 children himself and, in 2016, piloted the programme's two-millionth Young Eagle.

Ford has served since 1991 as vice chair of which environmental organisation?

In 2019 he addressed the UN Climate Action Summit on its behalf about the destruction of the Amazon.

A species of what was named Calponia harrisonfordi in Ford's honour in 1993?

An ant, Pheidole harrisonfordi, followed in 2002, and a Peruvian snake, Tachymenoides harrisonfordi, in 2023.

In 1995 Ford testified before a US Senate committee in support of whom?

He later narrated the 2007 documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance.

Ford's 2000 AFI Life Achievement Award was presented to him by which two collaborators?

The pair had launched his stardom with Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark two decades earlier.

In 1987 a jet carrying Ford and Clint Eastwood developed an engine fire and had to land in which US city?

The Paris-to-Los Angeles flight also carried Sondra Locke; a replacement jet flew the group out the next day.

For which band did Ford work as a camera operator on tour in 1968?

It was one of many odd jobs in the years when Columbia's talent programme had all but written him off.

Ford has an uncredited role as an arrested student protester in which 1970 Michelangelo Antonioni film?

The same year the head of Columbia told Jacques Demy that Ford had no future in film and blocked him from starring in Model Shop.

Ford's ranch, roughly half of which he has donated as a nature reserve, is in which state?

The 800-acre spread near Jackson has been his base since the 1980s, and he flies rescue missions from there for the county search-and-rescue team.

Harrison Ford was the first student voice on which suburban Illinois high school's radio station?

He graduated from the Park Ridge school in 1960, the same town where Hillary Clinton grew up.

As a Boy Scout camp counselor, Ford taught which merit badge, later a nod in Indiana Jones's snake phobia?

He worked at Napowan Adventure Base, and he and Spielberg wrote the young Indy as a Life Scout in The Last Crusade.

Ford is a General Trustee of the continent's oldest archaeology body, known by which initials?

He helps the group raise public awareness of archaeology and fight looting and the illegal antiquities trade.

Ford is an honorary board member of which humanitarian aviation organisation?

He has also funded Sean Tucker's Bob Hoover Academy, which teaches at-risk teens in California to fly.

In 2020, Ford and Mark Hamill narrated an anti-Trump election ad for which Republican group?

The ad attacked Trump's disparaging of Anthony Fauci; Ford, a lifelong Democrat, endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024.

Ford's 2025 inaugural Legacy Award for Transformative Conservation Leadership honours which biologist?

In 2019 he told the UN Climate Action Summit that adults should 'get the hell out of the way' of angry young activists.