60 free Harrison Ford trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Harrison Ford was a self-taught carpenter building cabinets for Hollywood writers when George Lucas asked him to read lines opposite actors auditioning for Star Wars. This Harrison Ford trivia quiz follows the whole arc: the uncredited bellhop, the mysterious middle initial, American Graffiti, Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Rick Deckard, Jack Ryan, his lone Oscar nomination, and the late-career turn to television with 1923 and Shrinking. It also digs into the man off screen: the philosophy student expelled days before graduation, the Boy Scout rank that ended up in The Last Crusade, the ranch he gave half of to nature, the helicopter rescues, the golf-course crash landing, the spider and the ant named in his honour, and the awards from Cannes, the AFI and the Screen Actors Guild. Easy questions open each section and the deep cuts follow. Every answer was checked against Ford's Wikipedia biography, and each question shows its source once you have answered, so you can settle any argument at the table.
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Q 01In which city was Harrison Ford born?
Chicago
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.
Q 02In which year was Harrison Ford born?
1942
That made him 34 when Star Wars came out and 80 when the western series 1923 premiered.
Q 03Ford attended which small college, where he majored in philosophy?
Ripon
The self-described late bloomer only took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year, to get over his shyness.
Q 04For what offence was Ford expelled from college four days before graduation?
Plagiarism
He never got the degree, but the drama class he took that final term set him on the road to Los Angeles.
Q 05Which Boy Scout rank did Ford reach, later written into young Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade?
Life
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.
Q 06Ford's first known film role, in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), was an uncredited part as what?
A bellhop
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.
Q 07Why was Ford briefly credited as "Harrison J. Ford" early in his career?
To avoid confusion with a silent-film actor of the same name
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.
Q 08A Time for Killing (1967) gave Harrison his first screen credit; which unrelated actor sharing his surname starred in it?
Glenn Ford
The cast also included George Hamilton and Inger Stevens; Ford soon dropped the fake middle initial and drifted into TV bit parts.
Q 09Which trade did Ford teach himself to support his family when acting work dried up?
Carpentry
His clients included Hollywood writers, and the skill kept him afloat for years between small television roles.
Q 10Which writing couple, living on the beach at Malibu, hired Ford to do woodwork in his lean years?
Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne
The families became friends, and Ford later appeared in the documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.
Q 11What was the name of the drag-racing character Ford played in American Graffiti (1973)?
Bob Falfa
Casting director Fred Roos championed him for the part, and the relationship with director George Lucas reshaped his career.
Q 12Which director hired the struggling actor to expand his office, then cast him in The Conversation?
Francis Ford Coppola
The office job came right after The Godfather made its director rich enough to need more space.
Q 13Ford's army colonel in Apocalypse Now carries the name of which real filmmaker on his uniform?
G. Lucas
It was an in-joke aimed at his American Graffiti director, who was originally attached to make Apocalypse Now himself.
Q 21Which director made The Mosquito Coast (1986) with Ford, who credits him with two career-best experiences?
Peter Weir
The pair had already worked together the previous year, and Ford has said both experiences were career highlights.
Q 22In Working Girl (1988), Ford was the romantic lead opposite which two actresses?
Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver
The comedy-drama earned a Best Picture nomination, one of six Ford films to do so between 1977 and 1997.
Q 23Ford took over the role of Jack Ryan from which actor, who reportedly resented it for years?
Alec Baldwin
Q 14How did Ford end up being cast as Han Solo in Star Wars (1977)?
He was hired to read lines opposite auditioning actors
Lucas had not planned to reuse his American Graffiti actor, but the line readings won him over.
Q 15Ford wanted Han Solo killed off in which film, saying it would give the story "a bottom"?
Return of the Jedi
Lucas refused; the character finally met his end more than three decades later.
Q 16In the 1979 comedy western The Frisco Kid, Ford played a bank robber opposite which comic star?
Gene Wilder
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.
Q 17Lucas only agreed to cast Ford as Indiana Jones after which actor was unable to take the part?
Tom Selleck
Lucas was reluctant because he had already used Ford twice; Spielberg came round after watching The Empire Strikes Back.
Q 18What injury forced Ford to fly home from London for surgery during the 1983 shoot of Temple of Doom?
A herniated disc in his back
He was 40 at the time and returned to the set six weeks later.
Q 19What is the name of Ford's character in Blade Runner?
Rick Deckard
Ford called the shoot a long slog and has disagreed with director Ridley Scott about the character's nature for decades.
Q 20Ford's only Academy Award nomination came for which 1985 film?
Witness
He picked up BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for the same performance as a detective hiding among the Amish.
The predecessor had played Ryan in The Hunt for Red October and claimed Ford negotiated with Paramount behind his back.
Q 24Ford played Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992) and which other Tom Clancy adaptation?
Clear and Present Danger
Anne Archer and James Earl Jones co-starred in both films.
Q 25Which actor played the marshal chasing Ford through The Fugitive (1993)?
Tommy Lee Jones
Roger Ebert wrote that Ford was once again the great modern movie everyman in the film.
Q 26Ford's Sabrina (1995) was a remake of a classic film from which year?
1954
It was one of two films he made with Sydney Pollack, a director he collaborated with twice like Weir, Pakula, Nichols and Noyce.
Q 27Donald Trump once named which Ford film as his favourite because the character "stood up for America"?
Air Force One
Ford replied that it was just a movie and went on to endorse Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.
Q 28Which 2000 supernatural thriller was the box-office bright spot in Ford's run of disappointments?
What Lies Beneath
It made over $291 million worldwide while films like K-19: The Widowmaker and Six Days, Seven Nights fell flat.
Q 29Ford regrets turning down which 2004 thriller, whose role won George Clooney an Oscar?
Syriana
He had earlier passed on another Stephen Gaghan script, Traffic, whose role went to Michael Douglas.
Q 30In the baseball film 42 (2013), Ford played which real Brooklyn Dodgers executive?
Branch Rickey
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.