Over the course of his career,
Harrison Ford has become one of the most popularly acclaimed
actors of our time. Aside from his acting career, he also
has a deep interest and passion for aviation, which has led
him to assume the Chairmanship of EAA’s Young Eagles program
on March 8, 2004.
After earning his private pilot certificate in 1996, Ford
has added a number of additional ratings to his aviation
resume, including a taildragger endorsement and ratings to
fly single-engine seaplanes, helicopters and on instruments.
He owns several aircraft including a deHavilland Beaver;
Bell 407 helicopter; an Aviat Husky; a Beech A-36 Bonanza
and a Cessna Grand Caravan. A member of EAA since 1996, Ford
is an EAA Young Eagle Flight Leader with EAA Chapter 1049
and has flown nearly 250 Young Eagles in his Beaver and
helicopter since he first participated in the program in
2001.
His body of work includes more than 35 feature films, 10 of
which have exceeded $100 million each at the box office.
Through his starring roles in such cinematic blockbusters as
the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, The Fugitive, Air
Force One and Patriot Games, he has come to embody the
quintessential American hero for moviegoers around the
world.
An Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for his performance in the
suspense thriller Witness (1985), Ford also earned Golden
Globe nominations for his starring roles in Sabrina (1995),
The Fugitive (1993), and The Mosquito Coast (1986). The
National Association of Theatre Owners named him Star of the
Century in 1994. People picked Ford as “The Sexiest Man
Alive” in 1998 and that same year, he won the People’s
Choice Award as Favorite All Time Movie Star Picture Actor.
In 1999, he won the People’s Choice Award as Favorite All
Time Movie Star and, again, in 2000 they named him Favorite
Motion Picture Actor. Also in the year 2000, he received the
prestigious Life Achievement Award from the American Film
Institute. In 2002, the Golden Globes honored him with the
Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Born in Chicago, Ford attended Ripon College in Wisconsin
before moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He
began as a contract player with Columbia Pictures, making
his film debut in the crime drama Dead Heat on a
Merry-Go-Round (1966). After a small role in Getting
Straight (1970), he resolved not to let his career choices
be dictated by financial concerns, so he turned to carpentry
while he waited for the right role.
In 1973, after a three-year hiatus from the screen, George
Lucas cast him in American Graffiti. The next year, he
landed a prominent supporting part in Francis Ford Coppola’s
The Conversation, which was followed by an important role in
Stanley Kramer’s Television production of Judgment: The
Court Martial of Lt William Calley.
Ford returned to features in 1977 when Lucas cast him as the
cocky rebel starship pilot Han Solo in Star Wars, the film
that shattered all box office records and made Ford a
household name. He went on to star in Hanover Street (1978)
and The Frisco Kid (1979), and had cameo roles in Apocalypse
Now (1979) and More American Graffiti (1979), before being
cast by Steven Spielberg as intrepid adventurer Indiana
Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). The movie became
another of the highest-grossing films of all time.
Between the Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
and Return of the Jedi (1983) and the Raiders sequels
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Ford starred in a number
of other memorable films. In Blade Runner (1982), he
delivered a gritty performance as a cop in the nihilistic
future of Los Angeles. He earned critical acclaim and an
Oscar nomination for his role as a cop on the lam, hiding
out in Amish country, in Witness (1985). Ford followed that
with a daring portrayal of an eccentric idealistic inventor
in The Mosquito Coast (1986). He went on to play a Hitchcock
protagonist in Frantic (1988) before showing his flair for
romantic comedy in Working Girl (1988).
In the last ten years, Ford has starred in 13 films. He
played a lawyer accused of murder in Presumed Innocent
(1990), an arrogant yuppie transformed by a mugger’s bullet
in Regarding Henry (1991), the heroic ex-CIA agent Jack Ryan
in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994),
a doctor wrongly convicted of murdering his wife in The
Fugitive (1993), a deeply committed New York City cop in The
Devil’s Own (1997) and President James Marshall in Air Force
One (1997). He also starred in the remake of Sabrina (1995)
in the role originated by Humphrey Bogart.
Ford’s most recent credits include the romantic action
comedy Six Days, Seven Nights (1998) in which he did his own
flying, the romantic drama Random Hearts (1999) and the
thriller What Lies Beneath (2000). In 2002, his film,
“K-19”, a drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow and also
starring Liam Neeson, was released. June of 2003 saw the
release of “Hollywood Homicide” which was directed by Ron
Shelton and along with Harrison starred Josh Hartnett.
Ford returned to big screen in
"Firewall"
(2006),” directed by Richard Loncraine and starring Paul
Bettany and Virginia Madsen.
Most recently, he has been involved in the filming of the
fourth Indiana Jones movie, which is scheduled for release
on May 22, 2008.
Strongly committed to environmental concerns, Ford is
actively involved in a number of conservation groups. He
serves on the Board of Directors of Conservation
International. He lives in Jackson, Wyoming where he donated
389 acres of his property for a conservation easement to the
Jackson Hole Land Trust.
His most recent awards are: Heart of the City Award from
City Harvest for fighting hunger, NRDC—Forces for Nature,
the Lindbergh Foundation for balance between technology and
the environment, the Distinguished Humanitarian Award from
the B’nai B’rith also for his environmental work, the World
Stunt Awards and on May 30, 2003 he received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. |
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Harrison Ford, actor, pilot and EAA Young Eagles Chairman.
Harrison Ford explains the brake system on his deHavilland
Beaver. Mr. Ford has flown nearly 250 EAA Young Eagles since
2001.
Harrison Ford talks about his experiences with Young Eagles
and flying at Theater in the Woods during EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh 2005 |
