Harrison Ford is one of the few original Star Wars actors who has done a very good job of avoiding being typecast as his ionic character. There is at least one other character, who albeit is fairly similar to Han Solo, but it is a different franchise, and Ford has made many appearances in many big movies, playing vastly different characters.
While his career has slowed down somewhat in recent years, Ford has kept busy in the world of acting and many other areas. This includes appearing in the Disney Star Wars films and even being cast to appear in a fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, in which he is set to play the titular character - the film is set to be released sometime in 2022.
Ford is infamously secretive about his thoughts and his life, so it might be good for fans of his to learn some of the more interesting facts about his life. So let's go over a few things about Harrison Ford that everyone should know.
15 Early Life
Harrison Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in the windy city of Chicago, Illinois, on July 13, 1942. His mother Dorothy was a former radio actress and his father John William "Christopher" Ford was a former actor himself and an advertising executive. Harrison also has an older brother named Terence who also acted for a time.
14 College Try
After Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1960 he attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Ford took an acting class as a bird course, but then found he really enjoyed it.
13 Bit Roles
After doing some theatre work, Ford pursued his acting career by moving to California and signing a $150-per-week contract with Columbia Pictures' new talent program, playing bit roles in films. His first known role was an uncredited one as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966).
12 Offending A Producer
Ford had to do these bit roles for quite a while and was actually on the bottom of the call list for these roles. This is because at some point Harrison was working one of these roles and offended producer Jerry Tokovsky by not portraying the role of a bellhop like a movie star enough.
11 First Credited Role
Ford was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the 1967 Western film, A Time for Killing, starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. This was kind of odd as Harrison Ford does not have a middle name so that J was put in there presumably because the director thought it looked cool.
10 Becoming A Carpenter
Ford married Mary Marquardt soon after he finished college in 1964 and the two had young sons soon after moving to California and Ford started acting. The 150 dollar paycheck that he received each month was enough to help support his family so he taught himself carpentry and worked as a carpenter.
9 Meeting George Lucas
Casting director and fledgling producer Fred Roos was a big fan of Ford and believed that the young actor could become a star. Roos secured Ford an audition for the George Lucas film American Grafitti and the two became friends. George helped Harrison meet other directors, which secured Ford's other roles.
8 Becoming Han Solo
Ford was brought in by George Lucas to help with the line reading for the Star Wars auditions. Lucas was eventually won over by Ford's performance during these line reads and cast him as Han Solo. This has easily become one of if not the role that Harrison Ford is known for.
7 Wanting To Kill Han Solo
When filming began for Return of the Jedi, Harrison Ford made many suggestions to George Lucas that Han Solo should die at the end of the film saying, "That would have given the whole film a bottom," but Lucas refused. Ford later got his wish with Solo's death at the end of The Force Awakens
6 Becoming Indiana Jones
Ford continued to star in leading roles as he took on the job of becoming Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Lucas actually wanted to cast Tom Selleck as Indie, but after Sellek dropout out, Ford took the role.
