Born on July 13, 1942, in Chicago, Harrison Ford has built a career on playing wise-cracking tough guys who just might be hiding a sensitive side under their gruff – and handsome – exterior.
To celebrate his 81st birthday, here are our picks for his best movie roles — from Indian Jones to Han Solo.
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Ford almost didn’t land his most iconic role. Director George Lucas worked with a fresh-faced Ford in “American Graffiti” where he played a cocky teenager in the carpenter-turned-actor’s first major movie role in 1973. Lucas wanted new actors for his space odyssey and merely brought Ford in to read lines with other potential cast members during the audition process. He did so well, he won the part and the rest is movie history.
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Ford is the innocent man in the action-thriller in which he is on the run from the law. Here he balances his quick wit and book smarts with a driving desperation to clear his name and track down the infamous one-armed man who murdered his wife.
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Long before they teamed up on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, Ford starred in “Regarding Henry”, a drama penned by a young J.J. Abrams. Ford stars as a workaholic Manhattan lawyer with questionable morals who gets shot during a convenience store holdup, resulting in brain damage and amnesia. Now in recovery, Henry becomes a vulnerable man who tries to rebuild his life. Playing both sides of the character gives Ford a chance to show his true range as an actor.
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Next to Han Solo, Ford’s second-most synonymous role is that of archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones in the four-movie anthology. Ford is at his charismatic best when he’s cracking a whip and a joke while out-running a boulder in “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” or sparring with his onscreen pop Sean Connery in “The Last Crusade”.
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Harrison Ford in a romantic comedy? Yes, please. It’s a side of the actor audiences don’t often get to see. Playing a total cad opposite Melanie Griffith in the 1988 film, he flips his gruff persona on its head and gets to exude the boyish charm normally reserved for a galaxy far, far away.
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While it’s not the best Ford movie, “What Lies Beneath” gives us a great performance as the actor plays against type as a devious and philandering husband with buried secrets at the centre of the ghost story. Like Ford, Norman Spencer is used to being seen as the good guy and hero so his deception in the thriller makes his fall from grace all the more entertaining. It’s a treat to see him go dark in the pulpy box office hit.
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Considered a sci-fi noir masterpiece, 1982’s “Blade Runner” sees Ford as jaded replicant hunter Rick Deckard. Emotionally drained, morally ambiguous Ford’s dramatic and weighty turn symbolizes everything about what it means to be human in a world full of androids. He’d later reprise his cult role in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” opposite Ryan Gosling.
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Ford landed his first -- and so far, only -- Academy Award nomination for playing a detective who travels to Amish country in order to protect a young witness (Lukas Haas) to a murder. Cultures collide as Ford’s John Book falls in love with Amish woman Kelly McGillis in the tense drama that’s all about decisions and consequences.
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Ford ditches his usual cool tough-guy persona to show a more vulnerable side as a desperate man who wants to recover his wife from kidnappers in Roman Polanski’s “Frantic”. Set in a cold and unfriendly Paris, Ford’s character is an ordinary man in an extraordinary circumstance who makes even the most far-fetched situation involving a terrorist smuggling plot wholly believable – and riveting.
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As CIA analyst Jack Ryan, Ford is a determined and reluctant action hero who keeps finding himself – and his family – in dangerous situations in both “Patriot Games” and in followup “Clear And Present Danger”. His unwavering drive to do the right thing makes him a driven and relatable protagonist.
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Harrison Ford takes the action to the skies to face off against Gary Oldman as a Russian terrorist after his plane — Air Force One — is hijacked. Portraying the President of the United States, he’s definitely one no-nonsense Commander In Chief, winning bad-a*s points by getting to growl one of the 1990s’ best lines of dialogue in any action movie — “Get off my plane” — before pushing someone out the air craft door. Marshall, a veteran, finds himself in a do-or-die hostage situation, fighting to rescue his family and everyone else on board.