Harrison Ford

In 2003, he was ranked #8 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s.

Dragonfly (2002) was written with Ford in mind for the lead role. He turned down to take a year off from making movies, and the role was given to Kevin Costner.

He was listed in the 2001 Guinness Book of Records as the richest male actor.

On 31 July 2000, he piloted his helicopter to rescue dehydrated 20-year-old hiker Sarah George from Table Mountain near his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

In 1998, he was chosen as People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

In October 1997, he was ranked #1 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

On 19 December 1996, he was listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Ford's second wife, Melissa Mathison, wrote.

In 1995, he was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#15).

Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1993). He is clearly a well-established Hollywood superstar. He also maintains an 800-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Ford is a private pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (3. 2 km2) ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. On several occasions, Ford has personally provided emergency helicopter services at the request of local authorities, in one instance rescuing a hiker overcome by dehydration.

All he managed four years after that was his third starring success as Indiana Jones; in fact, many of his earlier successful roles led to sequels as did his more recent portrayal of Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992). Another Golden Globe nomination came his way for the part of Dr.

He nearly turned down the role of Henry Turner in Regarding Henry (1991) because the main character was a trial lawyer. He had just played one in Presumed Innocent (1990), and was afraid of being typecast. He took the role when he realized that Henry would only be functioning as a lawyer for the first ten minutes of the film.

In the mid-1990s, he bought a used Gulfstream II and asked one of his pilots, Terry Bender, to give him flying lessons. They started flying a Cessna 182 out of Jackson, Wyoming, later switching to Teterboro, New Jersey, flying a Cessna 206, the aircraft he soloed in. Ford is an honorary board member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope.

He recommended River Phoenix for the role of the young Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989). Ford and Phoenix had previously played father and son in The Mosquito Coast (1986).

He considers The Mosquito Coast (1986) to be the favorite of all his movies.

Four years later and he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role as John Book in Witness (1985).

He suffered a back injury while filming Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom (1984) and underwent an experimental (at the time) disc operation utilizing a papaya enzyme. While he was away Steven Spielberg filmed around him as best he could, including most of the conveyor belt scene, using Vic Armstrong, a British-born stuntman who looked so much like Ford that members of the crew were always confusing the two. Ford resumed doing his own stunts upon his return, and his close-ups were added later into the finished film.

His ex-wife, Melissa Mathison, wrote the screenplay for E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial (1982).

Another four years and Ford was Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

During the scene where he is frozen in carbonite in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Carrie Fisher says, "I love you" and Ford was supposed to reply "I love you too", but he suggested changing it to "I know".

Four years after that, he hit colossal with the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

He came back big four years later, however, as Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1973).

He was offered the role of Mike Stivic on All in the Family (1971), which he turned down, citing the bigotry of Archie Bunker was too offensive.

He was billed as Harrison J. Ford until 1970 for less confusion between him and silent-screen actor Harrison Ford. He actually has no middle name.

He has a scar on his chin which he got in 1968 when he tried to "buckle up" while already driving, and lost control of the car. The scar has been explained in two of his films: in the River Phoenix introductory sequence in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989), an inexperienced young Indy hits himself in the chin the first time he tries to use the whip; and in Working Girl (1988), he first says that he got the scar in a knife fight, then admits that the true story is that he knocked his chin on a toilet after fainting during an ear-piercing.

His roles in movies and television (Ironside (1967), The Virginian (1962)) remained secondary and, discouraged, he turned to a career in professional carpentry.

Ford began flight training in the 1960s at Wild Rose Idlewild Airport in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, flying in a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, but at $15 an hour, he could not afford to continue the training.

He was voted the 46th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, Belarus. Harrison was a lackluster student at Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge Illinois (no athletic star, never above a C average). After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he did some acting and later summer stock, he signed a Hollywood contract with Columbia and later Universal.