Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (4)

Trade Mark (3)

Western cowboy roles



Soft-spoken commanding voice with light Canadian accent



Ladies' man



Trivia (42)

Awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal (Legion d'Honneur), and appointed to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1992, by the French Government for service in World War II. Created to honor extraordinary contributions to the Republic of France, the Legion of Honor is France's highest distinction.



Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1978.



Voted the #1 box-office attraction for 1958 by the National Association of Theatre Owners.



Often during his career he insisted on being shot looking to camera left--he had been kicked in the right side of his jaw by a horse and insisted the left side of his face was his only filmable side.



Related to Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada.



Is a direct descendant of the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren.





Grandfather of Aubrey Newton Ford (b. 1977), Ryan Welsie Ford (b. 1984), and Eleanor Powell Ford (b. 1988), whose parents are Ford's son, Peter Ford (b. 5 February 1945), and his wife, Lynda Gundersen.

Served in Vietnam as a reserve military officer.



Went on a jungle mission with a Special Forces team during the Vietnam War.



Retired from acting in 1991, at age 75, following heart and circulatory problems.





On May 1, 2006, he had a gala 90th birthday celebration at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. There was a showing of a newly-restored print of Gilda (1946) and his son, Peter Ford , hosted the event. Over 700 tickets went on sale and were quickly sold out.

Had been scheduled to make his first public appearance in 15 years at a 90th birthday tribute gala in his honor hosted by the American Cinematheque at Grauman's Eqyptian Theatre in Hollywood on 1 May 2006, but was unable to attend. He had suffered a series of minor strokes since his retirement, and was consequently very frail.



His ancestry included English, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch. He had some family roots in the English town of Horwich, near Bolton, Lancashire.





He played Jonathan Kent in the 1978 film Superman (1978). In Superman Returns (2006), a photograph of him can be seen in Clark Kent's old home. The film was released two months and two days prior to Ford's death.



Like his close friend Ronald Reagan , started as a Democrat but gradually switched to becoming a conservative Republican.



After having been a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary for a year, he joined the Marine Corps during WWII in December of 1942, and subsequently met first wife, tap-dancing extraordinaire Eleanor Powell , at a war-bond cavalcade. They married in 1943.

His first screen test at 20th Century Fox did not turn out well. He was given a second chance by Columbia a year later, however, and was signed.



Before becoming an actor he worked in a Santa Monica (CA) bar as a barkeep for $5 a week.



Parents were Newton and Hannah Ford. His father did not block his movie star aspirations but insisted that he learn a trade first. He listened and became an expert on plumbing, wiring and air-conditioning. He also worked as a roofer and installer of plate-glass windows.





He was a close friend of William Holden

Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch).





Received a special tribute as part of the Annual Memorial tribute at The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007).



He was replaced by Robert Mitchum in Himmel über Afrika (1992) after being hospitalized with blood clots in his legs.

In 1967 Naval Reserve Officer Lt. Cmdr. Ford (then aged 51) volunteered to serve for three months as a liaison officer attached to a Marine unit, with the Marine rank of full colonel, in Vietnam, and on several occasions endured enemy shelling.



Quit smoking cigarettes in 1958.





Actively campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in the 1956 presidential election, and attended the Democratic National Convention that year.

Took up hang gliding at the age of 64.





In 1938 he was John Beal 's understudy in the West Coast stage production of "Soliloquy".

Fred MacMurray, Yvonne De Carlo,

In 1951 RKO Radio Pictures planned to make a film-noir, to be entitled "The Sins of Sarah Ferry." The story was to be about a Binghamton, NY, courthouse clerk who finds himself falling in love with a beautiful liar who is accused of armed robbery as well as a hit-and-run charge involving a death. The cast was to have included Laraine Day Hugh Beaumont , Glenn Ford, Howard Duff , and Evelyn Keyes , with the studio wanting to shoot on location in Binghamton and neighboring Johnson City. The project never materialized because the plot was considered too much of a generic step-up of Frau ohne Gewissen (1944), plus the studio never received a reply via phone or standard mail, from the Binghamton Courthouse, or from the- Mayor Donald Kramer, granting permission to film on location in the area, and to negotiate a fair range of payment. Based on that neglect, the studio canceled the project and moved on.



Proposed to his third wife, Cynthia Ford (nee Cynthia Howard), at Windsor Castle in England in August 1977.



In support of President Lyndon B. Johnson 's escalation of the Vietnam War, Ford traveled with a combat camera crew from the demilitarized zone south to the Mekong Delta.



He was accused of racism after refusing to sit next to Gail Fisher at the Logie Awards in March 1973. He was upset by sentiments expressed by the Australian media and politicians against President Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War and even refused to shake hands with then Labor Senator and Minister for Media Doug McClelland at the Logies ceremony. The biography "Glenn Ford: A Life", written by his son, Peter Ford, states,"Before the end of the trip Prime Minister [Gough] Whitlam was quoted as saying: 'Someone should have put a bucket over Glenn Ford's head.' My father challenged Whitlam to it himself--if he dared." US ambassador Walter Rice felt obliged to offer a formal apology to the nation of Australia.

Mentioned in "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960) {The Bank Job (#3.13)}.



He never appeared in a film nominated for Best Picture Academy Award.



He learned to ride when he was 11 and worked as a stable boy for 4 years with Will Rogers.



His mother's side of the family came from England.



In 1942 he joined the American Marines for 3 1/2 years then transferred to the navy as a captain , a rank he held for the rest of his life.



Personal Quotes (16)

When I'm on camera, I have to do things pretty much the way I do things in everyday life. It gives the audience someone real to identify with.



People laugh when I say I'm not an actor, but I'm not, I play myself.



The Western is a man's world and I love it.



I've never played anyone but myself on screen.



If they tried to rush me, I'd always say I've only got one other speed, and it's slower.



"Let's never forget that to remain free we must always be strong. That's an important lesson I learned in my Navy career in World War II. National defense must be the top priority for our country. If you are strong, you are safe. Now is the time for every American to be proud. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. If we are not brave, we will not be free." (2004)



"Never give up. Take what life throws at you and throw it right back. If life keeps throwing then you have a tennis match going. Learn to like tennis." (2002)





Ronald Reagan was a true friend and an American Patriot. We are proud of him and his service to the country. We need men like him today.

[In westerns] you don't have to speak English to understand what's going on. I've always said the talking pictures talk too much anyway.



I'm out of place doing sophistication. I'm so uncomfortable in a tuxedo.



When I see films that go on and on with dialogue, I feel like telling the actors, "Be quiet! Let the audience do some of the work!" (from a 1975 interview with Bob Thomas, Canadian Press)



Some actors count their lines as soon as they receive a script. I'm the opposite. I try to see how many lines I can whittle down...You can say just as much in 4 as you can in 14.





Hell, no actor is going to tell Frank Capra how to make a picture. He has forgotten more about movie-making than most directors ever know.

Americans playing Shakespeare are really ridiculous.



Asked how he wished to be remembered: He did his best and he believed in God.



I wish I were up and around, but I'm doing the best that I can. There's so much I have to be grateful for. (1 May 2006)



Salary (3)