Mr Harrison Ford - A Lifetime of Achievement Quiz

Answer: Chicago

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, on July 13, 1942. His mother was former radio actress Dorothy (nee Nidelman) who later became an advertising executive. His father was actor John William "Christopher" Ford. He has a younger brother Terence, three years younger. Their father was a Catholic while their mother was Jewish. He went to High school in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago and was a philosophy major at Ripon College in the same town in Wisconsin.

"The Fugitive" (1993) was a very successful non-franchise movie for Harrison Ford (it grossed $340 million against a $44 million budget). Based on a TV series of the same name, Harrison Ford was the star (but Tommy Lee Jones became a star because of this movie). The plot involved Dr Richard Kimble being framed for his wife's murder and sentenced to death. He escaped from custody after a prison bus crash and was determined to find the real murderer to clear his name despite being chased by the police and U.S. Marshals.

The picture depicts a Chicago street scene showing a segment of the 'el (Chicago's landmark elevated railway system).

Answer: He does not have one.

Despite moving to Los Angeles in 1964, Mr. Ford had trouble finding roles. Eventually, he signed a $150-per-week contract with Columbia Pictures to play bit roles in movies. He was uncredited for most of these and it is unclear how many such unacknowledged roles he played, but in 1967, in a Western movie "A Time for Killing", starring Glenn Ford, Ford was credited as "Harrison J Ford". The "J" was added by the studio to avoid confusion with a silent movie actor called Harrison Ford. This other actor appeared in over 80 films between 1915 and 1932. (He died in 1957 after being hit by a car outside his home). The more well-known Mr. Ford later said in a television interview that he was unaware of the actor with the same name until he came upon a star with his own name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (The two Harrison Ford stars are also in the same category (movies) so there is nothing to distinguish the two stars' stars.)
The more modern Harrison Ford soon dropped the "J" when he moved from Columbia Pictures to Universal Studios in 1968.

The photo depicts Harry S. Truman who also did not have a middle name. (The "S" did not stand for any name but honoured both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.)

Answer: Carpenter

Mr. Ford did not get many roles in his first nine years in Los Angeles but rather than accepting roles he wasn't excited about, he taught himself carpentry. This earned a steady income as he was married with two small children. Mr. Ford stated "Through carpentry, I fed my family and began to pick and choose from among the roles offered. I could afford to hold out until something better came along. But I never gave up my ambition to be an actor. I was frustrated but never felt defeated by my frustration."

His clients as a carpenter included author Joan Didion, jazz star Sergio Mendes and "M*A*S*H" (1970) actress Sally Kellerman. Working as a carpenter but near the right movie industry and people of note, was advantageous. When Francis Ford Coppola hired him to expand his office, he offered Mr. Ford a bit part in his Oscar-nominated movie, "The Conversation" (1974). Later he was offered a small part in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979) as Colonel G. Lucas - as an homage to his (later) benefactor George Lucas.

The photo depicts a title of a very famous 70's pop song sung by (ahem) The Carpenters (Groan).

Answer: American Graffitti

During the late 60s, when Harrison Ford had this dual carpenter/bit-part movie player career, he met his biggest advocate: casting director Fred Roos who recognised Ford's talent. Roos praised Ford to Hollywood's top directors, but he also hired Ford as a carpenter in tough times. On one of these occasions, producer/director George Lucas hired Ford to do some renovating in his home, got to know him and ended up offering him a small role in his coming-of-age film, "American Graffiti" (1973). But that was not without Fred Roos' intervention. He ear bashed Mr. Lucas about how perfect Ford would be for the role of Bob Falfa in "American Graffiti". In the end, Lucas relented and agreed to bump up the standard $485 fee to $500, the amount Ford was making per week as a carpenter.

The photo depicts Graffiti that looks, well, American in origin.

Answer: Han Solo

After George Lucas gave Harrison Ford a start in "American Graffiti", he wanted fresh faces in his new "Star Wars" project. Ford's carpentry skills saved him again Lucas did not consider Ford for any role. He just happened to be installing a door at Lucas' American Zoetrope studio, where the "Star Wars" auditions were held. Missing a key staff member, Lucas asked Ford to feed lines to the other try-out actors. He liked Ford's version of a lovable scoundrel Han Solo with Ford ad-libbing wisecracks so much, he hired him for the role. The key moment came when Lucas jokingly asked Ford, "You know this is about spaceships, flying, things like that - you know how to fly?" Ford replied immediately, "Fly? Yeah. Land? No.", That's when he got the role

After he earned the role, Ford still little-known, earned just $10,000 for playing Han Solo in the first movie. The role did make Ford a household name, however. So when casting the archaeological action hero Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), Lucas again wanted new people and, in particular, TV star Tom Selleck for the title role. But Selleck was unavailable, so he had to settle for director Steven Spielberg's first choice, one Harrison Ford. This was the start of another movie franchise goldmine. Harrison Ford in 1982 won critical and cult fame with his portrayal as Rick Deckard in "Blade Runner" (though he had to wait 35 years to reprise the role in its sequel). In 1992 his first role as Jack Ryan was in "Patriot Games" followed by "Clear and Present Danger" in 1997. In between all these commercial blockbuster franchise roles, there were headline acts in 'one-off' movies such as "Frantic" (1993), "The Devil's Own" (1997) with Brad Pitt and "Air Force One" (1997).

The picture depicts a Lego model of Han Solo's Mobquet M-68 landspeeder

Answer: Witness

"Witness" (1985) was a beautiful movie, directed by Peter Weir. It was a movie that demonstrated Harrison Ford's acting capabilities. Starting off as a neo-noir crime drama with Ford as a tough Philadelphia detective, Ford's Detective Book has to protect an eight-year-old Amish boy who was a witness to a city homicide and his widowed mother (Rachel - Kelly McGillis) from a corrupt cop. They all went into hiding in Rachel's own Amish community in Lancaster County where Book recovered from a gunshot wound inflicted by the corrupt cops. Book became integrated into the Amish community and was attracted to Rachel. In one of the movie's set pieces, a barn was built on one of the properties. The whole community was involved. All the men raised the barn and the women prepared food. The scene was uplifting and underscored by beautiful music from Maurice Jarre. If you look closely, Ford's carpentry skills were actually demonstrated in some of the scenes. The barn was actually built in one day but with the help of off-camera cranes. The Amish community did not want to be filmed so the people that were filmed building were actually Mennonites from a nearby community. The romance of the Amish community is shattered by the arrival of the corrupt Philadelphia cops who have hunted Book down. The movie questioned the values of contemporary western society when compared with the simple life of the Amish.

The movie was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Ford). It won two, for Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay.

Harrison Ford went on to collaborate with Peter Weir again in "The Mosquito Coast" (1986).

Answer: Morally ambiguous characters

Harrison Ford balanced out his blockbuster hero-type character with morally ambiguous types. In "The Conversation" (1974), he has a small but pivotal role as an aide to a Director. Ford's Martin Stett was a blackmailer who may or may not have murdered his boss.

Ford plays Allie Fox in "The Mosquito Coast" (1986), an idealist who attempts to make his family a better life in Central America only to make some decisions with debatable morality and in the end, pays the ultimate price. This was the only movie that Ford made that did not turn a profit. It has garnered kinder reviews over time.

In 1990's "Presumed Innocent", Harrison ford plays Rozat "Rusty" Sabich a prosecutor assigned to try a case of a fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus. Sabich does not play by the book and buries evidence about an affair he had with the deceased. This is eventually discovered and Sabich is charged with her murder, He is found not guilty, in part because of missing evidence. When the real murderer is revealed, Sabich does nothing about it.

"What Lies Beneath" is a supernatural thriller starring Ford as Dr Norman Spencer and Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife Claire, an anxious lady. The first hour sees the couple as having a successful marriage which feels strained. When Claire finds out about Norman's affair with a former student and later her murder, Spenser has no trouble killing again, wanting Claire dead so his secret is safe. Ford's Spence is positively evil, demonstrating Ford could play the antihero as well as he could the hero.

The picture depicts ambiguous road signs.

Answer: Beverly D'Angelo

"Working Girl" (1988) was a romantic comedy-drama movie directed by Mike Nichols starring Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford. It was nominated for six Academy Awards in 1989, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Griffith, but not Harrison Ford as Best Actor (The movie was a vehicle for Mg Griffith - Mr. Ford's role was really a supporting role. It was a successful movie, commercially as well, earning well over $US100.

"Sabrina" (1995) was a remake of a 1954 Billy Wilder film (starring Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn). The remake starred Harrison Ford as Linus Larrabee and Julia Ormond as Sabrina. The movie suffered from comparisons to the original but it made $87 million.

"Random Hearts" (1999) was the second (after "Sabrina") Sydney Pollack directed - Harrison Ford starring combination. "Random Hearts" starred Harrison Ford as a cop and Kristin Scott Thomas as a congresswoman who both discovered their spouses were having an affair together and were killed in a plane crash. As they find out more about their partners' relationship they become close themselves. Unfortunately, the movie was neither a commercial nor a critical success; neither star could lift a poor screenplay.

Between 1998-2010, Mr. Ford had a disappointing time at the box office with a run of commercial failures including "Six Days, Seven Nights" (1998), "K-19: The Widowmaker " (2002), "Hollywood Homicide" (2003), "Firewall" (2006) and "Extraordinary Measures" (2010). The one movie in this period that was both a commercial and critical success was "What Lies Beneath" (2000).

The photo depicts the Queen Family Truckster station wagon from "Vacation" (1983), one of Beverly D'Angelo's most prominent movies.

Answer: 5

When Harrison Ford married Calista Flockhart in 2010, it was his third marriage. He then had five children altogether: four sons and a daughter.

He married Mary Marquardt in 1964. they met at Ripon college where they both studied. Mary specialised in Culinary Arts and was able to support her family as a chef before Ford started earning sufficient money with his carpentry work to supplement the meagre income he was receiving from bit parts. They had two children, Ben and Willard. Ben (born 1966) became a chef like his mom and, co-owns "Ford's Filling Station" in Los Angeles. Willard (born 1969) runs a gym and owns a clothing company.

After his divorce in 1979, Ford married Melissa Mathieson in 1984. She was a screenwriter, with perhaps her two most prominent screenplays being "The Black Stallion" (1979) and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)". They had two children: Malcolm who is an actor and musician (born 1987), and a daughter, actress Georgia (born 1990). Georgia suffers from epilepsy and her father is an advocate for increasing epilepsy awareness. The two divorced in 2000 and Ms. Mathison died in 2015, aged 65.

In 2002, Ford started dating Calista Flockhart after they met at the Emmys. They were married in 2010. Ms Flockhart had an adopted son Liam (born in 2001). When the two married, Ford also adopted Liam.

The photo shows a statue of Winston Churchill giving his famous "V-for-Victory" salute, "V" being the roman numeral for five.

Answer: Rescuing a lost hiker in Idaho by helicopter

Harrison Ford had always been interested in aviation. He took flying lessons when he still lived in Wisconsin but had to give them away as he could not afford them. When he bought a Gulfstream in the 1990s he asked the pilot for lessons. So he learned how to fly in a Cessna 206 gaining his pilot's licence when he was 53. He has owned fixed-wing and helicopters and often flies between his main residence, a ranch near Wyoming, and another residence in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

His helicopter, a Bell 407 is kept on his ranch. He volunteers for the Teton County Search and Rescue and has been involved in at least two mountain rescues. On one of the rescues, Ford recovered a lost and disoriented hiker from a remote Idaho spot. She 'thanked' him by vomiting into his cap, (she was unaware of who her rescuer was until much later);

Ford is heavily involved with aviation charity work.

The picture depicts Shoshone Falls in Idaho, close to the location Ford rescued his hiker.