He may be in his eighties, but Harrison Ford is still making blockbusters. Attempting to put 40-plus years of fandom in perspective, Roger Crow looks back on the actor’s extraordinary life and career…

as Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1973) and in Apocalypse Now (1979) as Colonel Lucas

A longtime ago in a galaxy not so far away... okay, 1978, Kinver, Staffordshire, and a kid is playing with a Han Solo action figure in the sand. Huge display card, tiny figure. Made no sense at the time, but who cared? Said Star Wars figure cost him most of his £1 pocket money, but it was worth it. All the nine-yearold wants to do is to meet the real Solo one day. More than 45 years later and that ‘kid’, like millions of others, is still fascinated by one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.

So where did Harrison Ford come from, and why does he still have that magnetic appeal? Well, let’s jump in the trusty Infinity time machine; cue the harp chords, and set the dial of destiny for July 13, 1942.

Chicago, Illinois, and while World War Two is raging, James Roger McGuinn, eventual singer and guitarist of sixties band The Byrds arrives in the world. Not far away in the Windy City, another superstar-in-waiting is born on the same day.

Given the fact Harrison Ford’s folks had acting in their blood, little wonder they would pass it onto their new son. Mum Dorothy was a radio actress, and dad, Christopher Ford, was an actor who became an advertising executive. By 1966, The Byrds’ third album was released, and while they were going from strength to strength with tracks such as Eight Miles High and Mr Spaceman, Harrison made his uncredited screen debut as a bellboy in Dead Heat On a Merry-Go-Round, a 1966 James Coburn caper.

“Paging Mr Ellis,” wasn’t exactly a dynamite line, and Ford was uncredited, but it got him on the Hollywood ladder. A few bit parts followed, but he wasn’t setting Tinseltown on fire. Luckily Ford had his carpentry skills to fall back on.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

If you could trace Ford’s rise to stardom to one film he wasn’t in, it would be Easy Rider. While studios were spending millions on tent-pole pictures to pull in punters, that low-budget counter-culture flick sent shock waves through Hollywood.