Ruggedly handsome, tightlipped leading man whose filmic output includes starring roles in four of the 10 highest-grossing films of all time: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Return of the Jedi (1983). That he has attained this magnitude of stardom is more than a little ironic, inasmuch as at one point in his sagging career, Ford actually quit acting to become a carpenter. Born to a suburban Chicago family, Ford flunked out of a midwestern college be- fore ending up in Hollywood, where he was fortunate enough to get a contract with Columbia. A series of inconsequential roles in inconsequential pictures, beginning with Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), did little to further his career, but his rugged face made him a natural for Westerns like Journey to Shiloh (1968), as well as occasional gueststar status on TV fare like Gunsmoke and The Virginian. After playing a minor part in the Elliott Gould vehicle Getting Straight (1970), Ford took up carpentry, a trade in which he was quite content, until a relatively unknown young director named George Lucas cast him in a supporting role in 1973's American Graffiti He was impressive as a young cruiser, but despite his good showing, and a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's acclaimed The Conversation the next year, Ford was fortunate to have his handyman sideline, because his acting career seemed to be going nowhere.

In 1977, however, Lucas chose him for the plum role of cynical space pilot Han Solo in Star Wars the mega-success of which finally made Harrison Ford a household name. He followed that with a series of box-office duds, including Force 10 From Navarone, Hanover Street (both 1978), and The Frisco Kid (1979), and had cameos in Coppola's Apocalypse Now (as Col. Lucas) and More American Graffiti (both 1979). But he scored once again as intrepid adventurer Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg's homage to the adventure serial, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Between sequels to Star Wars (in 1980 and 1983) and Raiders (1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), Ford has accepted assignments in films somewhat more substantive than the bigbudget, live-action cartoons that made him famous.

A gritty performance as a cop in the nihilistic future L.A. of Blade Runner (1982) demonstrated that he could deliver more than popcorn heroics. Another cop role, in Witness (1985), had a warmer side and some (repressed) romantic sparks; his performance earned him his first Oscar nomination and cemented his stardom with "grown-up" audiences. He followed it with a daring portrayal as an eccentric, idealistic inventor in The Mosquito Coast (1986), and played a Hitchcock protagonist in Frantic (1988), before showing his flair for romantic comedy in Working Girl (1988). He played a rather dour, adulterous lawyer accused of murder in Presumed Innocent (1990), and in 1991's Regarding Henry he played an arrogant yuppie transformed into a heartwarming simpleton by the simple expedient of a mugger's bullet.

He was back in top form as the heroic ex-CIA Agent Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992, taking over the role originated by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October), demonstrating the charisma that has made him one of Hollywood's preeminent stars. Never was that more apparent than in 1993's blockbuster hit The Fugitive In 1993 he made a guest appearance as Indiana Jones in one episode of George Lucas' lovingly produced TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, then reprised the role of Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger (1994). Next, he starred in the remake of Sabrina (1995, in the Humphrey Bogart role).

--Leonard Maltin