If adventure has a name, it must be Harrison Ford.
From maverick space pilot Han Solo and whip-smart archeologist Indiana Jones to the action heroes of Blade Runner (1982), The Fugitive (1993), and countless other blockbusters, Harrison Ford has played some of the most iconic action heroes ever to burn up the big screen. “There’s always been this unique charisma to Harrison,” says Kathleen Kennedy, who has helped to creatively steer every installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. “No one’s like him. Everything he does is a part of who he is. … He’s doing something that I think he did long before he even became an actor. I think that that’s always been at the core of his performances and why he’s so relatable.”
Often compared to such old-school and iconic silver-screen stars as Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, and Steve McQueen, Harrison’s charismatic screen presence and remarkable acting skills have made him not only one of the greatest movie stars of his generation, but of all time. Over his decades-long career, Harrison has been honored with many awards for his contributions to the film industry, including the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2000), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award (2002), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Albert R. Broccoli Britannia Award for World Wide Contribution to Entertainment (2015), and in 2023, an honorary Palme d’or from the Cannes Film Festival.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Harrison first made his mark in classic TV series such as Gunsmoke and ABC’s Kung Fu and The Mod Squad, but in the early 1970s, he decided to slow things down: “I didn’t want to do episodic TV anymore, because I was afraid I’d burn myself out before I got the chance to do any decent feature films.”
After appearing in a small but memorable role in American Graffiti (1973), directed by fellow Disney Legend George Lucas, Harrison supported himself in between acting gigs as a carpenter. It was while he was doing carpentry work for director Francis Ford Coppola, who had cast the young actor in another small role in The Conversation (1974), that Francis suggested to George that he use Harrison to run lines with actors auditioning for his new space-set epic that would ultimately be known as Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).
As this self-taught carpenter read with dozens of performers (“I read with quite a few princesses,” he would recall), George realized that Harrison was perfect for the role of Han Solo, a cynical smuggler and the captain of the Millennium Falcon. With this blockbuster turn, Harrison’s acting career made the jump to the hyperspace of superstardom. “I recognized it more as a moral fairy tale than I did a science fiction film,” he once reflected. “You have a beautiful princess; you’ve got a callow youth and a wise old warrior played by Alec Guinness. And then there’s this smart-ass space pirate.” Harrison portrayed Han Solo in all three episodes of the original Star Wars trilogy.
Shortly thereafter, George Lucas created another film inspired by old-time movie serials, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), featuring an adventurer archeologist with a whip and a fedora that rarely falls off. Tom Selleck was the first choice but was unable to play the part because of his television commitments to the Magnum, P.I. series. So George and director Steven Spielberg cast Harrison instead of Tom Selleck, and another blockbuster franchise was created, cementing the actor’s status as an international movie superstar.
Some of Harrison’s most notable other film credits include an Oscar®-nominated performance in Witness (1985), along with Blade Runner (1982); 20th Century’s Working Girl (1988); Presumed Innocent (1990); Patriot Games (1992); The Fugitive (1993); Clear and Present Danger (1994); Sabrina (1995); Air Force One (1997); Touchstone Pictures’ Six Days, Seven Nights (1998); What Lies Beneath (2000); Morning Glory (2010); 42 (2013); Blade Runner 2049 (2017); and 20th Century Studios’ The Call of the Wild (2020).
Recently, Harrison returned to his most celebrated roles. For the fourth time, he portrayed Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and, briefly, in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)—and he once again donned the fedora in the fifth Indiana Jones installment, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). He also stars in the acclaimed television series Shrinking (2023) and saw an Emmy®-nominated turn in the popular Yellowstone prequel, 1923 (2022).
Once again proving himself positively presidential—just as he was in one of his most iconic roles, President James Marshall in Air Force One—Harrison will appear as President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in the Marvel Studios action-adventure Captain America: Brave New World, to be released in 2025.
“He is the definition of a movie star,” states Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold. “He knows the camera, he knows timing, he knows how cuts work. And that’s one of the real positives, beyond his incredible charm and his instincts. He’s a great actor, but he also understands what a movie is and how to make one.”
“I’ve always understood acting like a carpenter,” Harrison said. “An acquisition of a range of skills is what got the job done more easily, more economically, with greater satisfaction for the client. It’s an experience of making me feel more useful.”