Few actors ever achieve the level of pop culture icon status that Harrison Ford has carved out for himself over the last several decades. Not only is it Ford’s birthday this week — he’s turning 74 — but this year also marks Ford’s 50th year as a professional actor.
The pilot of the Millennium Falcon has come a long way since his first part as a bellhop in 1966’s Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. And while Han Solo may be finished with the Star Wars movies we can still look forward to him in new additions of the Indiana Jones franchise and in the long-awaited sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner. But in the meantime, let’s dig up some info that you might not know about the man underneath that Indiana Jones fedora.
His Role In The Frisco Kid Was Supposed To Go To John Wayne
Fresh off his breakout role in 1977’s Star Wars and his part in Francis Ford Coppola’s war epic, Apocalypse Now, Harrison Ford took a part in a goofy Western titled The Frisco Kid. What might be most unusual about the Gene Wilder story of a Polish rabbi befriending a bank robber, is that it would have likely been John Wayne’s final film. The iconic cowboy actor’s last film was The Shootist in 1976, before he died in 1979, the same year The Frisco Kid was released. According to Gene Wilder’s autobiography, Kiss Me Like A Stranger, John Wayne had surprisingly agreed to do the comedy Western for his typical fee of $1 million, but pulled out at the last minute after a movie executive botched the deal during a meeting. With Wayne out of the picture, director Robert Aldrich landed the next best thing after Clint Eastwood with then-up-and-coming movie star Harrison Ford signing on.
He’s Kind Of A Bad Ass When It Comes To Flying A Plane
Harrison Ford might be a hotshot when it comes to commanding the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars or going toe-to-toe with terrorists as the president in Air Force One, but his real-life flying skills are just as impressive. Ford’s been flying planes just as long as he’s been acting and first began taking pilot lessons in the 1960s. Having earned a license to pilot both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, Ford’s flying resume is full of both dangerous experiences and moments of heroism.
While first learning to pilot a helicopter, Ford and his instructor were nearly killed when practicing an emergency landing procedure near Santa Clarita, California, in 1999. While making an attempt at an “autorotation,” a procedure which involves maneuvering the aircraft without power, Ford and his instructor were unable to regain power to the aircraft and crashed the helicopter into the ground. Amazingly, both men walked away unharmed. This, of course, was not Ford’s last aircraft close call. As you might recall, he had another plane crash last year that involved crashing a small plane into a Los Angeles golf course during an emergency landing. Considering the potential for fatality in any plane crash, Ford once again had good luck in his favor and only suffered a broken pelvis and broken ankle.
Aside from defying death as a pilot, Ford’s helped out on rescue missions near his home of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on more than one occasion. In 2000, Ford was called upon to help rescue two hikers who had become dehydrated and stranded while hiking on Table Mountain. While the flight certainly saved hiker Sara George’s life, it also resulted in a ruined cowboy hat for Harrison Ford after the sickly hiker vomited into it about a minute before landing at the hospital. “I can’t believe I barfed in Harrison Ford’s helicopter,” George told reporters.
His Million-Dollar Smile Is The Result Of Fake Teeth
Harrison Ford likes to do his own stunts on set whenever possible — his body be damned. While his most recent on-set film injury came while shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens when he dislocated his ankle, it was far from his first movie set boo-boo. In fact, Ford’s movie accidents date all the way back to when he was still just a struggling TV actor. In 1973, Ford was playing an outlaw on the show Gunsmoke when he knocked out his front teeth after his gun smacked him in the face during a fall. While it might have forever altered his movie star smile (though, kudos to his dentist, because who can tell?), it didn’t do much to deter him from performing his performing his own stunts.
A Bout With Dysentery Is To Thank For That Awesome Indiana Jones Scene
Okay, you probably know about this one, but in case you don’t: One of the most iconic and funniest moments from the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, can be credited solely to Harrison Ford feeling like utter crap. The now famous scene of Indiana Jones encountering a sword-wielding enemy was meant to be much more action packed, with Ford engaging the man in a physical fight. The actor wasn’t feeling well due to a bout with dysentery, though, and wanted to get the scene over with and fly out of Tunisia and back to England as soon as possible. Looking for a way to cut down the shooting schedule, Ford proposed a much simpler solution to director Steven Spielberg:
“I was puzzling how to get out of this three days of shooting, so when I got to set I proposed to Steven that we just shoot the son a b***h and Steve said “I was thinking that as well.” So he drew his sword, the poor guy was a wonderful British stuntman who had practiced his sword skills for months in order to do this job, and was quite surprised by the idea that we would dispatch him in five minutes. But he flourished his sword, I pulled out my gun and shot him, and then we went back to England.”
Shooting the movie was hardly a cakewalk for the actor who tore his ACL while filming the scene where he dukes it out with the bald-headed Nazi by the plane.
He Has A Cameo On A Jimmy Buffet Album
Harrison Ford likely isn’t the first celebrity a musician thinks of when they need that little something extra for a studio session. Unless, of course, you’re looking for a bullwhip crack. Because other than maybe a lion tamer, you really can’t find somebody more qualified at cracking a whip than Indiana Jones himself, which is exactly why Jimmy Buffet recruited him. While working on his 1985 album, Last Tango In Paris, Buffet added to the already impressive list of cameos that included two of the Eagles and Roy Orbison, when he asked Ford to provide a few bullwhip cracks for the song “Desperation Samba.” It wouldn’t be the last time Ford would mix it up with the Parrot Head leader either. Ford would later admit that it was a drunken lunch with Buffet that led him to piercing his ear. “Afterward, I walked down Madison Avenue til I found the first jewelry store that pierced ears,” said Ford.
He Worked For The Lizard King
While Harrison Ford’s career as a carpenter before becoming a king of the box office has been well-documented, his other gig while trying to break into acting isn’t quite as well-known. When Ford wasn’t shuffling around Los Angeles with his tool box and building cabinets for rich housewives in Beverly Hills, he was working for a local rock band called — The Doors. Ford ran into photographer Paul Ferrara at a party and Ferrara asked the young actor if he’d like to make a little extra money helping out on a documentary about the band titled Feast of Friends. Ford soon found himself getting a crash course in working as a camera grip and spent a month on the road with the band, helping film their performances around California, even popping up behind Jim Morrison’s left shoulder during a stop at the Bakersfield Civic Center. It was definitely a departure from the carpenter’s day job and while Ford recalled enjoying the experience, he admitted that he wasn’t cut from the same cloth as the legendary rockers.
“When it was over, I was one step away from joining a Jesuit monastery. I thought it was cool, I thought it was hip, but I couldn’t keep up with those guys. It was too much.”
