His four-decade career also includes roles in several other Hollywood blockbusters, including Presumed Innocent, The Fugitive, Air Force One, and What Lies Beneath. Ford was born July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois’ Swedish Covenant Hospital, to Dorothy (née Dora Nidelman), a homemaker and former radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an advertising executive and a former actor. in 1964, Ford traveled to Los Angeles, California to apply for a job in radio voice-overs. He was finally credited as “Harrison J. Ford” in the 1967 Western film, A Time for Killing, but the “J” did not stand for anything since he has no middle name. It was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932, and died in 1957. Not happy with the roles being offered to him, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his then-wife and two small sons. He was then hired to build cabinets at the home of George Lucas, who subsequently cast him in a pivotal supporting role for his film American Graffiti (1973).
