Show — £5 ViHJXl r —?roET?i U4sf WPlW mmm un - STMWAMW7TFHl ‘ -- a pretty gM made Fort MriairiMlc Movwttkl where his acadrrnic performance was lc I asked about his underachievemenL “I was the first of our family to go to college and my parents waked vay hand to provide it" he said ruefully “Well I didn't like school! I also wasn't "That's bow I always referred to situations where people didn't want to hear what I had to say Well if you hire me a recipe for disaster I wanted to develop myown way of expression" In 1 8 months at Columbia he landed bit parts in three films and eventually was dropped Days laterhe signed with Universal and landed small roles on TV In 1970 he played a minor char-- you risk having to listen Some people (fid and found value in what I was saying" One of those people was the director George Lucas for whom Ford returned rjv enough” Fold drifted along until ins junior year when he enrolled in a 'drama course Despite having terrible stage fright and no confidence - Ford “but I "says active member of the process rather than a dumb meat puppet” The 1973 film was a surprise hit : gs ££ way to help tho werM Food served theLagunaBeachFlayhouse where to of LA I he W8S spotted by A talent scout for punch Columbia Pictures and signed to a $150-a-weacter in Getting Straight a sillymovie ek about student radicals Discouraged over the roles he was being offered Rxd stopped acting and taught himself carpentry ‘I had a mortgage a wife two smallsons— and no acting jobs except woik I didn't want hair styledlikehis” he saidin disgust to do” Ford said MA friend suggested "They had this perception of you be-- : that I build a recording studio for Seqpo ing some green Elvis or green Cary Mendes That's bow I fod myfamily” Chant bid (didn't want to be those peo- "“As an acton I get no joy from befog 'trick talking meat”’ he continued jple I thought imitating other acton was' contract in the studio’s New TUent program designed to tom young unknowns into movie ton Ford hated iL "They sent me to the studio barber with a photograph of Elvis Presley and instructions that 1 come bade with my - t aooa world can fix the to acting after three years to appear in film American Graffiti a small-budg- et in which his gifts as an actor began to emerge “1 felt useful" Ford said “an fad &tad to gradu- jlv I inwhateverwayweean” 1 ate he did marry an honor stu- dent— Mary Maiquardt his col- lege sweetheart He worked in summer theater before the couple mowed to LA in 1964 Fold soon was cast in John Brown’s Body at "I dontthink do think it’s our duty to help he performed in student plays It changed his life “In college I found a group of people with whom I could wodc on a common learned to act idea” he said in painfully public I overcame my shyness I found purpose” Although m nVNMgflt 91 V tWMifelMl ed - Twnnmv (ilMDIWTBMCP ‘ — nMDwOT i? f ifew nob J ' SmaUbutnotablenoies in The Comer-satio- n and Apocalypse Now followed Then he made Star Wrrj— and nothing was ever die same again for Harrison Ford He has starred in 21 movies since nine of thiem grossing more than $100 million each a record for an actor As fi result Ford rejxttaDy earns $25 million a picture today plus 15 of the gross! What accounts for such success? “Tts nadty has a lot to do with it” said Ford "and more often thro not plain old luck” "Acting is streytdlmg” he said "and emotionally I'm drawn to stories Emotian is still what attracts me to a character?’ In 1979 Fred’s marriageto Mary Marquardt ended amicaMy The union had lasted 15 years and produced two sons: Willard now 33 a teacher and Benjamin 35 a chef Four years later Ford manned Melissa Malhison the writer of EJ and other films whom he'd met in 1976 while making Apocalypse Now Legally separated in 2001 die couple share custody of their two children Matolm 15 and Georgia 12 When not acting Fred (fivides his time between New York and his 80(Vacre ranch in Jackson Vfyo “My great interest in the environment came form being in Jackson" he said “I’d purchased land and had a sense of stewardship about the (dace because the majesty (nature is so apparent there It helped sensitize me to the greater needs of the earth I have a sense of awe a sense that nature is so complex and fascinating that it’s as close as I’ve come to understanding the notion of divinity’’ In thelast 10 years Ford has become an activist in die conservation movement quietly giving millions to environmental groups in particular Conservation International on whose board he sits “We are suffering a cycle of extinction and kxing species at a rate that has not been seen before’ he said “and it is all the result of human interference “I have four children and two grandsons" he added smiling "So Ifeelre- sponsible for tending to things I think l can affect as a private person not as si celebrity I don’t think l ean fix the world but I do think it’s our duty to attend to it and help in whatever way we ean" IE |