John Ford
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John Ford's Point in Monument Valley |
John Ford (
February 1,
1894 –
August 31,
1973) was an
American film director famous for such
westerns as
Stagecoach and
The Searchers, and for adaptations of such classic 20th century American novels as
The Grapes of Wrath. His style of film-making has been tremendously influential, leading colleagues such as
Ingmar Bergman and
Orson Welles to name him one of the greatest directors of all time. His four
Academy Awards for
Best Director (1935,1940,1941,1952) are unmatched. His films have influenced directors as diverse as
Akira Kurosawa,
Martin Scorsese,
Steven Spielberg,
Sam Peckinpah, and
Sergio Leone. When asked where he learned the craft of film-making
Orson Welles famously replied, "the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford."
He was born
John Martin Feeney in
Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara (Abbey) Curran, both of whom were born in
Spiddal ,
County Galway,
Ireland in 1856.
John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local (impoverished) gentry family,
the Morrises of Spiddal, presently headed by
Lord Killanin.
John Augustine and Barbara Feeney arrived in
Boston and
Portland within a few days of each other in May and June 1872, were married in 1875, and became American citizens three years later. They had eleven children: Mamie (Mary Agnes), born 1876; Delia (Edith), 1878-1881; Patrick; Francis; Bridget, 1883-1884; Barbara, born and died 1888; Edward, born 1889; Josephine, born 1891; Hannah (Johanna), born and died 1892;
John Martin, 1894-1973; and Daniel, born and died 1896.
Many of his films contain direct and indirect references to his Irish and Gaelic heritage. His family referred to him as
Sean.
He began acting in 1914, taking "Ford" as a stage name. He married Mary McBryde Smith, on
July 3,
1920 (two children).
In 1921, Ford turned to directing, beginning as an assistant to
Lois Weber. During the 1920s, he served as president of the
Motion Picture Directors Association, a forerunner to today's
Directors Guild of America.
Over 35 years
John Wayne appeared in more than twenty of Ford's films, including
Stagecoach (1939),
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949),
The Quiet Man (1952),
The Searchers (1956),
The Wings of Eagles (1957), and
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
Ford's favorite location for his films was
Utah's
Monument Valley. Ford defined images of the American West with some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography ever shot, in such films as
Stagecoach,
The Searchers,
Fort Apache, and
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.
His good friend
Merian C. Cooper, the director of
King Kong, produced several of Ford's most admired films.
During
World War II Commander John Ford, USNR, served in the
United States Navy and made documentaries for the Navy Department. He won two more Academy Awards during this time, one for
The Battle of Midway (1942), and a second for acclaimed documentary
December 7th (1943) (see[
1]). For more information on his military contributions check the
Naval Historical Center link below.
In 1955, Ford was tapped to direct the classic Navy comedy
Mister Roberts, starring
Henry Fonda,
Jack Lemmon,
William Powell, and
James Cagney. However,
Mervyn LeRoy replaced Ford during filming when he suffered a ruptured
gallbladder.
Ford cast
Ward Bond as John Dodge, a character based on Ford himself, in the 1957 movie
The Wings of Eagles, again starring his good friends
John Wayne and
Maureen O'Hara.
* On Sunday evenings the "good ol' boys club" met at the
John Ford Ranch in the
San Fernando Valley. John Ford and
John Wayne (whom Ford used to kid about having decided not to fight in World War II), would be at the Ranch, together with
Ben Johnson,
Chill Wills,
Ward Bond,
Grant Withers,
Harry Carey, Jr.,
Ken Curtis,
Victor McLaglen, Francis Ford (his brother) and many of the other supporting actors who were usually in all of Wayne's pictures. Sometimes
Lee Marvin would show up. This group was often known as "The John Ford Stock Company."
He won four
Academy Awards as Best Director for
The Informer (1935),
The Grapes of Wrath (1940),
How Green Was My Valley (1941), and
The Quiet Man (1952) - none of them Westerns (also starring in the last two was
Maureen O'Hara, "his favorite actress"). He was also nominated as Best Director for
Stagecoach (1939).
As a producer he received nominations for Best Picture for
The Quiet Man and
The Long Voyage Home.
He was the first recipient of the
American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1973.
Ford's politics were conventionally Democratic as his favorite presidents were Lincoln, FDR and JFK, but many in Hollywood thought he was a right-wing Republican because of his long association with actors
John Wayne,
James Stewart and
Ward Bond.
Time Magazine editor Whittaker Chambers wrote a harsh review of "The Grapes of Wrath" as a left wing propaganda film assuming Steinbeck, the author, and Ford, the director, to be of that political stripe.
There is a statue of Ford in
Portland, Maine. He is depicted sitting in a director's chair.
Ford died in
Palm Desert, California, aged 79 from
stomach cancer. He was interred in the
Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California.
Probably better known at the time by its
Irish name
An Spidéal.
Silent films
As Jack Ford:All films were made by
Universal Studios unless otherwise noted.
*
The Tornado (1917)
*
The Scrapper (1917)
*
The Soul Herder (1917)
*
Cheyenne's Pal (1917)
*
Straight Shooting (1917)
*
The Secret Man (1917)
*
A Marked Man (1917)
*
Bucking Broadway (1917)
*
The Phantom Riders (1918)
*
Wild Women (1918)
*
Thieves' Gold (1918)
*
The Scarlet Drop (1918)
*
Hell Bent (1918)
*
A Woman's Fool (1918)
*
Three Mounted Men (1918)
*
Roped (1919)
*
The Fighting Brothers (1919)
*
A fight for love (1919)
*
By Indian Post (1919)
*
The Rustlers (1919)
*
Bare Fists (1919)
*
Gun Law (1919)
*
The Gun Packer (1919)
*
Riders of Vengeance (1919)
*
The Last Outlaw (1919)
*
The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919)
*
The Ace of the Saddle (1919)
*
The Rider of the Law (1919)
*
A Gun Fightin' Gentleman(1919)
*
Marked Men (1919)
*
The Prince of Avenue(1920)
*
The Girl in No. 29 (1920)
*
Hitchin' Posts (1920)
*
Just Pals (1920), Fox-20th Century
*
The Big Punch (1920), Fox-20th Century
*
The Freeze Out (1921)
*
The wallop (1921)
*
Desperate Trails (1921)
*
Action (1921)
*
Sure Fire (1921)At this point he moves to Fox
*
Jackie (1921)
As John Ford:*
Hoodman Blind (1923)
*
The Iron Horse (1924)
*
Kentucky Pride (1925)
*
3 Bad Men (1926)
*
Upstream (1927)
Sound films
*
Mother Machree (1928), part sound
*
Four Sons (1928), part sound
*
Riley the Cop (1928)
*
Strong Boy (1929)
*
The Black Watch (1929)
*
Salute (1929)
*
Men Without Women (1930)
*
The Brat (1931)
*
Arrowsmith (1931)
*
Airmail (1932)
*
Flesh (1932)
*
Pilgrimage (1933)
*
Doctor Bull (1933)
*
The Lost Patrol (1934)
*
The World Moves On (1934)
*
Judge Priest (1934)
*
The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
*
The Informer (1935)
*
Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)
*
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
*
Mary of Scotland (1936)
*
The Plough and the Stars (1936)
*
Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
*
Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
*
The Hurricane (1937)
*
Submarine Patrol (1938)
*
Stagecoach (1939)
*
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
*
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
*
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
*
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
*
Tobacco Road (1941)
*
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
*
They Were Expendable (1945)
*
My Darling Clementine (1946)
*
The Fugitive (1947)
*
Fort Apache (1948)
*
3 Godfathers (1948)
*
Pinky (1949, uncredited)
*
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
*
Wagonmaster (1950)
*
Rio Grande (1950)
*
When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)
*
The Quiet Man (1952)
*
What Price Glory? (1952)
*
The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
*
Mogambo (1953)
*
The Long Gray Line (1955)
*
Mister Roberts (1955, replaced by
Mervyn LeRoy)
*
The Bamboo Cross (1955), made for TV
*
The Searchers (1956)
*
The Wings of Eagles (1957)
*
The Rising of the Moon (1957)
*
The Last Hurrah (1958)
*
Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)
*
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
*
Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
*
The Alamo (1960, some 2nd unit work)
*
Two Rode Together (1961)
*
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
*
How the West Was Won (1962), The Civil War segment
*
Donovan's Reef (1963)
*
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
*
7 Women (1966)
Documentaries and shorts
*
Napoleon's Barber (1928, short sound film)
*
Sex Hygiene (1942, documentary)
*
We Sail at Midnight (1943, documentary)
*
December 7th (1943, documentary)
*
This is Korea! (1951, documentary)
*
Korea (1959, documentary)
*
Vietnam! Vietnam! (1971, documentary)
*
Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1976, documentary)
*
Other notable figures in Western films*
List of film collaborations*
* [
2] Yahoo! Movies entry
* [
3] Senses of Cinema entry
* [
4] Movie Maker entry
* [
5] Reel Classics entry
* [
6] Naval Historical Center entry
*
Bibliography*
A Macro Bio*
The Film Journal - reprint of interview w/ Ford from
1964*
John Ford by
Peter Bogdanovich, revised edition, Universty of California Press, 1978
*
John Ford by Andrew Sinclair, 1979.
*
The Unquiet Man: The Life of John Ford by Dan Ford, 1982.
*
Print the Legend by Scott Eyman, 1999.
*
Searching for John Ford: A Life by Joseph McBride, 2001.
