John Ford Biography
Born: February 01, 1895
Died: August 31, 1973
Maine-born John Ford (born Sean Aloysius O'Fearna) originally went to Hollywood in the shadow of his older brother, Francis, an actor/writer/director who had worked on Broadway. Originally a laborer, propman's assistant, and occasional stuntman for his brother, he rose to became an assistant director and supporting actor before turning to directing in 1917. Ford became best known for his Westerns, of which he made dozens through the 1920s, but he didn't achieve status as a major director until the mid-'30s, when his films for RKO (The_Lost_Patrol [1934], The_Informer [1935]), 20th Century Fox (Young_Mr._Lincoln [1939], The Grapes of Wrath [1940]), and Walter_Wanger (Stagecoach [1939]), won over the public, the critics, and earned various Oscars and Academy nominations. His 1940s films included one military-produced documentary co-directed by Ford and cinematographer Gregg_Toland, December_7th (1943), which creaks badly today (especially compared with Frank_Capra's Why_We_Fight series); a major war film (They_Were_Expendable [1945]); the historically-based drama My_Darling_Clementine (1946); and the "cavalry trilogy" of Fort_Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio_Grande (1950), each of which starred John_Wayne. My_Darling_Clementine and the cavalry trilogy contain some of the most powerful images of the American West ever shot, and are considered definitive examples of the Western.
Ford also had a weakness for Irish and Gaelic subject matter, in which a great degree of sentimentality was evident, most notably How_Green_Was_My_Valley (1941) and The_Quiet_Man (1952), which was his most personal film, and one of his most popular. It also earned more Oscars and nominations than any other movie ever produced at Republic Pictures. Poor health dogged Ford's career during the 1950s, but he still managed to create The_Sun_Shines_Bright (1953) -- one of his favorite films, dealing with politics and race relations in the 19th century South -- Mogambo (1953), and The_Searchers (1956), which is considered one of the most powerful Western dramas ever made. The_Horse_Soldiers (1959) showed some of Ford's flair, but was marred by production problems, and Ford later directed the John_Wayne/Harry_Morgan section of How the West Was Won (1963). His concern with social justice, which manifested itself in The_Sun_Shines_Bright also became more evident during the early '60s, in films such as Sergeant_Rutledge (1960), Donovan's_Reef (1963), and Cheyenne_Autumn (1964), all of which sought to address problems of racial prejudice.
Ford was the recipient of the first Life Achievement Award bestowed by the American Film Institute, and was the subject of Peter_Bogdanovich's documentary, Directed by John Ford (1971). He died in 1973. Bruce Eder, Rovi
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