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A Ford Filmography: More Than Just Indiana Jones and Han Solo

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Thanks to six mega-movies, Harrison Ford is best known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. But some of Ford’s other film characters are worth seeing too. Here is a filmography:

Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966). Ford made his film debut in this drama about a plot to rob an airport bank.

Luv (1967). Appears in this story about a trio of pseudo-intellectuals. Starred Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk and Elaine May.

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A Time for Killing (a.k.a. The Long Ride Home) (1967). A small part in this Civil War drama starring Glenn Ford, Inger Stevens and George Hamilton.

Journey to Shiloh (1968). The War Between the States again. This time, young Texans are anxious to enter the fray.

The Intruders (1970). Co-stars in this TV movie about a framed ex-con who tries to clear his name.

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Getting Straight (1970). Ford appears with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen in this story of Vietnam-era college politics.

American Graffiti (1973). Ford is Falfa the hot-rodder in this ensemble look at teen-age life, circa 1962. George Lucas, who would play a major role later in Ford’s career, wrote and directed. Film was nominated for best picture. Ford also has a cameo in the sequel, More American Graffiti (1979).

The Conversation (1974). Ford plays a go-between who tries to get tape recordings of a young couple from Gene Hackman, a surveillance expert who has bugged the pair, believing he’s stumbled on a murder plot. Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed; nominated for best picture.

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Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983). Ford stars as Han Solo, the cynical smuggler turned hero. His exchanges with his hairy cohort, Chewbacca, and his romantic repartee with Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia lend a smart edge to George Lucas’ immensely successful space-opera cycle.

Heroes (1977). Co-stars in this film about a Vietnam vet with Henry Winkler.

The Possessed (1977). Appears in this TV movie about scary doings at an exclusive girls’ school.

Force Ten From Navarone (1978). Co-stars in this sequel to The Guns of Navarone. With Robert Shaw and Edward Fox.

Hanover Street (1979). Stars with Lesley-Anne Down in this World War II drama.

Apocalypse Now (1979). Ford has cameo role as a colonel in Francis Ford Coppola’s hallucinogenic Vietnam epic.

The Frisco Kid (1979). as outlaw who comes to the rescue of a Polish rabbi making his way west.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). George Lucas dreamed up the roguish archeologist, inspired by the Saturday afternoon movie serials of his childhood. Ford brings Indiana Jones to life, racing from crushing boulders, hunting down the Holy Grail and vanquishing any number of nefarious Nazis. Steven Spielberg directed. And although it seems now there could be no other Indy but Harrison Ford, the first choice for the role was Tom Selleck.

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Blade Runner (1982). In the year 2019, Ridley Scott’s Los Angeles is drenched in rain and troubled by androids on a killing spree. Ford is a “blade runner” who is supposed to kill the faux folks.

Witness (1985). When a young Amish boy witnesses a killing, a police detective (Ford) goes into hiding in the sect’s farm community to protect him. Ford chafes at Amish ways, but is intrigued by the boy’s mother, played by Kelly McGillis. Ford received his only best actor nomination for the role.

The Mosquito Coast (1986). Ford chucks his hero image with this portrayal of a brilliant, misanthropic inventor who decides his family can carve paradise out of the Central American jungle. Based on Paul Theroux’s novel; Peter Weir directed.

Frantic (1988). Roman Polanski directed this story of an American doctor, played by Ford, who is pulled into a world of intrigue when his wife disappears during their trip to Paris. Also stars Betty Buckley and Emmanuelle Seigner.

Working Girl (1988). Ford is an executive who falls for Melanie Griffith, the ambitious secretary of the title, who thinks she can get ahead by posing as her boss, Sigourney Weaver. Directed by Mike Nichols.

Presumed Innocent (1990). Rusty Sabich is an assistant district attorney with a wife, a kid and a nice life until a woman with whom he had an affair is murdered. Ford is the prosecutor who becomes the prime suspect. Alan J. Pakula directed.

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Regarding Henry (1991). Ford is a lawyer of another kind in this outing: an unfaithful, hard-charging litigator who is wounded in a convenience-store shooting. The brain injury and recovery process transform him into a much nicer guy. Directed by Mike Nichols.

Patriot Games (1992). Alec Baldwin introduced CIA analyst Jack Ryan to movie audiences in “The Hunt for Red October,” but Ford takes over the persona here, in a story of an Irish terrorist who wreaks personal vengeance against Ryan, his wife and daughter. From the novel by Tom Clancy.

The Fugitive (1993). Ford escapes a train wreck and goes over the dam as Dr. Richard Kimble in a big-screen version of an innocent man’s search for his wife’s one-armed killer.

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