He Didn’t Quite Make the 3:10 to Yuma

The most successful celebrity look-alike performers are those blessed with spitting-image looks of superstars. Elvis, Marilyn, John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin impersonators are in constant demand.

John Ferguson was not quite so blessed.

“It’s Glenn Ford,” said George Lindquist, 67, seeing Ferguson dressed in western gear and riding in a convertible in a Canoga Park parade last month.

“No, Glenn Ford is dead,” Lindquist’s buddy, Bob Humphrey, 74, incorrectly insisted.

But Lindquist was certain it was Ford, an actor who appeared in nearly 100 westerns, dramas and other films beginning in 1939. So when the convertible came to a halt before entering the main parade route, Lindquist approached his target.

“Are you Glenn Ford?” Lindquist asked.

Ferguson, 70, looked at him and smiled.

“You betcha,” he said.

It’s a game that the jovial Ferguson--a semi-retired graphic artist and sign painter for Los Angeles County--has been playing for more than 30 years for fun, and a little profit. It has landed him a TV commercial and a few paid personal appearances. And he readily admits he is not above allowing people to believe he is the real Glenn Ford in certain situations, resulting in preferred treatment in restaurants, a few drinks on the house and warm greetings from fans, including one unsuspecting former U.S. president.

“I tell you it’s something I never expected in life,” Ferguson said. “It’s gotten me into places and the chance to meet people that I never would have had in my life.”

Including the world of look-alike performers.

Before the Memorial Day parade in Canoga Park last month, Ferguson made the rounds in the “VIP Room,” a bank branch closed for the holiday. His outfit--Stetson, six-shooter, leather vest and sheriff’s badge--resembled what Ford wore on his 1971 television series, “Cade’s County.”

He wasn’t the only masquerader at the pre-parade party. Elvis and Marilyn were there, as were ringers for Gene Autry, Clark Gable, Kenny Rogers and others.

Of all the look-alikes in the room, Ferguson most closely resembled the real McCoy--so much so that it seemed likely that Ferguson has been mistaken for Ford at times.

Ferguson said most people chuckle at being fooled, but “a couple of times” the reaction has been anger.

‘One guy looked like he was really ticked off,” he said. “Then he took my hand and said, ‘Well, I guess this is probably as close as I’ll ever get to meeting a movie star.’ ”

Being Glenn Ford has not, however, been lucrative.

“Maybe I should try and get an agent,” Ferguson said in a wistful moment. Although he retired from his county job at 65, he still goes to his old office three days a week, designing signs and commemorative plaques. Indeed, he made the magnetic sign stuck on his parade car that read “GLENN FORD,” and then below, in much smaller letters, “AKA John Ferguson.”

Although the real-life Ford is a highly respected retired actor, he is not in the pantheon of legendary stars whose look-alikes are paid to play cameo roles in Hollywood biopics, or cut ribbons at mall openings.

For Ferguson, the paid gigs have been few and far between. The vast majority of his appearances have been, like this parade, voluntary. Ferguson also dabbles in magic, which can be an extra selling point in landing a job.

“I have been hired to be at the opening of an Irish pub, show up at a party,” Ferguson said. “I charge one rate to be Glenn Ford and another if I’m Glenn Ford doing my magic act.”

And what does the real Glenn Ford think of look-alike John Ferguson?

“He doesn’t mind at all,” said the actor’s son, Peter Ford, a retired building contractor and radio talk show host. “John is a great guy, we like him a lot.

“My dad doesn’t get out anymore, so John’s got a good deal going.”

Glenn Ford, 84, has been infirm, his son said, since a serious heart operation several years ago. “We try to get him out to places, but he just doesn’t want to be seen in a wheelchair,” Peter Ford said.

His father made his first movie appearance in “Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence” in 1939 and became a star in 1946 when he appeared opposite Rita Hayworth in the classic “Gilda.” Among Ford’s other well-known films are “The Big Heat” (1953), “Blackboard Jungle” (1955), “3:10 to Yuma” (1957) and “Pocketful of Miracles” (1961). His last major role was as Superman’s father in the 1978 film that launched Christopher Reeve’s career.

Ferguson said he recently wrote a letter to the actor.

“I wanted him to know I was still out here doing him, making sure people knew he was still around.”

Ferguson didn’t realize he looked so much like Ford until the mid-1960s, when he was living in San Diego. “People would pass me on the street and say, ‘Hey, Glenn Ford, what are you doing down here?’

“I didn’t even know how many N’s there were in Glenn.”

When Ferguson joined a community theater troupe that had celebrity guest stars in shows, some of the actors from Los Angeles mistook him for Ford--who is 14 years older than Ferguson.

“Paul Lynde used to call me the ‘Glenn Ford of San Diego,’ ” said Ferguson, doing a creditable imitation of the late Lynde’s voice.

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Ferguson began to play along for fun, sometimes getting ushered into golf or tennis tournaments for free. He was at the famed Torrey Pines course for a tournament in the late 1970s, when a man with an entourage suddenly broke out of his pack and strolled over to greet him. It was another Ford--former President Gerald Ford.

“He said, ‘I haven’t seen you in a long time.’ Then he said he had to go and that he would catch up with me later,” Ferguson said.

Did he tell him he wasn’t the real Glenn Ford?

“There wasn’t time,” Ferguson said. “It all happened so fast. I was in shock.”

Thinking there might be some money to be made on the resemblance, Ferguson sent his picture to an agent representing look-alikes. He eventually got a call asking if he would be available to appear in a commercial with the real Glenn Ford.

The ad, shot in Los Angeles, was for an HMO in Florida. Ferguson appeared first, then the real Glenn Ford nudged him aside with a warning about not being fooled by imitators. Ferguson keeps in his wallet a picture of the two of them taken on the set.

They met in person on only one other occasion--a New Year’s Eve party at Ford’s house. Ferguson was there as a paid performer.

“He wanted me to wear my western outfit and answer the door for guests,” he said. Few of Ford’s guests were fooled, but one asked if he was wearing the outfit from “The Fastest Gun Alive” (1956).

“I told her, ‘Yes ma’am, I sure am.’ ”

For Ferguson, being Glenn Ford seems mostly about having some fun.

“I tell people my definition of success: I never expected to be a film star or have a TV show or be a famous magician,” he said.

“And so far, I’ve met all my expectations.”