Glenn Ford
| Glenn Ford | |
|---|---|
Ford in 1955
|
|
| Born |
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford May 1, 1916 Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | August 30, 2006 (aged 90) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1939–1991 |
| Spouse(s) |
Eleanor Powell (m. 1943; div. 1959) Kathryn Hays (m. 1966; div. 1969) Cynthia Hayward (m. 1977; div. 1984) Jeanne Baus (m. 1993; div. 1994) |
| Children | Peter Ford |
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian actor who held dual Canadian and American citizenship. His career lasted more than 50 years. Although he played many different roles, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances. He was most prominent during Hollywood's Golden Age.
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford was born on May 1, 1916 in Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, the son of Hannah Wood (née Mitchell) and Newton Ford, a railway man. Through his father, Ford was a great-nephew of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and also related to U.S. President Martin Van Buren. In 1924, at the age of eight, Ford moved to Santa Monica, California with his family. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.
After Ford graduated from Santa Monica High School, he began working in small theatre groups. While in high school, he took odd jobs, including working for Will Rogers, who taught him horsemanship. Ford later commented that his railroad executive father had no objection to his growing interest in acting, but told him, "It's all right for you to try to act, if you learn something else first. Be able to take a car apart and put it together. Be able to build a house, every bit of it. Then you'll always have something." Ford heeded the advice and during the 1950s, when he was one of Hollywood's most popular actors, he regularly worked on plumbing, wiring, and air conditioning at home. At times, he worked as a roofer and installer of plate-glass windows.
Ford acted in West Coast stage companies before joining Columbia Pictures in 1939. His stage name came from his father's hometown of Glenford, Alberta. His first major movie part was in the 1939 film, Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence. Top Hollywood director John Cromwell was impressed enough with his work to borrow him from Columbia for the independently produced drama, So Ends Our Night (1941), where Ford delivered a poignant portrayal of a 19-year-old German exile on the run in Nazi-occupied Europe.
...
Wikipedia