John Ford (director)
| John Ford | |
|---|---|
Ford in 1946
|
|
| Born |
John Martin Feeney February 1, 1894 Cape Elizabeth, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | August 31, 1973 (aged 79) Palm Desert, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Stomach cancer |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California |
| Occupation | Film director/producer |
| Years active | 1917–66 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United States |
| Service/branch |
US Navy US Naval Reserve |
| Years of service | 1942–45 (active) 1946–62 (reserve) |
| Rank |
Commander (active) Rear Admiral (reserve) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
John Ford (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973) was an American film director. He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). His four Academy Awards for Best Director (in 1935, 1940, 1941, and 1952) remain a record. One of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films (although most of his silent films are now lost) and he is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential film-makers of his generation. Ford's work was held in high regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman among those who have named him one of the greatest directors of all time.
Ford made frequent use of location shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh, and rugged natural terrain.
Ford was born John Martin "Jack" Feeney (though he later often gave his given names as Sean Aloysius, sometimes with surname O'Feeny or O'Fearna; an Irish language equivalent of Feeney) in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara "Abbey" Curran, on February 1, 1894 (though he occasionally said 1895 and that date is erroneously inscribed on his tombstone). His father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal,County Galway, Ireland in 1854. Barbara Curran had been born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore (Inis Mór). John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local (impoverished) gentry family, the Morrises of Spiddal (headed at present by Lord Killanin).
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