John Ford
American film director (1894-1973) · United States · Directors · Died at 79
John Ford is read about 1,713 times a day, in 79 languages.
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Something wrong?He won more Best Director Oscars than anyone else - four, across two decades - and built the grammar of the American Western, teaching entire generations of filmmakers how to frame a man against the horizon.
A life in dates
The American Film Institute Salute to ...Series, 19731972Owen Wister AwardAward1971Golden Lion for Lifetime AchievementAward1965
7 WomenFilm, Director, Producer1963
Donovan's ReefFilm, Director, Producer1961
Alcoa PremiereSeries, Director
Two Rode TogetherFilm, 1961Director, Producer1959
The Horse SoldiersFilm, Director1957
Wagon TrainSeries, Director1956
The SearchersFilm, Director1955
Screen Director's PlayhouseSeries, DirectorThe Jane Wyman ShowSeries, 1955Director1953Academy Award for Best DirectorAward
MogamboFilm, 1953Director1950
Rio GrandeFilm, Director, Producer1948
3 GodfathersFilm, Director, Producer1946
My Darling ClementineFilm, Director1942Academy Award for Best DirectorAward
The Battle of MidwayFilm, 1942Director, Writer1941Academy Award for Best DirectorAward1940“Do you know that Eugene O'Neill loved [(1940), based on a cycle of O'Neill's one-act sea plays]? Every month he had a print screened for him.”In their wordsOp. cit., pp. 72-731939
Drums Along the MohawkFilm, Director1936Academy Award for Best DirectorAward
The Prisoner of Shark IslandFilm, 1936Director1934
The Lost PatrolFilm, Director, Producer1915
The Birth of a NationFilm, Klansman (uncredited)1894Born1 February 1894Also in Deutsch
Photos 8
In their own words 3
, Do you know that Eugene O'Neill loved [(1940), based on a cycle of O'Neill's one-act sea plays]? Every month he had a print screened for him.
What? [...] I understood the question but what does it mean? [...] I don't have a method. I tell them what to do. They do it.
Maureen O'Hara is one of the actresses I most dislike. Everybody thought I was her lover. Actually, I hated her and she hated me, but she was right for the parts.
Filmography 40
WO7 Women
CACheyenne AutumnDRDonovan's Reef
TVThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
HWHow the West Was WonTTTwo Rode Together
SRSergeant RutledgeTSThe Horse Soldiers
THThe Last Hurrah
TEThe Wings of EaglesTSThe Searchers
MRMister Roberts
TLThe Long Gray LineMOMogambo
TMThe Quiet ManRGRio Grande
WMWagon Master
SRShe Wore a Yellow Ribbon
MYMighty Joe Young
FAFort ApacheGO3 Godfathers
TFThe FugitiveMCMy Darling Clementine
TEThey Were Expendable
NCNazi Concentration CampsTMThe Battle of Midway
HVHow Green Was My Valley
TRTobacco Road
TWThe Grapes of Wrath
THThe Long Voyage Home
STStagecoach
YLYoung Mr. LincolnDMDrums Along the Mohawk
THThe HurricaneTIThe Prisoner of Shark Island
TIThe Informer
TTThe Whole Town's TalkingTPThe Lost Patrol
THThe Iron HorseTNThe Birth of a Nation263 credits on file
Television 7
FBFive Came BackTTThe American Film Institute Salute to ...APAlcoa PremiereWTWagon TrainSPScreen Director's PlayhouseAwards
Family
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John Martin Feeney was born February 1, 1894, and spent over fifty years behind the camera, directing more than 130 films between 1917 and 1970 under the name John Ford. He took Best Director for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952) - a record haul. His Westerns - Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - leaned on wide shots and hard country, framing people small against brutal landscape. He launched John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James Stewart. Kurosawa, Welles, Capra, Tarkovsky, Bergman all named him among the greatest; the New Hollywood generation learned by watching him. He died August 31, 1973, his visual language so embedded in cinema that the Harvard Film Archive noted the full breadth of what he built remains difficult to measure.
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