("Talking It Over" is the title of Glenn Ford's book. The ...)
"Talking It Over" is the title of Glenn Ford's book. The book is subtitled "Preachers don't tell you...Politicians can't afford to." Glenn Ford addresses many issues that are not covered by our leaders today.
(A Confederate courier posing as a dance-hall girl marshal...)
A Confederate courier posing as a dance-hall girl marshalls the assistance of an apolitical cowboy in her attempt to push a message across Union lines.
(Gunman George and his wife Dora are trying to live a peac...)
Gunman George and his wife Dora are trying to live a peaceful life. But George's gunslinging ways are legendary - and attract the attention of other gunmen who feel up for a challenge.
(What would you do if a blackmailer showed up peddling nud...)
What would you do if a blackmailer showed up peddling nudie pictures of your sweet wife? Why, plug the scoundrel and bury him under the backyard gazebo, of course! A sly black comedy about a meticulously plotted, hilariously botched "perfect crime."
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford, popularly known as Glenn Ford, was a famous Canadian-American actor. Ford, who was prominent during the Hollywood Golden Age, had a career that lasted for more than 50 years. He made his film debut playing the lead role in the drama film "Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence", which was directed by Ricardo Cortez.
Background
Glenn Ford was born on May 1, 1916 in Quebec, Canada. Glenn Ford born Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford held dual Canadian and American citizenship in Sainte-Christine-d’Auvergne, Quebec. He was born to Hannah Wood and Newton Ford, an engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway. He 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 1922, the family moved first to Venice and then to Santa Monica California when he was 6.
Education
After completing his graduation from Santa Monica High School, Glenn started performing with small theatre groups.
While in high school, Glenn Ford began working in small theatre groups and took odd jobs. In 1939, he acted in West Coast stage companies before joining Columbia Pictures. 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 he delivered a poignant portrayal of a 19-year-old German exile on the run in Nazi-occupied Europe.
After a highly publicized premiere in Los Angeles and a gala fundraiser in Miami, the White House hosted a private screening of "So Ends Our Night" for President Franklin Roosevelt, who admired the film greatly. The starstruck youngster was invited to Roosevelt’s annual Birthday Ball. He returned to Los Angeles and promptly registered as a Democrat, a fervent FDR supporter.
His next picture, "Texas", was his first Western, a genre with which he would be associated for the rest of his life. Set after the Civil War, it paired him with another young male star under contract, Bill Holden, who became a lifelong friend. More routine films followed. In the summer of 1941, he enlisted in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, though he had a class 3 deferment. He began his training in September 1941, driving three nights a week to his unit in San Pedro and spending most weekends there.
Among Ford's best films at Columbia were the two he made for Fritz Lang. In "The Big Heat" (1953), the audience is made to discover and experience the events subjectively as Ford's cop does, while he mercilessly conducts a retributive investigation into the death of his wife in a car bomb explosion. Ford's achievement was in the creation of a cold and calculating yet sympathetic character, who permits himself some warmth on the death of the pathetic gangster's moll (Gloria Grahame). In the same team's "Human Desire" (1954), an updating of Zola's "La Bête Humaine", already filmed by Jean Renoir in 1938, Ford's steely passivity allowed the other performances to bounce off him effectively.
In 1955, he gained a crewcut and went over to MGM, where he made an immediate impact in "The Blackboard Jungle" as a novice New York schoolteacher confronted with a class of hooligans. It was also the film which effectively launched Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" on the world. Ford's pipe-smoking intensity suited the liberal worthiness of the picture, as did his lawyer defending a Mexican boy accused of rape and murder in Trial, of the same year.
At the same time, Ford made three "Delmer Davies" westerns. There was the brooding "Jubal" (1956), in which he inspires the Othello-like jealousy of Ernest Borgnine; "3.10 to Yuma" (1957), in one of his rare villain parts, and "Cowboy" (1958), as Jack Lemmon's tough, drunken partner.
Ford then switched successfully to comedy as the affable, ineffectual occupation army officer Fishy in The Teahouse of the August Moon, trying to bring American-style democracy to Okinawa, but who goes native himself, and the bumbling navy PR man trying to do likewise on a South Pacific island in Don't Go Near the Water (1957).
There followed two movies by Vincente Minnelli. The first was "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1962), in which he was unhappily cast in Rudolph Valentino's old role, but he exuded charm in the title role of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1963) looking for a mother for the then nine-year-old future director Ron Howard.
In the 1970s, Ford was more occupied as the hero of the series Cade's County on TV than on the big screen, but nevertheless, he cropped up from time to time to walk down a dusty street with spurs jangling in minor westerns and cameos in TV series and war pictures. One of his last feature film appearances was as "Pa Kent in Superman" (1978), the muscle-bound hero's adopted father.
In 1981, Ford co-starred with Melissa Sue Anderson in the slasher film "Happy Birthday to Me." In 1991, Ford agreed to star in a cable network series, "African Skies." However, he developed blood clots in his legs which, his situation was so severe that he was listed in critical condition and forced to drop out of the series and was replaced by Robert Mitchum.
Glenn Ford is remembered fondly by his fans for his more than 100 excellent films and his charismatic silver screen presence. His performance in the film "Pocketful of Miracles", where he played the lead role, won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Ford's tremendous contribution to the industry earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He had received several other significant awards as well.
(Gunman George and his wife Dora are trying to live a peac...)
1956
Politics
At the height of his stardom, Glenn Ford supported the Democratic Party. He supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940s, Adlai Stevenson II in 1956, and John F. Kennedy in 1960. Ford later switched his support to the Republican Party. He campaigned for his old friend and fellow actor Ronald Reagan, who would become the successful Republican candidate in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.
Personality
As an actor and as a man, Glenn Ford embodied such qualities as solid, steady and competent. He once stated that he was never acting; he was just playing himself, and the statement did not seem disingenuous.
Physical Characteristics:
The hairstyles signposted Glenn Ford's long and active career; from the full and wavy to the sleek, dark gigolo look, to the short back and sides, to a severe crewcut that gradually shrivelled like dry grass on the prairie. His face, that began boyish in prewar B films, hovered somewhere between the rugged handsomeness of William Holden and Tom Ewell's Thurberesque one, allowing him to be extremely dour in films noirs or to display the righteous nobility of a lone western hero, while also being able to play perplexed characters in comedies.
Connections
Glenn married Eleanor Powell, an actress and dancer in 1943. In 1945 their son, actor Peter Ford, was born. The couple parted ways in 1959. He then dated Christiane Schmidtmer during the mid-1960s, but subsequently was married to actress Kathryn Hays in 1966 - 1969. In 1977 the actor married Cynthia Hayward, divorcing in 1984. In 1993 Glenn finally married Jeanne Baus. The marriage again ended in divorce in 1994.
