John Ford

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John Ford
Birth name John Martin Feeney
Born February 1, 1894(1894-02-01)
Cape Elizabeth, Maine, U.S.
Died August 31, 1973 (aged 79)[1]
Palm Desert, California, U.S.
Spouse(s) Mary Ford (1920-1973)

John Ford (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973)[1] was an American film director of Irish heritage famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach and The Searchers and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath. His four Best Director Academy Awards (1935, 1940, 1941, 1952) is a record still unmatched, although only one of those films, How Green Was My Valley, won Best Picture.

His style of film-making has been tremendously influential, leading colleagues such as Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles to name him as one of the greatest directors of all time. In particular, Ford is a pioneer of location shooting and the extreme long shot which frames his characters against a vast, harsh and rugged natural terrain. Ford has further influenced directors as diverse as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Peter Bogdanovich, Sergio Leone, Wim Wenders, Francois Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard.

Contents

He 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; a Gaelic equivalent of Feeney) in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara "Abbey" Curran.[1] John Augustine was born in Spiddal,[2] County Galway, Ireland in 1854.[1] Barbara Curran had been born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore (Inis Mór).[1]

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.

John Augustine and Barbara Curran arrived in Boston and Portland respectively within a few days of each other in May and June 1872. They were married in 1875, and became American citizens five years later on September 11, 1880.[1] They had eleven children: Mamie (Mary Agnes), born 1876; Delia (Edith), 1878-1881; Patrick; Francis Ford, 1881-1953; Bridget, 1883-1884; Barbara, born and died 1888; Edward, born 1889; Josephine, born 1891; Hannah (Joanna), born and died 1892; John Martin, 1894-1973; and Daniel, born and died 1896 (or 1898).[1] John Augustine lived in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine with his family, and would try farming, fishing, work for the gas company, run a saloon, and be an alderman.[1]

Feeney attended Portland High School in Portland, where the auditorium is named after him.

Many of his films contain direct and indirect references to his Irish and Gaelic heritage. His family referred to him as Seán and Jack.

Feeney began acting in 1914, taking "Jack Ford" as a stage name. In addition to credited roles, he appeared uncredited as a Klansman in D.W. Griffith's 1915 classic, The Birth of a Nation, as the man who lifts up one side of his hood so he can see clearly.

He married Mary McBryde Smith, on July 3, 1920 (two children). Ford never divorced his wife, but had a five-year affair with Katharine Hepburn after they met during the filming of Mary of Scotland (1936). The longer revised version of Directed by John Ford shown on Turner Classic Movies in November, 2006 features directors Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Martin Scorsese, who suggest that the string of classic films Ford directed 1936-1941 was due in part to his affair with Hepburn.

The Searchers (1956)
The Searchers (1956)

In 1921, Ford turned to directing, beginning as an assistant to Lois Weber. During the 1920s, he served as president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a forerunner to today's Directors Guild of America.

Over 35 years John Wayne appeared in 24 of Ford's films (and 3 TV episodes), including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Ford's favorite location for his films was in southern Utah's Monument Valley. Ford defined images of the American West with some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography ever shot, in such films as Stagecoach, The Searchers, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, while the influence on the films of classic Western artists such as Frederic Remington and others has been examined.[3]

He tended only to shoot the footage he needed and in the right sequence, minimizing the job of his film editors[4].

His good friend Merian C. Cooper, the director of King Kong (1933), produced several of Ford's most admired films.

Ford was also infamous for being extremely difficult with his actors on set, frequently mocking, yelling, and bullying them. He referred to John Wayne as a "big idiot" and even punched an unsuspecting Henry Fonda. Henry Brandon (probably best known as Chief Scar from "The Searchers") once referred to Ford as: "The only man who could make John Wayne cry."

During World War II Commander John Ford, USNR, served in the United States Navy and made documentaries for the Navy Department. He won two more Academy Awards during this time, one for the semi-documentary The Battle of Midway (1942), and a second for the propaganda film December 7 (1943).[5][6][7]

Ford was present on Omaha Beach on D-Day. As head of the photographic unit for the Office of Strategic Services, he crossed the English Channel on the USS Plunkett (DD-431), anchored off Omaha Beach at 0600. He observed the first wave land on the beach from the ship, landing on the beach himself later with a team of US Coast Guard cameramen who filmed the battle from behind the beach obstacles, with Ford directing operations. The film was edited in London, but very little was released to the public. Ford explained in a 1964 interview that the US Government was "afraid to show so many American casualties on the screen," adding that all of the D-Day film "still exists in color in storage in Anacostia near Washington, D.C."[8] Thirty years later, historian Stephen E. Ambrose reported that the Eisenhower Center had been unable to find the film.[9] After the war, Ford became a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy Reserve.

In 1955, Ford was tapped to direct the classic Navy comedy Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell, and James Cagney. However, Mervyn LeRoy replaced Ford during filming when he suffered a ruptured gallbladder.

Ford cast Ward Bond as John Dodge, a character based on Ford himself, in the 1957 movie The Wings of Eagles, again starring his good friends John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

Ford used many of the same actors repeatedly in his films, far more so than many directors. John Wayne, Ben Johnson, Chill Wills, Ward Bond, Grant Withers, Harry Carey, Jr., Ken Curtis, Victor McLaglen, Woody Strode, Francis Ford (Ford's older brother), Hank Worden, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, John Carradine, and Carleton Young were among this group, informally known as the John Ford Stock Company.

Ford died in Palm Desert, California, aged 79 from stomach cancer. He was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. A statue of Ford in Portland, Maine depicts him sitting in a director's chair.

John Ford Point in Monument Valley, the location of many significant Ford Westerns from Stagecoach (1939) forward.
John Ford Point in Monument Valley, the location of many significant Ford Westerns from Stagecoach (1939) forward.

Ford won four Academy Awards as Best Director for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952) - none of them Westerns (also starring in the last two was Maureen O'Hara, "his favorite actress"). He was also nominated as Best Director for Stagecoach (1939). Ford is the only director to have won four Best Director Academy Awards: both William Wyler and Frank Capra won the award three times.

As a producer he received nominations for Best Picture for The Quiet Man and The Long Voyage Home.

He was the first recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1973.

Ford's politics were conventionally progressive as his favorite presidents were Democrats FDR and JFK and Republican Abraham Lincoln[10] But despite these leanings, many thought [11][12] he was a right-wing Republican because of his long association with actors John Wayne, James Stewart and Ward Bond. Time Magazine editor Whittaker Chambers wrote a harsh review of The Grapes of Wrath as a left-wing propaganda assuming Steinbeck, the author, and Ford to be of that political stripe.

Ford's attitude to McCarthyism in Hollywood is expressed by a story told by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. A faction of the Directors Guild of America led by Cecil B. DeMille had tried to make it mandatory for every member to sign a loyalty oath. A whispering campaign was being conducted against Mankiewicz, then President of the Guild, alleging he had communist sympathies. At a crucial meeting of the Guild, DeMille's faction spoke for four hours until Ford spoke against DeMille and proposed a vote of confidence in Mankiewicz, which was passed. According to Mankiewicz, Ford's words were:

"My name's John Ford. I make Westerns. I don't think there's anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille - and he certainly knows how to give it to them. But I don't like you, C.B., and I don't like what you've been saying here tonight."[1]

As Jack Ford: All films were made by Universal Studios unless otherwise noted.

At this point he moved to Fox Films

  • Jackie (1921)

As John Ford:

  • 3 Bad Men (1926)
  • Upstream (1927)
  • Hangman's House (1928), producer & director (uncredited)

All but around 10 of his silent films are lost, although Bucking Broadway was rediscovered in 2002.

Awards
Preceded by
Frank Capra
for It Happened One Night		 Academy Award for Best Director
1935
for The Informer		 Succeeded by
Frank Capra
for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Preceded by
Victor Fleming
for Gone with the Wind		 Academy Award for Best Director
1940
for The Grapes of Wrath
1941
for How Green Was My Valley		 Succeeded by
William Wyler
for Mrs. Miniver
Preceded by
George Stevens
for A Place in the Sun		 Academy Award for Best Director
1952
for The Quiet Man		 Succeeded by
Fred Zinnemann
for From Here to Eternity
Preceded by
None		 AFI Life Achievement Award
1973		 Succeeded by
James Cagney

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Eyman, Scott. Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1999. ISBN 0684811618 (excerpt c/o New York Times)
  2. ^ Probably better known at the time by its Irish name An Spidéal.
  3. ^ Peter Cowie, see below
  4. ^ BBC Radio 4 programme 10:30am 29 September 2007
  5. ^ John Ford - at IMDb
  6. ^ Biography of Rear Admiral John Ford; U.S. Naval Reserve - at Naval Historical Center
  7. ^ "Oral History - Battle of Midway:Recollections of Commander John Ford" - at Naval Historical Center
  8. ^ Interview with Pete Martin "We Shot D-Day on Omaha Beach (An Interview With John Ford)" in The American Legion Magazine (c/o www.thefilmjournal.com). June 1964.
  9. ^ Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1994. pp 395-397. ISBN 0-671-67334-3
  10. ^ Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, See below, pp 18-19.
  11. ^ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ford_wayne_interview.html
  12. ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020331/REVIEWS08/203310301/1023&template=printart

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