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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.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.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 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). 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.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.
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 more than twenty of Ford's films, 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.He tended only to shoot the footage he needed and in the right sequence, minimizing the job of his film editors.His good friend Merian C. Cooper, the director of King Kong (1933), produced several of Ford's most admired films.
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).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." Thirty years later, historian Stephen E. Ambrose reported that the Eisenhower Center had been unable to find the film.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.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.Politics
Ford's politics were conventionally progressive as his favorite presidents were Democrats FDR and JFK and Republican Abraham Lincoln But despite these leanings, many thought 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.
Silent films
As Jack Ford: All films were made by Universal Studios unless otherwise noted.The Tornado (1917)
The Fighting Gringo (1917)
The Scrapper (1917)
The Soul Herder (1917)
Cheyenne's Pal (1917)
Straight Shooting (1917)
The Secret Man (1917)
A Marked Man (1917)
Bucking Broadway (1917)
The Phantom Riders (1918)
Wild Women (1918)
Thieves' Gold (1918)
The Scarlet Drop (1918)
Hell Bent (1918)
A Woman's Fool (1918)
Three Mounted Men (1918)
Roped (1919)
The Fighting Brothers (1919)
A Fight for Love (1919)
By Indian Post (1919)
The Rustlers (1919)
Bare Fists (1919)
Gun Law (1919)
The Gun Packer (1919)
Riders of Vengeance (1919)
The Last Outlaw (1919)
The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919)
The Ace of the Saddle (1919)
Rider of the Law (1919)
A Gun Fightin' Gentleman (1919)
Marked Men (1919)
The Prince of Avenue (1920)
The Girl in No. 29 (1920)
Hitchin' Posts (1920)
Just Pals (1920), Fox Films
The Big Punch (1920), Fox Films
The Freeze-Out (1921)
The Wallop (1921)
Desperate Trails (1921)
Action (1921)
Sure Fire (1921)
At this point he moved to Fox FilmsJackie (1921)As John Ford:Hoodman Blind (1923)
The Iron Horse (1924)
Kentucky Pride (1925)
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.Sound films
Mother Machree (1928), part sound
Four Sons (1928), part sound
Riley the Cop (1928)
Strong Boy (1929)
The Black Watch (1929)
Salute (1929)
Men Without Women (1930)
Born Reckless (1930)
Up the River (1930)
The Brat (1931)
Arrowsmith (1931)
Airmail (1932)
Flesh (1932)
Pilgrimage (1933)
Doctor Bull (1933)
The Lost Patrol (1934)
The World Moves On (1934)
Judge Priest (1934)
The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
The Informer (1935)
Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
Mary of Scotland (1936)
The Plough and the Stars (1936)
Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
The Hurricane (1937)
Submarine Patrol (1938)
Stagecoach (1939)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Tobacco Road (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
They Were Expendable (1945)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Fugitive (1947)
Fort Apache (1948)
3 Godfathers (1948)
Pinky (1949, uncredited)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Wagon Master (1950)
Rio Grande (1950)
When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)
The Quiet Man (1952)
What Price Glory? (1952)
The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
Mogambo (1953)
The Long Gray Line (1955)
Mister Roberts (1955, replaced by Mervyn LeRoy)
The Bamboo Cross (1955), made for TV
The Searchers (1956)
The Wings of Eagles (1957)
The Rising of the Moon (1957)
The Last Hurrah (1958)
Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958) (UK: Gideon's Day (film))
The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
The Alamo (1960, some 2nd unit work)
Two Rode Together (1961)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
How the West Was Won (1962), The Civil War segment
Donovan's Reef (1963)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
7 Women (1966)Documentaries and shorts
Napoleon's Barber (1928, short sound film)
Sex Hygiene (1942, documentary)
The Battle of Midway (1942, documentary)
We Sail at Midnight (1943, documentary)
December 7 (1943, documentary)
This is Korea! (1951, documentary)
Korea (1959, documentary)
Vietnam! Vietnam! (1971, documentary)
Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1976, documentary).. --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> Copied from MySpace.com -->
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