John Ford

Also known as Jack Ford, John Martin Feeney, Jack Feeney, Sean Aloysius, Sean Aloysius O'Feeney, John Feeney

American film director (1894–1973)

AI overview

John Ford was an American film director who lived from 1894 to 1973 and is considered one of the most influential filmmakers in cinema history. He is particularly renowned for directing iconic Westerns and other films that shaped American cinema and popular culture.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Died: 1750
Works: 173

Top works

Four Revenge Tragedies
John Fordes Dramatische Werke in Neudruck; Volume 1
Witch of Edmonton
Merry Devil of Edmonton and the Witch of Edmonton
The Maine way

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Directing · Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA

John Ford (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973) was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath (1940). His four Academy Awards for Best Director (1935, 1940, 1941, 1952) is a record, and one of those…

Known for

Filmmakers for the Prosecution — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)2023
John Ford: The Man Who Invented America — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)2019
Five Came Back — Self (archive footage)2017
Spanish Western — Self (archive footage)2015
John Ford & Monument Valley — Self (archive footage)2013
The Size of Legends, The Soul of Myth — Self (archive footage)2009
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year — Self (archive footage)2009
Monument Valley: John Ford Country — Self (voice) (archive footage)2006
Serenity at Sea: John Ford and the Araner — Himself (archive footage)2006
Shooting War — himself2000

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1919-02-13
Active to: 1991-10-17

boogiecountrycountry boogiecountry gospelgospeltraditional country

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 1,514
Total plays: 11,103

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

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The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
· 1992 · cited 28,853x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“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. If I'm not satisfied, I correct their errors, I tell them to raise their voice, or to emphasize such-and-such sentence, and they do it again; that's all. Anyway, most of the time the actors are very good friends of mine and I know their personality and their range. There's no method involved there."”
“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.”
“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. It's a little thing that made me very proud of this picture.”
“Never. It's awful. When I am asked why I hardly ever move the camera, I answer that the actors are better paid than the stagehands and grips, so it's normal that they should work and move about a little more. You should never use technical gimmicks to create emotion.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Image: John Ford 1946.jpg
Height: 183
Number of children: 2

Show 10 more facts

Commons category: John Ford (director)
date of birth: 1894-02-01
date of death: 1973-08-31
Commons gallery: John Ford
start of work period: 1913-00-00
name in native language: John Ford
date of burial or cremation: 1973-09-05
birth name: Sean Aloysius O'Feeney
end of work period: 1966-00-00
Commons Creator page: John Ford

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Article

John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and was one of the first American directors to be recognized as an auteur. In a career of more than 50 years, he directed over 130 films between 1917 and 1970 (although most of his silent films are now lost), and received a record four Academy Awards for Best Director for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952).

Ford is renowned for his Westerns, such as Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962); though he worked in many other genres, including comedies, period dramas, and documentaries. He made frequent use of location shooting and wide shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh, and rugged natural terrain. He is credited with launching the careers of some of Hollywood's biggest stars during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara and James Stewart.