Elder brother of the director John Ford and himself a screen director (and John's erstwhile mentor) until the advent of sound. He had also acted in his own films and those of other directors, but turned to acting exclusively circa 1929. As actor, he would provide convincing portrayals of men of authority - men sometimes ruthless if not downright unsavory. (See him as the Republican judge in his brother John's The Informer.) But he also had an ample feel for light comedy. (See him in John's The Quiet Man, as the village elder who - almost in the manner of slapstick - rouses himself from his very deathbed to witness the film's donnybrook dénouement.)
Father of Philip Ford and William. Contrary to several sources, Francis Ford was never married to Grace Cunard. His transition from the Ford family home in Maine to have a career in Hollywood as a actor and director was what motivated his little brother John Ford to do the same, largely as an act of competition. According to Gary Wills' "John Wayne's America," John Ford kept his brother Francis as part of his stock company partly for the reason so he could humiliate him by giving him small, meaningless roles and yelling at him on the set. The younger Ford could not handle feelings of indebtedness, which was one of the reasons he never worked with Harry Carey, except once, in the quarter century after Carey left Universal. Carey was given the role of the prison warden and Francis Ford the role of a corporal of the guard in John Ford's "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936). When Ford was the head of the Universal Film Manufacturing Co.'s shorts and serials department, he assigned his kid brother John, who was working odd jobs around the studio, to Harry Carey's unit. When Universal boss "Uncle" Carl Lammele gave Carey his own unit, he took Ford along as his director. Carey and Francis Ford would later appear together in John Ford's "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936) in supporting roles.