John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "The train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, counting (he always did) the two that he won for his WWII documentary work. He had one wife; a son and daughter; and a grandson, Dan Ford who wrote a biography on his famous grandfather.
There was a group of actors, known informally as the John Ford Stock Company (John Wayne, Harry Carey, John Carradine, Henry Fonda, etc.) that turned up regularly in Ford's films. They knew how to work with Ford and with each other, which suited Ford's directing style: "I tell the actors what I want and they give it to me, usually on the first take." Father of Barbara Ford, grandfather of Dan Ford. John Wayne called him by the nickname "Coach." First recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award [1973] Brother of actor-director Francis Ford. Supporting members of Ford's "Stock Company" include Ward Bond, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell, Francis Ford, Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, Mae Marsh, Mildred Natwick, John Qualen, Woody Strode, Tom Tyler, and Patrick Wayne. The character "John Dodge" in Ford's movie The Wings of Eagles is a spoof of Ford. Ford often used members of his family (including his two brothers, Francis Ford and Edward O'Fearna) in his films, but only in subordinate roles. Patrick Ford recalled, "My conversations with him, as his only son -- that I know of -- were always 'Yessir', until one day I said 'no sir', and then I was no longer around. Our family life was pretty much that of a ship master and his crew, or a wagon master and his people. He gave the orders, and we carried them out". His tombstone is marked 'Admiral John Ford'. Served as actress Anna Massey's Godfather John Wayne called him by the nickname "Pappy." He has referred to English director Brian Desmond Hurst as his "cousin". He was an infamously prickly personality, having constantly mocked John Wayne as a "big idiot" and having punched an unsuspecting Henry Fonda during the shooting of Mister Roberts. Was voted the 3rd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, right after Orson Welles, who himself considered Ford to be the best director of all time. Embarrassed Jean-Luc Godard, then a young journalist for Les Cahiers du Cinema, during an interview. When Godard asked the famous question: "What Brought you to Hollywood ?" Ford replied: "A train". Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 360-369. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987. May be the most influential director of sound films among other directors. Many of the greatest directors of all time point directly to him as their favorite or one of their favorite filmmakers: Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone (and his own star, Clint Eastwood), Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Bernardo Bertolucci and any of members of the French New Wave or their disciples, from Jean-Luc Godard to François Truffaut. His apparently madcap affair with Katharine Hepburn, when both were married, inspired his friend Dudley Nichols to write the script for Bringing Up Baby. When (after Hepburn broke off her relationship with Ford) she began her lifelong affair with Spencer Tracy, Ford was allegedly incensed and, after the two had had a fruitful collaboration early on in their careers, he neither spoke with or worked with Tracy for about 20 years. When his western Hell Bent for Universal was released, "Motion Picture News" praised Ford's direction, writing, "Few directors put such sustained punch in their pictures as does this Mr. Ford." It was the ninth in a series of films featuring Harry Carey as "Cheyenne Harry," who was more of a saddle tramp than a conventional western hero. While John Ford is the director's "Hollywood" name, and his American birth name is John Feeney, his Irish name was Sean Aloysius O'Fearna. Allegedly his parents referred to him as 'Sean' Directed 10 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Victor McLaglen, Thomas Mitchell, Edna May Oliver, Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Jack Lemmon. McLaglen, Mitchell, Darwell, Crisp and Lemmon won Oscar for one of their roles in one of Fords movies. Received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Richard Nixon in 1973. Is portrayed by Jerome Ehlers in Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story Prior to making The Searchers, Ford entered the hospital for the removal of cataracts. While recuperating after the surgery, he became impatient with the bandages covering his eyes and tore them off earlier than his doctors told him to. The result of that rash action was that Ford suffered a total loss of sight in one eye, which is how he came to wear his famous eyepatch. Has won more directing Oscars than any other director: four, for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man. He also won an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subject for The Battle of Midway and an Oscar for Best Documentary for December 7th. Because his friends and colleagues John Wayne, James Stewart and Ward Bond were conservative Republicans, many assumed that Ford was as well. According to his friends, family, and workers, nothing could be further from the truth, as he was an activist liberal Democrat. His favorite Presidents were Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Ford once went up to the right-wing Victor McLaglen and Wayne on a film set and said, "You know, all of you guys should stop complaining. You made your money under Roosevelt." Wayne, who hated Roosevelt, said nothing and changed the subject. His respect for Ford meant that politics were rarely discussed. Ford was disgusted by John Wayne's refusal to enlist in 1941. When Ford filmed They Were Expendable after World War II he included every actor's former military rank and branch (Ford himself was a Navy officer and combat photographer). Of course, there were no credentials behind Wayne's name, which the actor took as a real slap.