Harrison Ford top ten facts
by hellomagazine.com HELLO! Online has compiled a list of the top ten facts about Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford 's latest film Ender's Game is released in the UK on 25 October.
 
To celebrate, HELLO! Online has compiled a list of the top ten facts about the 71-year-old Hollywood actor.
What crafty career did Harrison almost follow? Which creature has been named after him? And why did he almost miss out on playing Indiana Jones?
 
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1. Acting runs in Harrison's genes. His mother, Dorothy, was a former radio actress and his father, Christopher, was a former actor turned advertising executive. He also has a younger brother called Terence, an actor and photographer.
2. When he was younger, the Star Wars actor was an active member of the Boy Scouts of America and achieved the rank of Life Scout. On learning this, director Steven Spielberg decided to make young Indy a Life Scout in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
3. Harrison's route into acting wasn’t totally planned; he initially only attended a drama class in his senior year at college to overcome his shyness.
4. He shares his name with a silent film actor also named Harrison Ford, who died in 1957. To avoid any confusion, Ford called himself "Harrison J. Ford" in his first movie credit, the 1967 film A Time for Killing. The "J" doesn’t actually stand for anything, as Harrison has no middle name.
 
5. The Hollywood star has experienced a phenomenally successful career, but this wasn’t always the case. When he first started out, Harrison was unhappy with the film roles he was offered, so became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his young family.
This is how he met George Lucas , who would go on to cast him as "Han Solo" in the Star Wars franchise. The director hired Harrison to build cabinets at his home, but after learning the craftsman was actually an actor, he gave him a role in his 1973 film American Graffiti.
6. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing Indiana Jones, but that almost happened. Tom Selleck was initially offered the role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Harrison was cast when Tom was unable to accept.
7. The Star Wars star has been married three times, has five children and three grandchildren. He has been married to actress Calista Flockhart since 2010, and they have an adopted son, Liam.
 
8. Not only is he an Academy Award nominated actor, Harrison is also a licensed private pilot of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The local hero has also been known to assist the authorities in providing emergency helicopter services in his area.
9. Harrison is a famous advocate of conservation. He is on the Board of Directors for Conservation International, and has had two species named after him: a Central American ant (Peidole Harrisonfordi) and spider (Calponia Harrisonfordi).
He also had the honour of naming a new breed of butterfly, which he called "Georgia", after his daughter.
10. The actor's famous good looks aren’t all his own. He has admitted to having a few false teeth; some of which were the result of falling on a gun during a TV show stunt early on in his career.