Ford, John (1895–1973)

US film director. Active from the silent film era, he became one of the most acclaimed figures of classical Hollywood cinema, winning four Academy Awards for best director. Responsible for a number of impressive Westerns such as The Iron Horse (1924), Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), he also directed a range of comedies and dramas, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

He frequently collaborated with the actors John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart, and filmed many of his Westerns in the stunning landscape of Monument Valley, Arizona. Among his other films are The Informer (1935), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Young Mr Lincoln (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), They Were Expendable (1945), Rio Grande (1950), Wagon Master (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), Mogambo (1953), Mister Roberts (1955), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Donovan's Reef (1963), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

He was the recipient of the American Film Institute's first Life Achievement Award in 1973.

Ford, John (c. 1586–c. 1640)

English poet and dramatist. His play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (performed in about 1626, printed in 1633) is a study of incestuous passion between brother and sister. His other plays include The Lover's Melancholy (1629), The Broken Heart (1633), Love's Sacrifice (1633), in which Bianca is one of Ford's finest psychological studies of women, and The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck (1634). Dwelling on themes of pathos and frustration, they reflect the transition from a general to an aristocratic audience for drama.

Ford was born in Islington, Devon. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1601, and in 1602 became a member of the Middle Temple. In 1606 he published his first work, Fame's Memorial, an elegy on the death of the Earl of Devonshire, with a dedicatory sonnet to Penelope, the Earl's widow. In the same year he issued Honour Triumphant or the Peer's Challenge, a prose pamphlet, and also, appended to the latter, The Monarch's Meeting, a poem.