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John Ford

Birth Name: John Martin Feeney
Nickname: Pappy, Coach, Uncle Jack
Date of Birth: 1 February 1894, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA
Date of Death: 31 August 1973, Palm Desert, California, USA. (stomach cancer)
Sometimes Credited as: Commander John Ford, Jack Ford, Rear Admiral John Ford USNVR Ret.
Height: 6' (1.83 m)
Spouse: Mary McBryde Smith (3 July 1920 - 31 August 1973) (his death)

Ford won four Academy Awards for Best Director. His style of film-making has been tremendously influential, leading many colleagues to name him one of the greatest directors of all time and some, notably Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles, as the greatest. His films have influenced directors as diverse as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone, as well as countless others.

In 1921, Ford turned to directing, beginning as an assistant to Lois Weber. During the 1920s, he served as president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a forerunner to today's Directors Guild of America.

Over 35 years John Wayne appeared in more than twenty of Ford's films, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Ford's favorite location for his films was Utah's Monument Valley. Ford defined images of the American West with some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography ever shot, in such films as Stagecoach, The Searchers, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.His good friend Merian C. Cooper, the director of King Kong), produced several of Ford's most admired films.

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.