Young Harrison Ford: Amazing Throw-Back Photos

Like a fine wine, Academy Award-nominee Harrison Ford has only gotten better with time. Since the late ’60s, the octogenarian actor has had a long and varied career, bringing to life iconic characters like Han Solo and Indiana Jones and winning over fans of all ages. Before achieving fame and recognition, a young Harrison Ford described himself as a “late bloomer” and took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year at Wisconsin’s Ripon College to get over his shyness.

Though he ultimately dropped out and married his college sweetheart Mary Marquardt in 1964, those acting lessons certainly paid off, as he soon began acting in local plays and worked his way up to bit parts in movies. His earliest roles, in movies like 1966’s Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round and 1967’s Luv were so small they went uncredited, but he’d soon get his first-ever screen credit (as “Harrison J. Ford” — though Ford didn’t actually have a middle name, this was meant to avoid a mixup with a silent film actor with the same name) in the Western A Time for Killing.

TV came calling throughout the late ’60s and early ’70s, as Ford appeared in episodes of Gunsmoke, Ironside, The F.B.I. and several other popular shows. Unhappy with the roles he was being offered, Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter with a celebrity client list (including writer Joan Didion and musician Sergio Mendes). 

But in the early 1970s, Ford finally got his big break and soon starred in some of the most iconic moments on the silver screen of the last 60 years. He’s since starred in more than 40 films. Here’s a look back at some of young Harrison Ford’s most notable TV shows, movies and moments over the years.

1973: American Graffiti

In 1973, Ford played Bob Falfa, a drag racer in early-’60s California, in American Graffiti, the second movie directed by George Lucas. Working with Lucas would be pivotal for Ford’s career, as the director hired him just a few years later for his first starring role, in a little 1977 movie known as Star Wars. The rest is space-opera history, and Ford became known as one of Hollywood’s coolest, most charismatic leading men.

1977: Star Wars

As the swaggering space icon Han Solo, Ford became a household name, and Star Wars became one of the most successful movies of all time, spawning a major franchise and changing Hollywood — and pop culture — forever.

By the time he was cast as Han Solo, Harrison Ford was already in his 30s — which is young in the real world but considered a late start in Hollywood. When it comes to aging, Ford takes a philosophical and humorous approach. “I’m like old shoes,” he’s said — as a late bloomer, he had time to come into his own without growing up in public or being seen as a flavor of the month.

In fact, not being an overnight success worked in Ford’s favor. “I was 35 when I first hit with Star Wars. I had some degree of maturity and some degree of experience, yet physically I still looked young,” he told Empire Magazine. “That had been an impediment early on in my career, but then it turned out to be an advantage.”