# Glenn Ford
**Glenn Ford** (born Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford; May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-born American actor whose career in film and television spanned more than 50 years, from the 1939 western *Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence* to *Superman* (1978) and later television movies.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/) He was one of Hollywood's biggest box-office stars of the 1950s, voted the industry's number one male box-office attraction in 1958, yet he was never nominated for an Academy Award or an Emmy.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/glenn_ford)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford, May 1, 1916, Sainte-Christine, Quebec, Canada; August 30, 2006, Beverly Hills, California, aged 90[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/) |
| Film output | 106 films and several television series over a career of more than five decades; more than half were westerns[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html) |
| Breakthrough | *Gilda* (1946) opposite Rita Hayworth, made after his discharge from the Marine Corps in 1945[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/glenn-ford/) |
| Box office | Voted Hollywood's number one male box-office attraction in 1958[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html) |
| Awards | Never nominated for an Academy Award; one Golden Globe win from three nominations (Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, for *Pocketful of Miracles*, 1962)[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/glenn_ford) • [6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) |
| Military service | U.S. Marine Corps, 1942–45; later a commander in the Naval Reserve; French Legion of Honour awarded in 1992[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) |
| Signature roles | *The Big Heat* (1953), *Blackboard Jungle* (1955), *3:10 to Yuma* (1957), Pa Kent in *Superman* (1978)[6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) |
## Early life and career start
Ford was born in Sainte-Christine, Quebec, Canada, the son of Hannah Wood Mitchell and Newton Ford, a railroad executive and mill owner.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) His family moved to California when he was a boy, settling in Santa Monica, where he attended [Santa Monica High School](https://www.edgepedia.org/santa-monica-high-school).[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/glenn-ford) His professional name came from Glenford, the site of the family paper mill and his father's hometown.[9](https://walkoffame.com/glenn-ford/) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html)
He worked with little theater groups and California touring companies as an actor and stage manager before joining the Broadway-bound play *Soliloquy* in 1938; it closed after two performances, and Ford returned to Los Angeles.[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) A 20th Century Fox talent scout, Tom Moore, discovered him, and his screen debut came in *Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence* (1939), a low-budget picture in which he played a store clerk heading west.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) He signed with [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) the same year and spent the early 1940s in a string of B pictures, an exception being John Cromwell's anti-Nazi drama *So Ends Our Night* (1941).[10](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/01/guardianobituaries.obituaries) Between 1939 and his enlistment in 1942 he made 14 films.[11](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html)
## Military service
Ford enlisted in the [United States Marine Corps](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-marine-corps) in December 1942, after a year in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and was discharged in 1945.[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) According to the Guardian obituary, part of his wartime activity consisted of training [French Resistance](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-resistance) fighters, and he later became a commander in the US Naval Reserve.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/01/guardianobituaries.obituaries) In 1967, as a Naval Reserve commander, he spent a month in [South Vietnam](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-vietnam) filming combat locations for the training documentary *Global Marine*.[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) France awarded him the Legion of Honour Medal in 1992 for his World War II service.[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html)
## Stardom in the 1940s and 1950s
After his discharge, three 1946 pictures relaunched his career: *Gilda*, *A Stolen Life* opposite [Bette Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bette-davis), and *Gallant Journey*.[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/glenn-ford/) It was through Bette Davis that he received his big postwar break; she approved him as her romantic lead in *A Stolen Life*.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile) The film noir *Gilda*, costarring [Rita Hayworth](https://www.edgepedia.org/rita-hayworth), pushed him into the spotlight, and the Hayworth-Ford pairing proved popular enough that the studio reteamed them in *The Loves of Carmen* (1948), *Affair in Trinidad* (1952), and *The Money Trap* (1965).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile)
The 1950s were his peak. He starred in [Fritz Lang](https://www.edgepedia.org/fritz-lang)'s film noir *The Big Heat* (1953) and its grim follow-up *Human Desire* (1954), played a schoolmaster confronting juvenile delinquency in [Richard Brooks](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-brooks)'s *Blackboard Jungle* (1955), and appeared as outlaw Ben Wade in *3:10 to Yuma* (1957).[11](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html) • [6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) More than half of his films were westerns, and the genre kept him busy through the 1950s and 1960s with titles including *The Violent Men* (1955), *Jubal* (1956), *The Fastest Gun Alive* (1956), *The Sheepman* (1958), and *Cowboy* (1958) with [Jack Lemmon](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-lemmon).[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile) He also showed a flair for comedy in *The Teahouse of the August Moon* (1956) opposite Marlon Brando, *Don't Go Near the Water* (1957), *The Gazebo* (1959), and *The Courtship of Eddie's Father* (1963).[6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) • [11](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html)
His draw time of roughly 0.4 seconds with a pistol earned him the label "the fastest gun in Hollywood," which helped typecast him in westerns.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile) In 1958 he was voted the number one male box-office attraction.[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html)
## Later career and television
Ford's film career slowed in the 1960s; the Encyclopedia.com entry attributes his decline to poor material.[12](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ford-glenn-1916) In the 1970s he concentrated on television, starring as Sheriff Sam Cade in the CBS police drama *Cade's County* (1971–72), which also featured his son Peter Ford, and as the Depression-era preacher Tom Holvak in the NBC series *The Family Holvak* (1975).[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) His late film career included the role of Jonathan Kent, Superman's adoptive father, in [Richard Donner](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-donner)'s *Superman* (1978), a part widely treated by obituarists as his farewell comeback.[6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) • [11](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html) He continued to appear in features and television movies through the early 1990s, with credits such as *Virus* (1980), *Happy Birthday to Me* (1981), and *Casablanca Express* (1990).[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/glenn_ford) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/glenn-ford)
## Working style and reputation
Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas called Ford "the anti-star": he avoided Hollywood socializing, never quarreled with directors or studio bosses, and was untouched by scandal.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-01-et-ford1-story.html) He remained under contract to Columbia Pictures for many years and got along well with studio chief Harry Cohn; Ford recalled Cohn telling him at the end of his contract, "You know why we always got along together, Glenn? Because you never were afraid of me."[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) His single venture as a producer, [Frank Capra](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-capra)'s *Pocketful of Miracles* (1961), was also his last; he reasoned that no actor was going to tell Frank Capra how to make a picture.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-01-et-ford1-story.html)
He preferred working for major studios over independents, saying in 1960 that the scripts were rarely right and the budgets small at independent outfits.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-01-et-ford1-story.html) Encyclopedists credited him with excelling at playing well-meaning, ordinary men confronted by unusual or threatening situations, and his two most successful portrayals, in *Human Desire* and *The Big Heat*, came closest to the antihero roles usually associated with [Humphrey Bogart](https://www.edgepedia.org/humphrey-bogart).[14](https://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/bios/Ford.html) • [12](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ford-glenn-1916)
## Honors and recognition
Ford never received an Academy Award nomination in a career of more than 100 films, though he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, for *Pocketful of Miracles* in 1962, after nominations for *The Teahouse of the August Moon* (1957) and *Don't Go Near the Water* (1958); he was also nominated for a BAFTA Foreign Actor award in 1959.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/glenn_ford) • [6](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/) • [15](https://www.fandango.com/people/glenn-ford-217052/awards) The Western Heritage Museum inducted him into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1978, and he has a star on the [Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-walk-of-fame) on the north side of the 6900 block of [Hollywood Boulevard](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-boulevard).[4](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html) • [5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/glenn-ford/)
## Personal life and death
Ford was married four times: to the dancer and actress Eleanor Powell from 1943 to 1959, with whom he had a son, the actor Peter Ford; to the actress Kathryn Hays from 1966 to 1968; to Cynthia Hayward from 1977 to 1984; and to Jeanne Baus from 1993, dissolved in 1994.[11](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html) He played polo and was a lifelong friend of William Holden, his Columbia contract contemporary and sometime co-star in *Texas* (1941) and *The Man from Colorado* (1948).[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html) • [13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-01-et-ford1-story.html)
He died at his Beverly Hills home on August 30, 2006, at age 90, of complications from multiple strokes; he had largely stayed out of public view since the early 1990s.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html)
## References
1. [Glenn Ford – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001229/bio/)
2. [Glenn Ford Profile, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/99249/glenn-ford-profile)
3. [Glenn Ford Movies & TV Shows List, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/glenn_ford)
4. [Glenn Ford, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon (A. & A.S.R.) biography page](https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/ford_g/ford_g.html)
5. [Glenn Ford – Hollywood Star Walk, Los Angeles Times](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/glenn-ford/)
6. [Glenn Ford, Golden Globes Awards Database](https://goldenglobes.com/person/glenn-ford/)
7. [Glenn Ford, 90; Prolific, Popular Actor Starred in 'Blackboard Jungle,' 'Gilda', Los Angeles Times (Aug. 31, 2006)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-31-me-ford31-story.html)
8. [Ford, Glenn, Encyclopedia.com biography](https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/glenn-ford)
9. [Glenn Ford, Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://walkoffame.com/glenn-ford/)
10. [Glenn Ford obituary, The Guardian (Sept. 1, 2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/01/guardianobituaries.obituaries)
11. [Glenn Ford obituary, The Independent (Aug. 31, 2006)](https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/glenn-ford-6231941.html)
12. [Ford, Glenn (1916—), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ford-glenn-1916)
13. [Glenn Ford was an anti-star to the end, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 1, 2006)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-01-et-ford1-story.html)
14. [Glenn Ford, UC Davis particle physics biographical page](https://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/bios/Ford.html)
15. [Glenn Ford Awards, Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/people/glenn-ford-217052/awards)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames F to G*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license