title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is expressed in breast milk; the manufacturer does not recommend breastfeeding during treatment. However, some studies suggest that lamotrigine is safe to use while breastfeeding. A frequently updated review of scientific literature rates lamotrigine as L3: moderately safe.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine binds to melanin-containing tissues such as the iris of the eye or melanin-rich skin. The long-term consequences of this are unknown.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is known to affect sleep. Studies with small numbers of patients (10-15) reported that lamotrigine increases the duration of REM sleep, decreases the number of phase shifts, and decreases the duration of slow-wave sleep, and that there was no effect on vigilance, daytime somnolence and cognitive function. However, a retrospective study of 109 patients' medical records found that 6.7% of patients experienced an "alerting effect" resulting in intolerable insomnia, for which the treatment had to be discontinued.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine can induce a type of seizure known as a myoclonic jerk, which tends to happen soon after the use of the medication. When used in the treatment of myoclonic epilepsies such as juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, lower doses (and lower plasma levels) are usually needed, as even moderate doses of this drug can induce seizures, including tonic-clonic seizures, which can develop into status epilepticus, which is a medical emergency. It can also cause myoclonic status epilepticus.


title: Lamotrigine

text: In overdose, lamotrigine can cause uncontrolled seizures in most people. Reported results in overdoses involving up to 15 g include increased seizures, coma, and death.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is a member of the sodium channel blocking class of antiepileptic drugs. This may suppress the release of glutamate and aspartate, two dominant excitatory neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. It is generally accepted to be a member of the sodium channel blocking class of antiepileptic drugs, but it could have additional actions, since it has a broader spectrum of action than other sodium channel antiepileptic drugs such as phenytoin and is effective in the treatment of the depressed phase of bipolar disorder, whereas other sodium channel-blocking antiepileptic drugs are not, possibly on account of its sigma receptor activity. In addition, lamotrigine shares few side effects with other, unrelated anticonvulsants known to inhibit sodium channels, which further emphasizes its unique properties.


title: Lamotrigine

text: It is a triazine derivate that inhibits voltage-sensitive sodium channels, leading to stabilization of neuronal membranes. It also blocks L-, N-, and P-type calcium channels and weakly inhibits the serotonin 5-HT receptor. These actions are thought to inhibit release of glutamate at cortical projections in the ventral striatum limbic areas, and its neuroprotective and antiglutamatergic effects have been pointed out as promising contributors to its mood stabilizing activity. Observations that lamotrigine reduced γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor-mediated neurotransmission in rat amygdala, suggest that a GABAergic mechanism may also be involved. It appears that lamotrigine does not increase GABA blood levels in humans.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine does not have pronounced effects on any of the usual neurotransmitter receptors that anticonvulsants affect (adrenergic, dopamine D1 and D2, muscarinic, GABA, histaminergic H1, serotonin 5-HT2, and N-methyl-D-aspartate). Inhibitory effects on 5-HT, norepinephrine, and dopamine transporters are weak. Lamotrigine is a weak inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase, but whether this effect is sufficient to contribute to a mechanism of action or increases risk to the fetus during pregnancy is not known. Early studies of lamotrigine's mechanism of action examined its effects on the release of endogenous amino acids from rat cerebral cortex slices "in vitro". As is the case for antiepileptic drugs that act on voltage-dependent sodium channels, lamotrigine thereby inhibits the release of glutamate and aspartate, which is evoked by the sodium-channel activator veratrine, and was less effective in the inhibition of acetylcholine or GABA release. At high concentrations, it had no effect on spontaneous or potassium-evoked amino acid release.


title: Lamotrigine

text: These studies suggested that lamotrigine acts presynaptically on voltage-gated sodium channels to decrease glutamate release. Several electrophysiological studies have investigated the effects of lamotrigine on voltage-gated sodium channels. For example, lamotrigine blocked sustained repetitive firing in cultured mouse spinal cord neurons in a concentration-dependent manner, at concentrations that are therapeutically relevant in the treatment of human seizures. In cultured hippocampal neurons, lamotrigine reduced sodium currents in a voltage-dependent manner, and at depolarised potentials showed a small frequency-dependent inhibition. These and a variety of other results indicate that the antiepileptic effect of lamotrigine, like those of phenytoin and carbamazepine, is at least in part due to use- and voltage-dependent modulation of fast voltage-dependent sodium currents. However, lamotrigine has a broader clinical spectrum of activity than phenytoin and carbamazepine and is recognised to be protective against generalised absence epilepsy and other generalised epilepsy syndromes, including primary generalised tonic–clonic seizures, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.


title: Lamotrigine

text: The basis for this broader spectrum of activity of lamotrigine is unknown, but could relate to actions of the drug on voltage-gated calcium channels. Lamotrigine blocks T-type calcium channels weakly, if at all. However, it does inhibit native and recombinant high voltage–gated calcium channels (N- and P/Q/R-types) at therapeutic concentrations. Whether this activity on calcium channels accounts for lamotrigine's broader clinical spectrum of activity in comparison with phenytoin and carbamazepine remains to be determined.


title: Lamotrigine

text: The pharmacokinetics of lamotrigine follow first-order kinetics, with a half-life of 29 hours and volume of distribution of 1.36L/kg. Lamotrigine is rapidly and completely absorbed after oral administration. Its absolute bioavailability is 98% and its plasma C occurs from 1.4 to 4.8 hours. Available data indicate that its bioavailability is not affected by food. Estimate of the mean apparent volume of distribution of lamotrigine following oral administration ranges from 0.9 to 1.3L/kg. This is independent of dose and is similar following single and multiple doses in both patients with epilepsy and in healthy volunteers.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is inactivated by glucuronidation in the liver. Lamotrigine is metabolized predominantly by glucuronic acid conjugation. Its major metabolite is an inactive 2-n-glucuronide conjugate.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine has fewer drug interactions than many anticonvulsant drugs, although pharmacokinetic interactions with carbamazepine, phenytoin and other hepatic enzyme inducing medications may shorten half-life. Dose adjustments should be made on clinical response, but monitoring may be of benefit in assessing compliance.


title: Lamotrigine

text: The capacity of available tests to detect potentially adverse consequences of melanin binding is unknown. Clinical trials excluded subtle effects and optimal duration of treatment. There are no specific recommendations for periodic ophthalmological monitoring. Lamotrigine binds to the eye and melanin-containing tissues which can accumulate over time and may cause toxicity. Prescribers should be aware of the possibility of long-term ophthalmologic effects and base treatment on clinical response. Patient compliance should be periodically reassessed with lab and medical testing of liver and kidney function to monitor progress or side effects.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is sold under the original brand name Lamictal and it is available in generic form under many brand names worldwide.


title: Lamotrigine

text: In March 2021, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning regarding the potential for cardiac arrhythmias in people with pre-existing structural or conduction heart defects. The warning provoked consternation and controversy within the professional community. An in-vitro study conducted in 2011 predicted Class IB antiarrhythmic activity at therapeutic concentrations of lamotrigine, due to its sodium channel-blocking activity. Thus, lamotrigine use in at-risk populations could prolong the QRS interval on the electrocardiogram, and increase the risk of arrhythmias and sudden death. No references to human studies or postmarket data in at-risk populations (i,e, people with structural heart disease) were cited to support the warning. A study in dogs is mentioned in the prescribing information brochure by the manufacturer. A rapid systematic review concluded that "there is insufficient evidence to support or refute that lamotrigine is associated with sudden death or electrocardiogram changes….” The FDA has recommended that further studies are conducted with lamotrigine and other sodium-channel blocking antiseizure medications.


title: John Ford

text: John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He was the recipient of six Academy Awards including a record four wins for Best Director. Ford made frequent use of location shooting and wide shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh, and rugged natural terrain.


title: John Ford

text: In a career of more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films (although most of his silent films are now lost). He is renowned both for Westerns such as "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Searchers" (1956), and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) and adaptations of classic 20th century American novels such as "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940). Ford's work was held in high regard by his colleagues, with Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman among those who named him one of the greatest directors of all time.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was born John Martin "Jack" Feeney (though he later often gave his given names as Seán Aloysius, sometimes with surname O'Feeny or Ó Fearna; an Irish language equivalent of Feeney) in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara "Abbey" Curran, on February 1, 1894, (though he occasionally said 1895 and that date is erroneously inscribed on his tombstone). His father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, in 1854. Barbara Curran was born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore (Inis Mór). John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of an impoverished branch of a family of the Irish nobility, the Morrises of Spiddal (headed at present by Lord Killanin).


title: John Ford

text: John Augustine and Barbara Curran arrived in Boston and Portland respectively in May and June 1872. They filed their intentions to marry on July 31, 1875, and became American citizens five years later on September 11, 1880. The John Augustine Feeney family resided on Sheridan Street, in the Irish neighborhood of Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine, and his father worked a variety of odd jobs to support the family – farming, fishing, a laborer for the gas company, saloon keeping, and an alderman. John and Barbara had eleven children: Mamie (Mary Agnes), born 1876; Delia (Edith), 1878–1881; Patrick; Francis Ford, 1881–1953; Bridget, 1883–1884; Barbara, born and died 1888; Edward, born 1889; Josephine, born 1891; Hannah (Joanna), born and died 1892; John Martin, 1894–1973; and Daniel, born and died 1896 (or 1898).


title: John Ford

text: Feeney attended Portland High School, Portland, Maine, where he played fullback and defensive tackle. He earned the nickname "Bull" because, it is said, of the way he would lower his helmet and charge the line. A Portland pub is named Bull Feeney's in his honor. He later moved to California and in 1914 began working in film production as well as acting for his older brother Francis, adopting "Jack Ford" as a professional name. In addition to credited roles, he appeared uncredited as a Klansman in D. W. Griffith's 1915 "The Birth of a Nation".


title: John Ford

text: He married Mary McBride Smith on July 3, 1920, and they had two children. His daughter Barbara was married to singer and actor Ken Curtis from 1952 to 1964. The marriage between Ford and Smith lasted for life despite various issues, one being that Ford was Catholic while she was a non-Catholic divorcée. What difficulty was caused by this is unclear as the level of Ford's commitment to the Catholic faith is disputed. Another strain was Ford's many extramarital relationships.


title: John Ford

text: Ford began his career in film after moving to California in July 1914. He followed in the footsteps of his multi-talented older brother Francis Ford, twelve years his senior, who had left home years earlier and had worked in vaudeville before becoming a movie actor. Francis played in hundreds of silent pictures for filmmakers such as Thomas Edison, Georges Méliès and Thomas Ince, eventually progressing to become a prominent Hollywood actor-writer-director with his own production company (101 Bison) at Universal.


title: John Ford

text: Ford started out in his brother's films as an assistant, handyman, stuntman and occasional actor, frequently doubling for his brother, whom he closely resembled. Francis gave his younger brother his first acting role in "The Mysterious Rose" (November 1914). Despite an often combative relationship, within three years Jack had progressed to become Francis' chief assistant and often worked as his cameraman. By the time Jack Ford was given his first break as a director, Francis' profile was declining and he ceased working as a director soon after.


title: John Ford

text: One notable feature of Ford's films is that he used a 'stock company' of actors, far more so than many directors. Many famous stars appeared in at least two or more Ford films, including Harry Carey Sr., (the star of 25 Ford silent films), Will Rogers, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James Stewart, Woody Strode, Richard Widmark, Victor McLaglen, Vera Miles and Jeffrey Hunter. Many of his supporting actors appeared in multiple Ford films, often over a period of several decades, including Ben Johnson, Chill Wills, Andy Devine, Ward Bond, Grant Withers, Mae Marsh, Anna Lee, Harry Carey Jr., Ken Curtis, Frank Baker, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, Hank Worden, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, John Carradine, O. Z. Whitehead and Carleton Young. Core members of this extended 'troupe', including Ward Bond, John Carradine, Harry Carey Jr., Mae Marsh, Frank Baker, and Ben Johnson, were informally known as the John Ford Stock Company.


title: John Ford

text: Likewise, Ford enjoyed extended working relationships with his production team, and many of his crew worked with him for decades. He made numerous films with the same major collaborators, including producer and business partner Merian C. Cooper, scriptwriters Nunnally Johnson, Dudley Nichols and Frank S. Nugent, and cinematographers Ben F. Reynolds, John W. Brown and George Schneiderman (who between them shot most of Ford's silent films), Joseph H. August, Gregg Toland, Winton Hoch, Charles Lawton Jr., Bert Glennon, Archie Stout and William H. Clothier. Most of Ford's postwar films were edited by Jack Murray until the latter's 1961 death. Otho Lovering, who had first worked with Ford on "Stagecoach" (1939), became Ford's principal editor after Murray's death.


title: John Ford

text: During his first decade as a director Ford worked on dozens of features (including many westerns) but only ten of the more than sixty silent films he made between 1917 and 1928 still survive in their entirety. However, prints of several Ford 'silents' previously thought lost have been rediscovered in foreign film archives over recent years—in 2009 a trove of 75 Hollywood silent films was rediscovered in the New Zealand Film Archive, among which was the only surviving print of Ford's 1927 silent comedy "Upstream". The print was restored in New Zealand by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences before being returned to America, where it was given a "repremiere" at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on August 31, 2010, featuring a newly commissioned score by Michael Mortilla.


title: John Ford

text: Throughout his career, Ford was one of the busiest directors in Hollywood, but he was extraordinarily productive in his first few years as a director—he made ten films in 1917, eight in 1918 and fifteen in 1919—and he directed a total of 62 shorts and features between 1917 and 1928, although he was not given a screen credit in most of his earliest films.


title: John Ford

text: There is some uncertainty about the identity of Ford's first film as director—film writer Ephraim Katz notes that Ford might have directed the four-part film "Lucille the Waitress" as early as 1914—but most sources cite his directorial début as the silent two-reeler "The Tornado", released in March 1917. According to Ford's own story, he was given the job by Universal boss Carl Laemmle who supposedly said, "Give Jack Ford the job—he yells good". "The Tornado" was quickly followed by a string of two-reeler and three-reeler "quickies"—"The Trail of Hate", "The Scrapper", "The Soul Herder" and "Cheyenne's Pal"; these were made over the space of a few months and each typically shot in just two or three days; all are now presumed lost. "The Soul Herder" is also notable as the beginning of Ford's four-year, 25-film association with veteran writer-actor Harry Carey, who (with Ford's brother Francis) was a strong early influence on the young director, as well as being one of the major influences on the screen persona of Ford's protege John Wayne. Carey's son Harry "Dobe" Carey Jr., who also became an actor, was one of Ford's closest friends in later years and featured in many of his most celebrated westerns.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's first feature-length production was "Straight Shooting" (August 1917), which is also his earliest complete surviving film as director, and one of only two survivors from his twenty-five film collaboration with Harry Carey. In making the film Ford and Carey ignored studio orders and turned in five reels instead of two, and it was only through the intervention of Carl Laemmle that the film escaped being cut for its first release, although it was subsequently edited down to two reels for re-release in the late 1920s. Ford's last film of 1917, "Bucking Broadway", was long thought to have been lost, but in 2002 the only known surviving print was discovered in the archives of the French National Center for Cinematography and it has since been restored and digitized.


title: John Ford

text: Ford directed around thirty-six films over three years for Universal before moving to the William Fox studio in 1920; his first film for them was "Just Pals" (1920). His 1923 feature "Cameo Kirby", starring screen idol John Gilbert—another of the few surviving Ford silents—marked his first directing credit under the name "John Ford", rather than "Jack Ford", as he had previously been credited.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's first major success as a director was the historical drama "The Iron Horse" (1924), an epic account of the building of the First transcontinental railroad. It was a large, long and difficult production, filmed on location in the Sierra Nevada. The logistics were enormous—two entire towns were constructed, there were 5000 extras, 100 cooks, 2000 rail layers, a cavalry regiment, 800 Indians, 1300 buffaloes, 2000 horses, 10,000 cattle and 50,000 properties, including the original stagecoach used by Horace Greeley, Wild Bill Hickok's derringer pistol and replicas of the "Jupiter" and "119" locomotives that met at Promontory Summit when the two ends of the line were joined on 10 May 1869.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's brother Eddie was a crew member and they fought constantly; on one occasion Eddie reportedly "went after the old man with a pick handle". There was only a short synopsis written when filming began and Ford wrote and shot the film day by day. Production fell behind schedule, delayed by constant bad weather and the intense cold, and Fox executives repeatedly demanded results, but Ford would either tear up the telegrams or hold them up and have stunt gunman Edward "Pardner" Jones shoot holes through the sender's name. Despite the pressure to halt the production, studio boss William Fox finally backed Ford and allowed him to finish the picture and his gamble paid off handsomely—"The Iron Horse" became one of the top-grossing films of the decade, taking over US$2 million worldwide, against a budget of $280,000.


title: John Ford

text: Ford made a wide range of films in this period, and he became well known for his Western and "frontier" pictures, but the genre rapidly lost its appeal for major studios in the late 1920s. Ford's last silent Western was "3 Bad Men" (1926), set during the Dakota land rush and filmed at Jackson Hole, Wyoming and in the Mojave Desert. It would be thirteen years before he made his next Western, "Stagecoach", in 1939.


title: John Ford

text: During the 1920s, Ford also served as president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a forerunner to today's Directors Guild of America.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was one of the pioneer directors of sound films; he shot Fox's first song sung on screen, for his film "Mother Machree" (1928) of which only four of the original seven reels survive; this film is also notable as the first Ford film to feature the young John Wayne (as an uncredited extra) and he appeared as an extra in several of Ford's films over the next two years. Moreover, "Hangman's House" (1928) is notable as it features John Wayne's first confirmed onscreen appearance in a Ford film, playing an excitable spectator during the horse race sequence.


title: John Ford

text: Just before the studio converted to talkies, Fox gave a contract to the German director F. W. Murnau, and his film "" (1927), still highly regarded by critics, had a powerful effect on Ford. Murnau's influence can be seen in many of Ford's films of the late 1920s and early 1930s— "Four Sons" (1928), was filmed on some of the lavish sets left over from Murnau's production.


title: John Ford

text: In November that year, Ford directed Fox's first all-talking dramatic featurette "Napoleon's Barber" (1928), a 3-reeler which is now considered a lost film. "Napoleon's Barber" was followed by his final two silent features "Riley the Cop" (1928) and "Strong Boy" (1929), starring Victor McLaglen; which were both released with synchronised music scores and sound effects, the latter is now lost (although Tag Gallagher's book records that the only surviving copy of "Strong Boy", a 35 mm nitrate print, was rumored to be held in a private collection in Australia). "The Black Watch" (1929), a colonial army adventure set in the Khyber Pass starring Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy is Ford's first all-talking feature; it was remade in 1954 by Henry King as "King of the Khyber Rifles".


title: John Ford

text: Ford's output was fairly constant from 1928 to the start of World War II; he made five features in 1928 and then made either two or three films every year from 1929 to 1942, inclusive. Three films were released in 1929—"Strong Boy", "The Black Watch" and "Salute". His three films of 1930 were "Men Without Women", "Born Reckless" and "Up the River", which is notable as the debut film for both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart, who were both signed to Fox on Ford's recommendation (but subsequently dropped). Ford's films in 1931 were "Seas Beneath", "The Brat" and "Arrowsmith"; the last-named, adapted from the Sinclair Lewis novel and starring Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes, marked Ford's first Academy Awards recognition, with five nominations including Best Picture.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's legendary efficiency and his ability to craft films combining artfulness with strong commercial appeal won him increasing renown. By 1940 he was acknowledged as one of the world's foremost movie directors. His growing prestige was reflected in his remuneration—in 1920, when he moved to Fox, he was paid $300–600 per week. As his career took off in the mid-Twenties his annual income significantly increased. He earned nearly $134,000 in 1929, and made over $100,000 per annum "every year" from 1934 to 1941, earning a staggering $220,068 in 1938—more than double the salary of the U.S. president at that time (although this was still less than half the income of Carole Lombard, Hollywood's highest-paid star of the 1930s, who was earning around $500,000 per year at the time).


title: John Ford

text: With film production affected by the Depression, Ford made two films each in 1932 and 1933—"Air Mail" (made for Universal) with a young Ralph Bellamy and "Flesh" (for MGM) with Wallace Beery. In 1933, he returned to Fox for "Pilgrimage" and "Doctor Bull", the first of his three films with Will Rogers.


title: John Ford

text: The World War I desert drama "The Lost Patrol" (1934), based on the book "Patrol" by Philip MacDonald, was a superior remake of the 1929 silent film "Lost Patrol". It starred Victor McLaglen as The Sergeant—the role played by his brother Cyril McLaglen in the earlier version—with Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Alan Hale and Reginald Denny (who went on to found a company that made radio-controlled target aircraft during World War II). It was one of Ford's first big hits of the sound era—it was rated by both the National Board of Review and "The New York Times" as one of the Top 10 films of that year and won an Oscar nomination for its stirring Max Steiner score. It was followed later that year by "The World Moves On" with Madeleine Carroll and Franchot Tone, and the highly successful "Judge Priest", his second film with Will Rogers, which became one of the top-grossing films of the year.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's first film of 1935 (made for Columbia) was the mistaken-identity comedy "The Whole Town's Talking" with Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur, released in the UK as "Passport to Fame", and it drew critical praise. "Steamboat Round The Bend" was his third and final film with Will Rogers; it is probable they would have continued working together, but their collaboration was cut short by Rogers' untimely death in a plane crash in May 1935, which devastated Ford.


title: John Ford

text: Ford confirmed his position in the top rank of American directors with the Murnau-influenced Irish Republican Army drama "The Informer" (1935), starring Victor McLaglen. It earned great critical praise, was nominated for Best Picture, won Ford his first Academy Award for Best Director, and was hailed at the time as one of the best films ever made, although its reputation has diminished considerably compared to other contenders like "Citizen Kane", or Ford's own later "The Searchers" (1956).


title: John Ford

text: The politically charged "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936)—which marked the debut with Ford of long-serving "Stock Company" player John Carradine—explored the little-known story of Samuel Mudd, a physician who was caught up in the Abraham Lincoln assassination conspiracy and consigned to an offshore prison for treating the injured John Wilkes Booth. Other films of this period include the South Seas melodrama "The Hurricane" (1937) and the lighthearted Shirley Temple vehicle "Wee Willie Winkie" (1937), each of which had a first-year US gross of more than $1 million. During filming of "Wee Willie Winkie", Ford had elaborate sets built on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., a heavily filmed location ranch most closely associated with serials and B-Westerns, which would become, along with Monument Valley, one of the director's preferred filming locations, and a site to which Ford would return in the next few years for "Stagecoach" and "The Grapes of Wrath".


title: John Ford

text: The longer revised version of "Directed by John Ford" shown on Turner Classic Movies in November 2006 features directors Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Martin Scorsese, who suggest that the string of classic films Ford directed during 1936 to 1941 was due in part to an intense six-month extramarital affair with Katharine Hepburn, the star of "Mary of Scotland" (1936), an Elizabethan costume drama.


title: John Ford

text: "Stagecoach" (1939) was Ford's first western since "3 Bad Men" in 1926, and it was his first with sound. Orson Welles claimed that he watched "Stagecoach" forty times in preparation for making "Citizen Kane". It remains one of the most admired and imitated of all Hollywood movies, not least for its climactic stagecoach chase and the hair-raising horse-jumping scene, performed by the stuntman Yakima Canutt.


title: John Ford

text: The Dudley Nichols–Ben Hecht screenplay was based on an Ernest Haycox story that Ford had spotted in "Collier's" magazine and he purchased the screen rights for just $2500. Production chief Walter Wanger urged Ford to hire Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich for the lead roles, but eventually accepted Ford's decision to cast Claire Trevor as Dallas and a virtual unknown, his friend John Wayne, as Ringo; Wanger reportedly had little further influence over the production.


title: John Ford

text: In making "Stagecoach", Ford faced entrenched industry prejudice about the now-hackneyed genre which he had helped to make so popular. Although low-budget western features and serials were still being churned out in large numbers by "Poverty Row" studios, the genre had fallen out of favor with the big studios during the 1930s and they were regarded as B-grade "pulp" movies at best. As a result, Ford shopped the project around Hollywood for almost a year, offering it unsuccessfully to both Joseph Kennedy and David O. Selznick before finally linking with Walter Wanger, an independent producer working through United Artists.


title: John Ford

text: "Stagecoach" is significant for several reasons—it exploded industry prejudices by becoming both a critical and commercial hit, grossing over US$1 million in its first year (against a budget of just under $400,000), and its success (along with the 1939 Westerns "Destry Rides Again" with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, Cecil B. DeMille's "Union Pacific" with Joel McCrea, and Michael Curtiz's "Dodge City" with Erroll Flynn), revitalized the moribund genre, showing that Westerns could be "intelligent, artful, great entertainment—and profitable". It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two Oscars, for Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell) and Best Score. "Stagecoach" became the first in the series of seven classic Ford Westerns filmed on location in Monument Valley, with additional footage shot at another of Ford's favorite filming locations, the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., where he had filmed much of "Wee Willie Winkie" two years earlier. Ford skillfully blended Iverson and Monument Valley to create the movie's iconic images of the American West.


title: John Ford

text: John Wayne had good reason to be grateful for Ford's support; "Stagecoach" provided the actor with the career breakthrough that elevated him to international stardom. Over 35 years Wayne appeared in 24 of Ford's films and three television episodes. Ford is credited with playing a major role in shaping Wayne's screen image. Cast member Louise Platt, in a letter recounting the experience of the film's production, quoted Ford saying of Wayne's future in film: "He'll be the biggest star ever because he is the perfect 'everyman.'"


title: John Ford

text: "Stagecoach" marked the beginning of the most consistently successful phase of Ford's career—in just two years between 1939 and 1941 he created a string of classics films that won numerous Academy Awards. Ford's next film, the biopic "Young Mr Lincoln" (1939) starring Henry Fonda, was less successful than "Stagecoach", attracting little critical attention and winning no awards. It was not a major box-office hit although it had a respectable domestic first-year gross of $750,000, but Ford scholar Tag Gallagher describes it as "a deeper, more multi-leveled work than "Stagecoach" ... (which) seems in retrospect one of the finest prewar pictures".


title: John Ford

text: "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939) was a lavish frontier drama co-starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert; it was also Ford's first movie in color and included uncredited script contributions by William Faulkner. It was a big box-office success, grossing $1.25 million in its first year in the US and earning Edna May Oliver a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.


title: John Ford

text: Despite its uncompromising humanist and political stance, Ford's screen adaptation of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" (scripted by Nunnally Johnson and photographed by Gregg Toland) was both a big box office hit and a major critical success, and it is still widely regarded as one of the best Hollywood films of the era. Noted critic Andrew Sarris described it as the movie that transformed Ford from "a storyteller of the screen into America's cinematic poet laureate". Ford's third movie in a year and his third consecutive film with Fonda, it grossed $1.1 million in the US in its first year and won two Academy Awards—Ford's second 'Best Director' Oscar, and 'Best Supporting Actress' for Jane Darwell's tour-de-force portrayal of Ma Joad. During production, Ford returned to the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., to film a number of key shots, including the pivotal image depicting the migrant family's first full view of the fertile farmland of California, which was represented by the San Fernando Valley as seen from the Iverson Ranch.


title: John Ford

text: "The Grapes of Wrath" was followed by two less successful and lesser-known films. "The Long Voyage Home" (1940) was, like "Stagecoach", made with Walter Wanger through United Artists. Adapted from four plays by Eugene O'Neill, it was scripted by Dudley Nichols and Ford, in consultation with O'Neill. Although not a significant box-office success (it grossed only $600,000 in its first year), it was critically praised and was nominated for seven Academy Awards—Best Picture, Best Screenplay, (Nichols), Best Music, Original Score (Richard Hageman), Best Photography (Gregg Toland), Best Editing (Sherman Todd), Best Effects (Ray Binger & R.T. Layton), and Best Sound (Robert Parrish). It was one of Ford's personal favorites; stills from it decorated his home and O'Neill also reportedly loved the film and screened it periodically.


title: John Ford

text: "Tobacco Road" (1941) was a rural comedy scripted by Nunnally Johnson, adapted from the long-running Jack Kirkland stage version of the novel by Erskine Caldwell. It starred veteran actor Charley Grapewin and the supporting cast included Ford regulars Ward Bond and Mae Marsh, with Francis Ford in an uncredited bit part; it is also notable for early screen appearances by future stars Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Although not highly regarded by some critics—Tag Gallagher devotes only one short paragraph to it in his book on Ford—it was fairly successful at the box office, grossing $900,000 in its first year. The film was banned in Australia.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's last feature before America entered World War II was his screen adaptation of "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Roddy McDowell in his career-making role as Huw. The script was written by Philip Dunne from the best-selling novel by Richard Llewellyn. It was originally planned as a four-hour epic to rival "Gone with the Wind"—the screen rights alone cost Fox $300,000—and was to have been filmed on location in Wales, but this was abandoned due to the heavy German bombing of Britain. A search of Southern California locations resulted in the set for the village being built on the grounds of the Crags Country Club (later the Fox ranch, now the core of Malibu Creek State Park). Another reported factor was the nervousness of Fox executives about the pro-union tone of the story. William Wyler was originally engaged to direct, but he left the project when Fox decided to film it in California; Ford was hired in his place and production was postponed for several months until he became available. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck had a strong influence over the movie and made several key decisions, including the idea of having the character of Huw narrate the film in voice-over (then a novel concept), and the decision that Huw's character should not age (Tyrone Power was originally slated to play the adult Huw).


title: John Ford

text: "How Green Was My Valley" became one of the biggest films of 1941. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Sara Allgood), Best Editing, Best Script, Best Music and Best Sound and it won five Oscars—Best Director, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best B&W Cinematography (Arthur C. Miller) and Best Art Direction/Interior Decoration. It was a huge hit with audiences, coming in behind "Sergeant York" as the second-highest-grossing film of the year in the US and taking almost $3 million against its sizable budget of $1,250,000. Ford was also named Best Director by the New York Film Critics, and this was one of the few awards of his career that he collected in person (he generally shunned the Oscar ceremony).


title: John Ford

text: During World War II, Ford served as head of the photographic unit for the Office of Strategic Services and made documentaries for the Navy Department. He was commissioned as a commander in the United States Navy Reserve. He won two more Academy Awards during this time, one for the semi-documentary "The Battle of Midway" (1942), and one for the propaganda film "" (1943). Ford filmed the Japanese attack on Midway from the power plant of Sand Island and was wounded in the left arm by a machine gun bullet.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was also present on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He crossed the English Channel on the , which anchored off Omaha Beach at 0600. He observed the first wave land on the beach from the ship, landing on the beach himself later with a team of Coast Guard cameramen who filmed the battle from behind the beach obstacles, with Ford directing operations. The film was edited in London, but very little was released to the public. Ford explained in a 1964 interview that the US Government was "afraid to show so many American casualties on the screen", adding that all of the D-Day film "still exists in color in storage in Anacostia near Washington, D.C." Thirty years later, historian Stephen E. Ambrose reported that the Eisenhower Center had been unable to find the film. A film matching Ford's description was unearthed by the US National Archives in 2014.


title: John Ford

text: Ford eventually rose to become a top adviser to OSS head William Joseph Donovan. According to records released in 2008, Ford was cited by his superiors for bravery, taking a position to film one mission that was "an obvious and clear target". He survived "continuous attack and was wounded" while he continued filming, one commendation in his file states. In 1945, Ford executed affidavits testifying to the integrity of films taken to document conditions at Nazi concentration camps.


title: John Ford

text: His last wartime film was "They Were Expendable" (MGM, 1945), an account of America's disastrous defeat in The Philippines, told from the viewpoint of a PT boat squadron and its commander. Ford created a part for the recovering Ward Bond, who needed money. Although he was seen throughout the movie, he never walked until they put in a part where he was shot in the leg. For the rest of the picture, he was able to use a crutch on the final march. Ford repeatedly declared that he disliked the film and had never watched it, complaining that he had been forced to make it, although it was strongly championed by filmmaker Lindsay Anderson. Released several months after the end of the war, it was among the year's top 20 box-office draws, although Tag Gallagher notes that many critics have incorrectly claimed that it lost money.


title: John Ford

text: After the war, Ford remained an officer in the United States Navy Reserve. He returned to active service during the Korean War, and was promoted to Rear Admiral the day he left service.


title: John Ford

text: Ford directed sixteen features and several documentaries in the decade between 1946 and 1956. As with his pre-war career, his films alternated between (relative) box office flops and major successes, but most of his later films made a solid profit, and "Fort Apache", "The Quiet Man", "Mogambo" and "The Searchers" all ranked in the Top 20 box-office hits of their respective years.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's first postwar movie "My Darling Clementine" (Fox, 1946) was a romanticized retelling of the primal Western legend of Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, with exterior sequences filmed on location in the visually spectacular (but geographically inappropriate) Monument Valley. It reunited Ford with Henry Fonda (as Earp) and co-starred Victor Mature in one of his best roles as the consumptive, Shakespeare-loving Doc Holliday, with Ward Bond and Tim Holt as the Earp brothers, Linda Darnell as sultry saloon girl Chihuahua, a strong performance by Walter Brennan (in a rare villainous role) as the venomous Old Man Clanton, with Jane Darwell and an early screen appearance by John Ireland as Billy Clanton. In contrast to the string of successes in 1939–1941, it won no major American awards, although it was awarded a silver ribbon for Best Foreign Film in 1948 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, and it was a solid financial success, grossing $2.75 million in the United States and $1.75 million internationally in its first year of release.


title: John Ford

text: Refusing a lucrative contract offered by Zanuck at 20th Century Fox that would have guaranteed him $600,000 per year, Ford launched himself as an independent director-producer and made many of his films in this period with Argosy Pictures Corporation, which was a partnership between Ford and his old friend and colleague Merian C. Cooper. Ford and Cooper had previously been involved with the distinct Argosy Corporation, which was established after the success of "Stagecoach" (1939); Argosy Corporation produced one film, "The Long Voyage Home" (1940), before the Second World War intervened. "The Fugitive" (1947), again starring Fonda, was the first project of Argosy Pictures. It was a loose adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory", which Ford had originally intended to make at Fox before the war, with Thomas Mitchell as the priest. Filmed on location in Mexico, it was photographed by distinguished Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (who later worked with Luis Buñuel). The supporting cast included Dolores del Río, J. Carrol Naish, Ward Bond, Leo Carrillo and Mel Ferrer (making his screen début) and a cast of mainly Mexican extras. Ford reportedly considered this his best film but it fared relatively poorly compared to its predecessor, grossing only $750,000 in its first year. It also caused a rift between Ford and scriptwriter Dudley Nichols that brought about the end of their highly successful collaboration. Greene himself had a particular dislike of this adaptation of his work.


title: John Ford

text: "Fort Apache" (Argosy/RKO, 1948) was the first part of Ford's so-called 'Cavalry Trilogy', all of which were based on stories by James Warner Bellah. It featured many of his 'Stock Company' of actors, including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Mae Marsh, Francis Ford (as a bartender), Frank Baker, Ben Johnson and also featured Shirley Temple, in her final appearance for Ford and one of her last film appearances. It also marked the start of the long association between Ford and scriptwriter Frank S. Nugent, a former "New York Times" film critic who (like Dudley Nichols) had not written a movie script until hired by Ford. It was a big commercial success, grossing nearly $5 million worldwide in its first year and ranking in the Top 20 box office hits of 1948.


title: John Ford

text: During that year Ford also assisted his friend and colleague Howard Hawks, who was having problems with his current film "Red River" (which starred John Wayne) and Ford reportedly made numerous editing suggestions, including the use of a narrator. "Fort Apache" was followed by another Western, "3 Godfathers", a remake of a 1916 silent film starring Harry Carey (to whom Ford's version was dedicated), which Ford had himself already remade in 1919 as "Marked Men", also with Carey and thought lost. It starred John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Harry "Dobe" Carey Jr (in one of his first major roles) as three outlaws who rescue a baby after his mother (Mildred Natwick) dies giving birth, with Ward Bond as the sheriff pursuing them. The recurrent theme of sacrifice can also be found in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", "Three Godfathers", "The Wallop", "Desperate Trails", "Hearts of Oak", "Bad Men", "Men without Women".


title: John Ford

text: In 1949, Ford briefly returned to Fox to direct "Pinky". He prepared the project but worked only one day before being taken ill, supposedly with shingles, and Elia Kazan replaced him (although Tag Gallagher suggests that Ford's illness was a pretext for leaving the film, which Ford disliked).


title: John Ford

text: His only completed film of that year was the second installment of his Cavalry Trilogy, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (Argosy/RKO, 1949), starring John Wayne and Joanne Dru, with Victor McLaglen, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Mildred Natwick and Harry Carey Jr. Again filmed on location in Monument Valley, it was widely acclaimed for its stunning Technicolor cinematography (including the famous cavalry scene filmed in front of an oncoming storm); it won Winton Hoch the 1950 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography and it did big business on its first release, grossing more than $5 million worldwide. John Wayne, then 41, also received wide praise for his role as the 60-year-old Captain Nathan Brittles.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's first film of 1950 was the offbeat military comedy "When Willie Comes Marching Home", starring Dan Dailey and Corinne Calvet, with William Demarest, from Preston Sturges 'stock company', and early (uncredited) screen appearances by Alan Hale Jr. and Vera Miles. It was followed by "Wagon Master", starring Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr, which is particularly noteworthy as the only Ford film since 1930 that he scripted himself. It was subsequently adapted into the long-running TV series "Wagon Train" (with Ward Bond reprising the title role until his sudden death in 1960). Although it did far smaller business than most of his other films in this period, Ford cited "Wagon Master" as his personal favorite out of all his films, telling Peter Bogdanovich that it "came closest to what I had hoped to achieve".


title: John Ford

text: "Rio Grande" (Republic, 1950), the third part of the 'Cavalry Trilogy', co-starred John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, with Wayne's son Patrick Wayne making his screen debut (he appeared in several subsequent Ford pictures including "The Searchers"). It was made at the insistence of Republic Pictures, who demanded a profitable Western as the condition of backing Ford's next project, "The Quiet Man". A testament to Ford's legendary efficiency, "Rio Grande" was shot in just 32 days, with only 352 takes from 335 camera setups, and it was a solid success, grossing $2.25 million in its first year.


title: John Ford

text: Republic's anxiety was erased by the resounding success of "The Quiet Man" (Republic, 1952), a pet project which Ford had wanted to make since the 1930s (and almost did so in 1937 with an independent cooperative called Renowned Artists Company). It became his biggest grossing picture to date, taking nearly $4 million in the US alone in its first year and ranking in the top 10 box office films of its year. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won Ford his fourth Oscar for Best Director, as well a second Best Cinematography Oscar for Winton Hoch. It was followed by "What Price Glory?" (1952), a World War I drama, the first of two films Ford made with James Cagney ("Mister Roberts" was the other) which also did good business at the box office ($2 million).


title: John Ford

text: "The Sun Shines Bright" (1953), Ford's first entry in the Cannes Film Festival, was a western comedy-drama with Charles Winninger reviving the Judge Priest role made famous by Will Rogers in the 1930s. Ford later referred to it as one of his favorites, but it was poorly received, and was drastically cut (from 90 mins to 65 mins) by Republic soon after its release, with some excised scenes now presumed lost. It fared poorly at the box office and its failure contributed to the subsequent collapse of Argosy Pictures.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's next film was the romance-adventure "Mogambo" (MGM, 1953), a loose remake of the celebrated 1932 film "Red Dust". Filmed on location in Africa, it was photographed by British cinematographer Freddie Young and starred Ford's old friend Clark Gable, with Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly (who replaced an ailing Gene Tierney) and Donald Sinden. Although the production was difficult (exacerbated by the irritating presence of Gardner's then husband Frank Sinatra), "Mogambo" became one of the biggest commercial hits of Ford's career, with the highest domestic first-year gross of any of his films ($5.2 million); it also revitalized Gable's waning career and earned Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations for Gardner and Kelly (who was rumored to have had a brief affair with Gable during the making of the film).


title: John Ford

text: In 1955, Ford made the lesser-known West Point drama "The Long Gray Line" for Columbia Pictures, the first of two Ford films to feature Tyrone Power, who had originally been slated to star as the adult Huw in "How Green Was My Valley" back in 1941. Later in 1955, Ford was hired by Warner Bros to direct the Naval comedy "Mister Roberts", starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell, and James Cagney, but there was conflict between Ford and Fonda, who had been playing the lead role on Broadway for the past seven years and had misgivings about Ford's direction. During a three-way meeting with producer Leland Hayward to try and iron out the problems, Ford became enraged and punched Fonda on the jaw, knocking him across the room, an action that created a lasting rift between them. After the incident Ford became increasingly morose, drinking heavily and eventually retreating to his yacht, the "Araner," and refusing to eat or see anyone. Production was shut down for five days and Ford sobered up, but soon after he suffered a ruptured gallbladder, necessitating emergency surgery, and he was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy.


title: John Ford

text: Ford also made his first forays into television in 1955, directing two half-hour dramas for network TV. In the summer of 1955 he made "Rookie of the Year" (Hal Roach Studios) for the TV series "Studio Directors Playhouse"; scripted by Frank S. Nugent, it featured Ford regulars John and Pat Wayne, Vera Miles and Ward Bond, with Ford himself appearing in the introduction. In November he made "The Bamboo Cross" (Lewman Ltd-Revue, 1955) for the "Fireside Theater" series; it starred Jane Wyman with an Asian-American cast and Stock Company veterans Frank Baker and Pat O'Malley in minor roles.


title: John Ford

text: Ford returned to the big screen with "The Searchers" (Warner Bros, 1956), the only Western he made between 1950 and 1959, which is now widely regarded as not only one of his best films, but also by many as one of the greatest westerns, and one of the best performances of John Wayne's career. Shot on location in Monument Valley, it tells of the embittered Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards who spends years tracking down his niece, kidnapped by Comanches as a young girl. The supporting cast included Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond, Vera Miles and rising star Natalie Wood. It was Hunter's first film for Ford. It was very successful upon its first release and became one of the top 20 films of the year, grossing $4.45 million, although it received no Academy Award nominations. However, its reputation has grown greatly over the intervening years—it was named the Greatest Western of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008 and also placed 12th on the institute's 2007 list of the Top 100 greatest movies of all time. "The Searchers" has exerted a wide influence on film and popular culture—it has inspired (and been directly quoted by) many filmmakers including David Lean and George Lucas, Wayne's character's catchphrase "That'll be the day" inspired Buddy Holly to pen his famous hit song of the same name, and the British pop group The Searchers also took their name from the film.


title: John Ford

text: "The Searchers" was accompanied by one of the first "making of" documentaries, a four-part promotional program created for the "Behind the Camera" segment of the weekly "Warner Bros. Presents" TV show, (the studio's first foray into TV) which aired on the ABC network in 1955–56. Presented by Gig Young, the four segments included interviews with Jeffrey Hunter and Natalie Wood and behind-the-scenes footage shot during the making of the film.


title: John Ford

text: "The Wings of Eagles" (MGM, 1957) was a fictionalized biography of Ford's old friend, aviator-turned-scriptwriter Frank "Spig" Wead, who had scripted several of Ford's early sound films. It starred John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, with Ward Bond as John Dodge (a character based on Ford himself). It was followed by one of Ford's least known films, "The Growler Story", a 29-minute dramatized documentary about the USS "Growler". Made for the US Navy and filmed by the Pacific Fleet Command Combat Camera Group, it featured Ward Bond and Ken Curtis alongside real Navy personnel and their families.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's next two films stand somewhat apart from the rest of his films in terms of production, and he notably took no salary for either job. "The Rising of the Moon" (Warner Bros, 1957) was a three-part 'omnibus' movie shot on location in Ireland and based on Irish short stories. It was made by Four Province Productions, a company established by Irish tycoon Lord Killanin, who had recently become Chair of the International Olympic Committee, and to whom Ford was distantly related. Killanin was also the actual (but uncredited) producer of "The Quiet Man". The film failed to recoup its costs, earning less than half ($100,000) its negative cost of just over $256,000 and it stirred up some controversy in Ireland.


title: John Ford

text: Both of Ford's 1958 films were made for Columbia Pictures and both were significant departures from Ford's norm. "Gideon's Day" (titled "Gideon of Scotland Yard" in the US) was adapted from the novel by British writer John Creasey. It is Ford's only police genre film, and one of the few Ford films set in the present day of the 1950s. It was shot in England with a British cast headed by Jack Hawkins, whom Ford (unusually) lauded as "the finest dramatic actor with whom I have worked". It was poorly promoted by Columbia, who only distributed it in B&W, although it was shot in color, and it too failed to make a profit in its first year, earning only $400,000 against its budget of $453,000.


title: John Ford

text: "The Last Hurrah", (Columbia, 1958), again set in present-day of the 1950s, starred Spencer Tracy, who had made his first film appearance in Ford's "Up The River" in 1930. Tracy plays an aging politician fighting his last campaign, with Jeffrey Hunter as his nephew. Katharine Hepburn reportedly facilitated a rapprochement between the two men, ending a long-running feud, and she convinced Tracy to take the lead role, which had originally been offered to Orson Welles (but was turned down by Welles' agent without his knowledge, much to his chagrin). It did considerably better business than either of Ford's two preceding films, grossing $950,000 in its first year although cast member Anna Lee stated that Ford was "disappointed with the picture" and that Columbia had not permitted him to supervise the editing.


title: John Ford

text: "Korea: Battleground for Liberty" (1959), Ford's second documentary on the Korean War, was made for the US Department of Defense as an orientation film for US soldiers stationed there.


title: John Ford

text: It was followed by his last feature of the decade, "The Horse Soldiers" (Mirisch Company-United Artists, 1959), a heavily fictionalised Civil War story starring John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers. Although Ford professed unhappiness with the project, it was a commercial success, opening at #1 and ranking in the year's Top 20 box-office hits, grossing $3.6 million in its first year, and earning Ford his highest-ever fee—$375,000, plus 10% of the gross. The production was reportedly a difficult one for director and cast, and it incurred significant cost overruns, exacerbated by the unprecedented salaries awarded to Holden and Wayne ($750,000, plus 20% of the overall profit, each). Mirroring the on-screen tensions between Wayne and Holden's characters, the two actors argued constantly; Wayne was also struggling to help his wife Pilar overcome a barbiturate addiction, which climaxed with her attempted suicide while the couple were on location together in Louisiana. Ford's problems peaked with the tragic death of stuntman Fred Kennedy, who suffered a fatal neck fracture while executing a horse fall during the climactic battle sequence. Ford was devastated by the accident and lost interest in the film, moving the production back to Hollywood. He also scrapped the planned ending, depicting the Marlowe's triumphant entry into Baton Rouge, instead concluding the film with Marlowe's farewell to Hannah Hunter and the crossing and demolition of the bridge.


title: John Ford

text: In his last years Ford was dogged by declining health, largely the result of decades of heavy drinking and smoking, and exacerbated by the wounds he suffered during the Battle of Midway. His vision, in particular, began to deteriorate rapidly and at one point he briefly lost his sight entirely; his prodigious memory also began to falter, making it necessary to rely more and more on assistants. His work was also restricted by the new regime in Hollywood, and he found it hard to get many projects made. By the 1960s he had been pigeonholed as a Western director and complained that he now found it almost impossible to get backing for projects in other genres.


title: John Ford

text: "Sergeant Rutledge" (Ford Productions-Warner Bros, 1960) was Ford's last cavalry film. Set in the 1880s, it tells the story of an African-American cavalryman (played by Woody Strode) who is wrongfully accused of raping and murdering a white girl. It was erroneously marketed as a suspense film by Warners and was not a commercial success. During 1960, Ford made his third TV production, "The Colter Craven Story", a one-hour episode of the network TV show "Wagon Train", which included footage from Ford's "Wagon Master" (on which the series was based). He also visited the set of "The Alamo", produced, directed by, and starring John Wayne, where his interference caused Wayne to send him out to film second-unit scenes which were never used (nor intended to be used) in the film.


title: John Ford

text: "Two Rode Together" (Ford Productions-Columbia, 1961) co-starred James Stewart and Richard Widmark, with Shirley Jones and Stock Company regulars Andy Devine, Henry Brandon, Harry Carey Jr, Anna Lee, Woody Strode, Mae Marsh and Frank Baker, with an early screen appearance by Linda Cristal, who went on to star in the Western TV series "The High Chaparral". It was a fair commercial success, grossing $1.6m in its first year.


title: John Ford

text: "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (Ford Productions-Paramount, 1962) is frequently cited as the last great film of Ford's career. Starring John Wayne and James Stewart, the supporting cast features leading lady Vera Miles, Edmond O'Brien as a loquacious newspaper publisher, Andy Devine as the inept marshal Appleyard, Denver Pyle, John Carradine, and Lee Marvin in a major role as the brutal Valance, with Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin as his henchmen. It is also notable as the film in which Wayne most often used his trademark phrase "Pilgrim" (his nickname for James Stewart's character). The picture was very successful, grossing over $3 million in its first year, although the lead casting stretched credibility—the characters played by Stewart (then 53) and Wayne (then 54) could be assumed to be in their early 20s given the circumstances, and Ford reportedly considered casting a younger actor in Stewart's role but feared it would highlight Wayne's age. Though it is often claimed that budget constraints necessitated shooting most of the film on soundstages on the Paramount lot, studio accounting records show that this was part of the film's original artistic concept, according to Ford biographer Joseph McBride. According to Lee Marvin in a filmed interview, Ford had fought hard to shoot the film in black-and-white to accentuate his use of shadows. Still, it was one of Ford's most expensive films at US$3.2 million.


title: John Ford

text: After completing "Liberty Valance", Ford was hired to direct the Civil War section of MGM's epic "How The West Was Won", the first non-documentary film to use the Cinerama wide-screen process. Ford's segment featured George Peppard, with Andy Devine, Russ Tamblyn, Harry Morgan as Ulysses S. Grant, and John Wayne as William Tecumseh Sherman. Wayne had already played Sherman in a 1960 episode of the television series "Wagon Train" that Ford directed in support of series star Ward Bond, "The Coulter Craven Story", for which he brought in most of his stock company. Also in 1962, Ford directed his fourth and last TV production, "Flashing Spikes" a baseball story made for the "Alcoa Premiere" series and starring James Stewart, Jack Warden, Patrick Wayne and Tige Andrews, with Harry Carey Jr. and a lengthy surprise appearance by John Wayne, billed in the credits as "Michael Morris", as he also had been for the "Wagon Train" episode directed by Ford.


title: John Ford

text: "Donovan's Reef" (Paramount, 1963) was Ford's last film with John Wayne. Filmed on location on the Hawaiian island of Kauai (doubling for a fictional island in French Polynesia), it was a morality play disguised as an action-comedy, which subtly but sharply engaged with issues of racial bigotry, corporate connivance, greed and American beliefs of societal superiority. The supporting cast included Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Dorothy Lamour, and Cesar Romero. It was also Ford's last commercial success, grossing $3.3 million against a budget of $2.6 million.


title: John Ford

text: "Cheyenne Autumn" (Warner Bros, 1964) was Ford's epic farewell to the West, which he publicly declared to be an elegy to the Native American. It was his last Western, his longest film and the most expensive movie of his career ($4.2 million), but it failed to recoup its costs at the box office and lost about $1 million on its first release. The all-star cast was headed by Richard Widmark, with Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Dolores del Río, Ricardo Montalbán, Gilbert Roland, Sal Mineo, James Stewart as Wyatt Earp, Arthur Kennedy as Doc Holliday, Edward G. Robinson, Patrick Wayne, Elizabeth Allen, Mike Mazurki and many of Ford's faithful Stock Company, including John Carradine, Ken Curtis, Willis Bouchey, James Flavin, Danny Borzage, Harry Carey Jr., Chuck Hayward, Ben Johnson, Mae Marsh and Denver Pyle. William Clothier was nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar and Gilbert Roland was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Cheyenne elder Dull Knife.


title: John Ford

text: In 1965 Ford began work on "Young Cassidy" (MGM), a biographical drama based upon the life of Irish playwright Seán O'Casey, but he fell ill early in the production and was replaced by Jack Cardiff.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's last completed feature film was "7 Women" (MGM, 1966), a drama set in about 1935, about missionary women in China trying to protect themselves from the advances of a barbaric Mongolian warlord. Anne Bancroft took over the lead role from Patricia Neal, who suffered a near-fatal stroke two days into shooting. The supporting cast included Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson, Sue Lyon, Mildred Dunnock, Anna Lee, Eddie Albert, Mike Mazurki and Woody Strode, with music by Elmer Bernstein. Unfortunately, it was a commercial flop, grossing only about half of its $2.3 million budget. Unusual for Ford, it was shot in continuity for the sake of the performances and he, therefore, exposed about four times as much film as he usually shot. Anna Lee recalled that Ford was "absolutely charming" to everyone and that the only major blow-up came when Flora Robson complained that the sign on her dressing room door did not include her title ("Dame") and as a result, Robson was "absolutely shredded" by Ford in front of the cast and crew.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's next project, "The Miracle of Merriford", was scrapped by MGM less than a week before shooting was to have begun. His last completed work was "Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend", a documentary on the most decorated U.S. Marine, General Lewis B. Puller, with narration by John Wayne, which was made in 1970 but not released until 1976, three years after Ford's death.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's health deteriorated rapidly in the early 1970s; he suffered a broken hip in 1970 which put him in a wheelchair. He had to move from his Bel Air home to a single-level house in Palm Desert, California, near Eisenhower Medical Center, where he was being treated for stomach cancer. The Screen Directors Guild staged a tribute to Ford in October 1972, and in March 1973 the American Film Institute honored him with its first Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony which was telecast nationwide, with President Richard Nixon promoting Ford to full Admiral and presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


title: John Ford

text: According to Ford's longtime partner and friend, John Wayne, Ford could have continued to direct movies. He told Roger Ebert in 1976: Up until the very last years of his life ... Pappy could have directed another picture, and a damned good one. But they said Pappy was too old. Hell, he was never too old. In Hollywood these days, they don't stand behind a fella. They'd rather make a goddamned legend out of him and be done with him.Ford died on 31 August 1973 at Palm Desert and his funeral was held on 5 September at Hollywood's Church of the Blessed Sacrament. He was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was renowned for his intense personality and his many idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. From the early Thirties onwards, he always wore dark glasses and a patch over his left eye, which was only partly to protect his poor eyesight. He was an inveterate pipe-smoker and while he was shooting he would chew on a linen handkerchief—each morning his wife would give him a dozen fresh handkerchiefs, but by the end of a day's filming the corners of all of them would be chewed to shreds. He always had music played on the set and would routinely break for tea (Earl Grey) at mid-afternoon every day during filming. He discouraged chatter and disliked bad language on set; its use, especially in front of a woman, would typically result in the offender being thrown off the production. He rarely drank during the making of a film, but when a production wrapped he would often lock himself in his study, wrapped only in a sheet, and go on a solitary drinking binge for several days, followed by routine contrition and a vow never to drink again. He was extremely sensitive to criticism and was always particularly angered by any comparison between his work and that of his elder brother Francis. He rarely attended premieres or award ceremonies, although his Oscars and other awards were proudly displayed on the mantel in his home.


title: John Ford

text: There were occasional rumors about his sexual preferences, and in her 2004 autobiography " 'Tis Herself", Maureen O'Hara recalled seeing Ford kissing a famous male actor (whom she did not name) in his office at Columbia Studios.


title: John Ford

text: He was famously untidy, and his study was always littered with books, papers, and clothes. He bought a brand new Rolls-Royce in the 1930s, but never rode in it because his wife, Mary, would not let him smoke in it. His own car, a battered Ford roadster, was so dilapidated and messy that he was once late for a studio meeting because the guard at the studio gate did not believe that the real John Ford would drive such a car, and refused to let him in.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was also notorious for his antipathy towards studio executives. On one early film for Fox he is said to have ordered a guard to keep studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck off the set, and on another occasion, he brought an executive in front of the crew, stood him in profile and announced, "This is an associate producer — take a good look, because you won't be seeing him on this picture again". While shooting "Rio Grande" in 1950, producer Herbert Yates and Republic executive Rudy Ralston visited the location and when Yates pointed out the time (it was 10am) and asked when Ford intended to start shooting, Ford barked: "Just as soon as you get the hell off my set!" At dinner, Ford reportedly recruited cast member Alberto Morin to masquerade as an inept French waiter, who proceeded to spill soup over them, break plates and cause general mayhem, but the two executives apparently didn't realise they were the victims of one of Ford's practical jokes.


title: John Ford

text: His pride and joy was his yacht, "Araner", which he bought in 1934 and on which he lavished hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and improvements over the years; it became his chief retreat between films and a meeting place for his circle of close friends, including John Wayne and Ward Bond.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was highly intelligent, erudite, sensitive and sentimental, but to protect himself in the cutthroat atmosphere of Hollywood he cultivated the image of a "tough, two-fisted, hard-drinking Irish sonofabitch". One famous event, witnessed by Ford's friend, actor Frank Baker, strikingly illustrates the tension between the public persona and the private man. During the Depression, Ford—by then a very wealthy man—was accosted outside his office by a former Universal actor who was destitute and needed $200 for an operation for his wife. As the man related his misfortunes, Ford appeared to become enraged and then, to the horror of onlookers, he launched himself at the man, knocked him to the floor and shouted "How dare you come here like this? Who do think you are to talk to me this way?" before storming out of the room. However, as the shaken old man left the building, Frank Baker saw Ford's business manager Fred Totman meet him at the door, where he handed the man a cheque for $1,000 and instructed Ford's chauffeur to drive him home. There, an ambulance was waiting to take the man's wife to the hospital where a specialist, flown in from San Francisco at Ford's expense, performed the operation. Sometime later, Ford purchased a house for the couple and pensioned them for life. When Baker related the story to Francis Ford, he declared it the key to his brother's personality:


title: John Ford

text: Any moment, if that old actor had kept talking, people would have realized what a softy Jack is. He couldn't have stood through that sad story without breaking down. He's built this whole legend of toughness around himself to protect his softness.


title: John Ford

text: In the book "Wayne and Ford, The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero" by Nancy Schoenberger, the author dissects the cultural impact of the masculinity portrayed in Ford's films. In an interview with "Portland Magazine", Schoenberger states, "Regarding Ford and Wayne "tweaking the conventions of what a 'man' is today," I think Ford, having grown up with brothers he idolized, in a rough-and-tumble world of boxers, drinkers, and roustabouts, found his deepest theme in male camaraderie, especially in the military, one of the few places where men can express their love for other men. But he was concerned with men acting heroically, thus the most macho guy was not always the most heroic. McLaglen often presented the comic side of blustery masculinity. Ford brought out Wayne's tenderness as well as his toughness, especially in "Stagecoach"."


title: John Ford

text: Ford had many distinctive stylistic trademarks and a suite of thematic preoccupations and visual and aural motifs recurs throughout his work as a director. Film journalist Ephraim Katz summarized some of the keynote features of Ford's work in his Collins "Film Encyclopedia" entry:


title: John Ford

text: In contrast to his contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, Ford never used storyboards, composing his pictures entirely in his head, without any written or graphic outline of the shots he would use. Script development could be intense but, once approved, his screenplays were rarely rewritten; he was also one of the first filmmakers to encourage his writers and actors to prepare a full back story for their characters. He hated long expository scenes and was famous for tearing pages out of a script to cut dialogue. During the making of "Mogambo", when challenged by the film's producer Sam Zimbalist about falling three days behind schedule, Ford responded by tearing three pages out of the script and declaring "We're on schedule" and indeed he never filmed those pages. While making "Drums Along the Mohawk", Ford neatly sidestepped the challenge of shooting a large and expensive battle scene—he had Henry Fonda improvise a monologue while firing questions from behind the camera about the course of the battle (a subject on which Fonda was well-versed) and then simply editing out the questions.


title: John Ford

text: He was relatively sparing in his use of camera movements and close-ups, preferring static medium or long shots, with his players framed against dramatic vistas or interiors lit in an Expressionistic style, although he often used panning shots and sometimes used a dramatic dolly in (e.g. John Wayne's first appearance in "Stagecoach"). Ford is famous for his exciting tracking shots, such as the Apache chase sequence in "Stagecoach" or the attack on the Comanche camp in "The Searchers".


title: John Ford

text: Recurring visual motifs include trains and wagons—many Ford films begin and end with a linking vehicle such as a train or wagon arriving and leaving—doorways, roads, flowers, rivers, gatherings (parades, dances, meetings, bar scenes, etc.); he also employed gestural motifs in many films, notably the throwing of objects and the lighting of lamps, matches or cigarettes. If a doomed character was shown playing poker (such as Liberty Valance or gunman Tom Tyler in "Stagecoach"), the last hand he plays is the "death hand"—two eights and two aces, one of them the ace of spades—so-called because Wild Bill Hickok is said to have held this hand when he was murdered. Many of his sound films include renditions or quotations of his favorite hymn, "Shall We Gather at the River?", such as its parodic use to underscore the opening scenes of "Stagecoach", when the prostitute Dallas is being run out of town by local matrons. Character names also recur in many Ford films — the name Quincannon, for example, is used in several films including "The Lost Patrol", "Rio Grande", "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "Fort Apache", John Wayne's character is named "Kirby Yorke" in both "Fort Apache" and "Rio Grande", and the names Tyree and Boone are also recur in several Ford films.


title: John Ford

text: Recent works about Ford's depictions of Native Americans have argued that contrary to popular belief, his Indian characters spanned a range of hostile to sympathetic images from "The Iron Horse" to "Cheyenne Autumn". His depiction of the Navajo in "Wagon Master" included their characters speaking the Navajo language. The distinguishing mark of Ford's Indian-themed Westerns is that his Native characters always remained separate and apart from white society.


title: John Ford

text: Ford was legendary for his discipline and efficiency on-set and was notorious for being extremely tough on his actors, frequently mocking, yelling and bullying them; he was also infamous for his sometimes sadistic practical jokes. Any actor foolish enough to demand star treatment would receive the full force of his relentless scorn and sarcasm. He once referred to John Wayne as a "big idiot" and even punched Henry Fonda. Henry Brandon (who played Chief Scar from "The Searchers") once referred to Ford as "the only man who could make John Wayne cry". . He likewise belittled Victor McLaglen, on one occasion reportedly bellowing through the megaphone: "D'ya know, McLaglen, that Fox are paying you $1200 a week to do things that I could get any child off the street to do better?". Stock Company veteran Ward Bond was reportedly one of the few actors who were impervious to Ford's taunting and sarcasms. Sir Donald Sinden, then a contract star for the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios when he starred in "Mogambo", was not the only person to suffer at the hands of John Ford's notorious behaviour. He recalls "Ten White Hunters were seconded to our unit for our protection and to provide fresh meat. Among them was Marcus, Lord Wallscourt, a delightful man whom Ford treated abysmally—sometimes very sadistically. In Ford's eyes the poor man could do nothing right and was continually being bawled out in front of the entire unit (in some ways he occasionally took the heat off me). None of us could understand the reason for this appalling treatment, which the dear kind man in no way deserved. He himself was quite at a loss. Several weeks later we discovered the cause from Ford's brother-in-law: before emigrating to America, Ford's grandfather had been a labourer on the estate in Ireland of the then Lord Wallscourt: Ford was now getting his own back at his descendant. Not a charming sight." "We now had to return to the MGM-British Studios in London to shoot all the interior scenes. Someone must have pointed out to Ford that he had been thoroughly foul to me during the entire location shoot and when I arrived for my first day's work, I found that he had caused a large notice to be painted at the entrance to our sound stage in capital letters reading BE KIND TO DONALD WEEK. He was as good as his word—for precisely seven days. On the eighth day he ripped the sign down and returned to his normal bullying behaviour."


title: John Ford

text: Ford usually gave his actors little explicit direction, although on occasion he would casually walk through a scene himself, and actors were expected to note every subtle action or mannerism; if they did not, Ford would make them repeat the scene until they got it right, and he would often berate and belittle those who failed to achieve his desired performance. On "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", Ford ran through a scene with Edmond O'Brien and ended by drooping his hand over a railing. O'Brien noticed this but deliberately ignored it, placing his hand "on" the railing instead; Ford would not explicitly correct him and he reportedly made O'Brien play the scene forty-two times before the actor relented and did it Ford's way.


title: John Ford

text: Despite his often difficult and demanding personality, many actors who worked with Ford acknowledged that he brought out the best in them. John Wayne remarked that "Nobody could handle actors and crew like Jack." Dobe Carey stated that "He had a quality that made everyone almost kill themselves to please him. Upon arriving on the set, you would feel right away that something special was going to happen. You would feel spiritually awakened all of a sudden." Carey credits Ford with the inspiration of Carey's final film, "Comanche Stallion" (2005).


title: John Ford

text: Ford's favorite location for his Western films was southern Utah's Monument Valley. Although not generally appropriate geographically as a setting for his plots, the expressive visual impact of the area enabled Ford to define images of the American West with some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography ever shot, in such films as "Stagecoach", "The Searchers", and "Fort Apache". A notable example is the famous scene in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" in which the cavalry troop is photographed against an oncoming storm. The influence on the films of classic Western artists such as Frederic Remington and others has been examined. Ford's evocative use of the territory for his Westerns has defined the images of the American West so powerfully that Orson Welles once said that other film-makers refused to shoot in the region out of fears of plagiarism.


title: John Ford

text: Ford typically shot only the footage he needed and often filmed in sequence, minimizing the job of his film editors. In the opinion of Joseph McBride, Ford's technique of cutting in the camera enabled him to retain creative control in a period where directors often had little say on the final editing of their films. Ford noted:


title: John Ford

text: I don't give 'em a lot of film to play with. In fact, Eastman used to complain that I exposed so little film. I do cut in the camera. Otherwise, if you give them a lot of film 'the committee' takes over. They start juggling scenes around and taking out this and putting in that. They can't do it with my pictures. I cut in the camera and that's it. There's not a lot of film left on the floor when I'm finished.


title: John Ford

text: Ford won a total of four Academy Awards with all of them being for Best Director, for the films "The Informer" (1935), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), and "The Quiet Man" (1952)—none of them Westerns (also starring in the last two was Maureen O'Hara, "his favorite actress"). He was also nominated as Best Director for "Stagecoach" (1939). He later directed two documentaries, "The Battle of Midway" and "", which both won Best Documentary, although the award was not won by him. To this day Ford holds the record for winning the most Best Director Oscars, having won the award on four occasions. William Wyler and Frank Capra come in second having won the award three times. Ford was the first director to win consecutive Best Director awards, in 1940 and 1941. This feat was later matched by Joseph L. Mankiewicz exactly ten years later, when he won consecutive awards for Best Director in 1950 and 1951. As a producer, he also received a nomination for Best Picture for "The Quiet Man". In 1955 and 1957, Ford was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. He was the first recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1973. Also in that year, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.


title: John Ford

text: Ford directed 10 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Victor McLaglen, Thomas Mitchell, Edna May Oliver, Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Jack Lemmon. McLaglen, Mitchell, Darwell, Crisp and Lemmon won an Oscar for one of their roles in one of Ford's movies.


title: John Ford

text: A television special featuring Ford, John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda was broadcast over the CBS network on December 5, 1971, called "The American West of John Ford", featuring clips from Ford's career interspersed with interviews conducted by Wayne, Stewart, and Fonda, who also took turns narrating the hourlong documentary.


title: John Ford

text: In 2007, Twentieth Century Fox released "Ford at Fox", a DVD boxed set of 24 of Ford's films. "Time" magazine's Richard Corliss named it one of the "Top 10 DVDs of 2007", ranking it at No. 1.


title: John Ford

text: A statue of Ford in Portland, Maine depicts him sitting in a director's chair. The statue made by New York sculptor George M. Kelly, cast at Modern Art Foundry, Astoria, NY, and commissioned by Louisiana philanthropist Linda Noe Laine was unveiled on 12 July 1998 at Gorham's Corner in Portland, Maine, United States, as part of a celebration of Ford that was later to include renaming the auditorium of Portland High School the John Ford Auditorium.


title: John Ford

text: In 2019 Jean-Christophe Klotz released the documentary film "John Ford, l'homme qui inventa l'Amérique", about his influence in the legend of the American West in films like "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) and "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964).


title: John Ford

text: The Academy Film Archive has preserved a number of John Ford's films, including "How Green Was My Valley", "The Battle of Midway", "Drums Along the Mohawk", "Sex Hygiene", "Torpedo Squadron 8", and "Four Sons".


title: John Ford

text: Early in life, Ford's politics were conventionally progressive; his favorite presidents were Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy and Republican Abraham Lincoln. But despite these leanings, many thought he was a Republican because of his long association with actors John Wayne, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, and Ward Bond.


title: John Ford

text: Ford's attitude to McCarthyism in Hollywood is expressed by a story told by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. A faction of the Directors Guild of America, led by Cecil B. DeMille, had tried to make it mandatory for every member to sign a loyalty oath. A whispering campaign was being conducted against Mankiewicz, then President of the Guild, alleging he had Communist sympathies. At a crucial meeting of the Guild, DeMille's faction spoke for four hours until Ford spoke against DeMille and proposed a vote of confidence in Mankiewicz, which was passed. His words were recorded by a stenographer:


title: John Ford

text: Mankiewicz's version of events was contested in 2016, with the discovery of the court transcript, which was released as part of the Mankiewicz archives. Mankiewicz's account gives sole credit to Ford in sinking DeMille. The account has several embellishments. DeMille's move to fire Mankiewicz had caused a storm of protest. DeMille was basically on the receiving end of a torrent of attacks from many speakers throughout the meeting and at one point looked like being solely thrown off the guild board.


title: John Ford

text: At this point, Ford rose to speak. His opening was that he rose in defense of the board. He claimed a personal role in a vote of confidence for Joseph Mankiewicz. He then called for an end to politics in the Guild and for it to refocus on working conditions. Ford told the meeting that the guild was formed to "protect ourselves against producers." Ford argued against "putting out derogatory information about a director, whether he is a Communist, beats his mother-in-law, or beats dogs." Ford wanted the debate and the meeting to end as his focus was the unity of the guild. He said that Mankiewicz had been vilified and deserved an apology. His final section was to support DeMille against further calls for his resignation. Ford's words about DeMille were, "And I think that some of the accusations made here tonight were pretty UnAmerican. I mean a group of men have picked on probably the dean of our profession. I don't agree with C. B. DeMille. I admire him. I don't like him, but I admire him. Everything he said tonight he had a right to say. I don't like to hear accusations against him." He concluded by "pleading" with the membership to retain DeMille.


title: John Ford

text: Ford feared that DeMille's exit might have caused the body to disintegrate. His second move was to have the entire board resign, which saved face for DeMille and allowed the issue to be settled without forced resignations. The next day, Ford wrote a letter supporting DeMille and then telephoned, where Ford described DeMille as "a magnificent figure" so far above that "goddamn pack of rats."


title: John Ford

text: At a heated and arduous meeting, Ford went to the defense of a colleague under sustained attack from his peers. He saw the dangers of expelling DeMille. Ford stared down the entire meeting to ensure that DeMille remained in the guild. He then later offered his own resignation – as part of the entire board – to ensure that the guild did not break and allowed DeMille to go without losing face.


title: John Ford

text: As time went on, however, Ford became more publicly allied with the Republican Party, declaring himself a "Maine Republican" in 1947. He said he voted for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and supported Richard Nixon in 1968 and became a supporter of the Vietnam War. In 1973, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Nixon, whose campaign he had publicly supported.


title: John Ford

text: In 1952, Ford hoped for a Robert Taft/Douglas MacArthur Republican presidential ticket. When Dwight Eisenhower won the nomination, Ford wrote to Taft saying that like "a million other Americans, I am naturally bewildered and hurt by the outcome of the Republican Convention in Chicago."


title: John Ford

text: Ford is widely considered to be among the most influential of Hollywood's filmmakers. He was listed as the sixth most influential director of all time by Flickside. Below are some of the people who were directly influenced by Ford, or greatly admired his work:


title: John Ford

text: In December 2011 the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA), in association with the John Ford Estate and the Irish Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, established "John Ford Ireland", celebrating the work and legacy of John Ford. The Irish Academy stated that through John Ford Ireland, they hope to lay the foundations for honoring, examining and learning from the work and legacy of John Ford, who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation.


title: John Ford

text: The first John Ford Ireland Symposium was held in Dublin, Ireland from 7 to 10 June 2012. The Symposium, designed to draw inspiration from and celebrate Ford's ongoing influence on contemporary cinema, featured a diverse program of events, including a series of screenings, masterclasses, panel discussions, public interviews, and an outdoor screening of "The Searchers".


title: John Ford

text: Guests who attended included Dan Ford, grandson of John Ford; composer Christopher Caliendo conducted the acclaimed RTÉ Concert Orchestra performing his score to Ford's "The Iron Horse", opening the four-day event; author and biographer Joseph McBride gave the Symposium's opening lecture; directors Peter Bogdanovich, Stephen Frears, John Boorman, Jim Sheridan, Brian Kirk, Thaddeus O'Sullivan and Sé Merry Doyle participated in a number of events; Irish writers Patrick McCabe, Colin Bateman, Ian Power and Eoghan Harris examined Ford's work from a screenwriters perspective; Joel Cox delivered an editing masterclass; and composers and musicians, among whom David Holmes and Kyle Eastwood, discussed music for film.


title: John Ford

text: Clint Eastwood received the inaugural John Ford Award in December 2011. It was presented to Mr. Eastwood, at a reception in Burbank, California, by Michael Collins, Irish Ambassador to the United States, Dan Ford, grandson of John Ford, and Áine Moriarty, Chief Executive of the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA).


title: John Ford

text: Accepting the Award, Mr Eastwood said: "Any kind of association with John Ford is most directors' dream, as he was certainly a pioneer of American filmmaking and I grew up on his films. His Westerns had a great influence on me, as I think they had on everybody. When I worked with Sergio Leone years ago in Italy, his favorite Director was John Ford and he spoke very openly about that influence. I want to thank everybody who is here from the Irish Academy, the John Ford family and thank you to John Ford Ireland."


title: John Ford

text: Ford was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", a Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat "V", the Navy Combat Action Ribbon the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the China Service Medal the American Defense Service Medal with service star, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, the Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal also with three campaign stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with service star, the Korean Service Medal with one campaign star, the Naval Reserve Medal, the Order of National Security Merit Samil Medal, the United Nations Korea Medal, the Distinguished Pistol Shot Ribbon (1952-1959), and the Belgian Order of Leopold.


title: Travis Willingham

text: Travis Willingham is an American voice actor. His most notable roles include Roy Mustang in the "Fullmetal Alchemist" franchise, Portgas D. Ace in "One Piece", Ginko in "Mushishi", Knuckles the Echidna in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise and Thor in several Marvel projects. He is a cast member of the web series "Critical Role", in which he and other voice actors play "Dungeons & Dragons". He is also the chief executive officer of Critical Role Productions.


title: Travis Willingham

text: Willingham was born in Dallas. He became interested in acting in fifth grade, and after sixth grade, he moved from private school to J.R. Long Middle School. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1994, and studied at Texas Christian University. He eventually moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s to pursue an acting career.


title: Travis Willingham

text: Willingham rose to prominence in the voice acting world for his portrayal of Roy Mustang in "Fullmetal Alchemist", which he later reprised in "". His other notable roles include Yu Kanda in "D.Gray-man", Cleo in "Glass Fleet", Ginko in "Mushishi", Portgas D. Ace in the Funimation re-dub of "One Piece" and Takashi Morinozuka in "Ouran High School Host Club". He also voices Thor in several Marvel projects and King Roland II in Disney Junior's "Sofia the First". From 2010 to 2018, he was the voice of Knuckles the Echidna in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series.


title: Travis Willingham

text: Willingham is also a cast member of the popular "Dungeons & Dragons" web series "Critical Role", where he played Grog in Campaign One, Fjord in Campaign Two, as well as Sir Bertrand Bell and Chetney Pock O'Pea in Campaign 3. "Critical Role" was both the Webby Winner and the People's Voice Winner in the "Games (Video Series & Channels)" category at the 2019 Webby Awards; the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019 Shorty Awards. After becoming hugely successful, the "Critical Role" cast left the Geek & Sundry network in early 2019 and set up their own production company, Critical Role Productions; Willingham serves as chief executive officer. Soon after, they aimed to raise $750,000 on Kickstarter to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. In November 2019, Amazon Prime Video announced that they had acquired the streaming rights to this animated series, now titled "The Legend of Vox Machina;" Willingham will reprise his role as Grog.


title: Travis Willingham

text: Willingham married voice actress Laura Bailey on September 25, 2011 at Maravilla Gardens in Camarillo. They reside in Los Angeles. They have one son.


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: Johannes Vermeer ( , , ; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. Nonetheless, he produced relatively few paintings and evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death.


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: "Almost all his paintings", Hans Koningsberger wrote, "are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women."


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: His modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbraken's major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting ("Grand Theatre of Dutch Painters and Women Artists") and was thus omitted from subsequent surveys of Dutch art for nearly two centuries. In the 19th century, Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who published an essay attributing 66 pictures to him, although only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today. Since that time, Vermeer's reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: Similar to other major Dutch Golden Age artists such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt, Vermeer never went abroad. Also, like Rembrandt, he was an avid art collector and dealer.


title: Johannes Vermeer

text: In Dutch, "Vermeer" is pronounced , and "Johannes Vermeer" as , with assimilating to the preceding voiceless as . The usual English pronunciation is , with , with a long first vowel, also occurring in the UK. is also documented. Another pronunciation, , is attested from the UK.