John Ford
Sean Aloysius Feeney was born on February 1, 1895, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
the youngest child of Irish immigrants. Ford's breakthrough as a director came
in 1935, when he convinced Merian C. Cooper, production chief at RKO Studios,
to let him film Liam O'Flaherty's novel The Informer on a small budget. The
result was hailed as the first great American art film. It brought Oscars to
Ford, writer Dudley Nichols, composer Max Steiner and star Victor McLaglen.
Through the war years, Ford continued to score hits with such films as
Stagecoach (1939 New York Film Critics Award), The Grapes of Wrath (1940 Oscar
and New York Film Critics Award) and How Green Was My Valley (1941 Oscar and
New York Film Critics Award).
He made documentaries for the Navy during World
War II, winning Oscars for The Battle of Midway (1942) and December 7th (1943).
After the war, Ford's critical reputation suffered a bit, though the films in
his unofficial Cavalry Trilogy - Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
(1949) and Rio Grande (1950) - would later be hailed as masterpieces. He won
his fourth Oscar for Best Director (a record that still stands) for his 1952
Irish comedy The Quiet Man, then directed the film most often hailed as his
best, the Western The Searchers, in 1956. Ford continued directing into the
'60s, contributing the Civil War sequence for MGM's Western epic How the West
Was Won (1962). After health problems forced him to share directing credit with Jack Cardiff for 1965's Young Cassidy, he directed Seven Women (1966) and the
documentary Chesty (not released until 1976). In 1973, he became the first film
maker honored with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He
died later that year.
