Harrison Ford
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 67)
He has set aside for conservation
almost half of his 800-acre ranch in
Wyoming, at the foot of the Tetons,
abutting the Snake River. By banning
elk hunting on the spread, he has
created a refuge for the animals that
live on the property. “I love the ethic
of the West,” he says. He notes that
the minister at this morning’s funeral
extolled 10 western virtues that Blake
Chapman lived by, including: “Finish
what you start, be tough but fair, take
pride in your work, do your best,” says
Ford. With maturity, he says he’s getting better at living up to these values.
He has four grown children from
his first two marriages, as well as three
grandchildren. A native of suburban
Chicago, he headed to Los Angeles as
a college dropout and aspiring actor
in 1964, accompanied in a Volkswagen
Beetle by his college girlfriend (and
new bride) Mary Marquardt. The
couple, who divorced in 1979, had
two sons—Ben (now 44) and Willard
( 42)—while Ford took small acting
jobs and supported the family as a
top-notch carpenter. “I had my first
children when I was 24,” he says. “
Babies raising babies is maybe not the
prettiest thing in the world to watch.”
Ford’s breakthrough as a teen hot-rodder in American Graffiti in 1973 led
George Lucas to cast him in 1977’s Star
Wars. A few years later he was playing
Colonel Lucas in Apocalyse Now when
he met Francis Ford Coppola’s assistant, Melissa Mathison; she became a
screenwriter (best known for E. T.: The
Extra-Terrestrial), and his second wife
in 1983. During his peak acting years,
Ford was often away on location while
the couple’s two children—Malcolm,
now 24, and Georgia, 21, attended
school in New York City. He spent long
holidays with them in Wyoming, but
the separations were difficult. “My
wives have been good mothers,” he
says with genuine appreciation.
Ford and Flockhart wed last June,
in the middle of shooting for Cowboys
& Aliens, at the Santa Fe mansion of
former New Mexico governor Bill
Richardson, who officiated (Liam
was the ring bearer). The groom wore
Wrangler jeans; the bride, a simple
white sundress. Any particular reason
why he chose that moment to wed for
the third time? “Because we’d lived
together for 10 years and it seemed
like we were going to get along,” Ford
deadpans. Pause. “And I love her
and she wanted to get married, and I
wanted to get married.”
Ford and Flockhart are a warm-
ly affectionate, demonstrative cou-
ple. They show up occasionally at
Hollywood events but would rather
stay home than walk a red carpet. They
attend Liam’s football games and last
year took him trick-or-treating (Flock-
hart dressed as Miss Piggy while Ford
was nearly unrecognizable in the black
habit of a very large nun). Ford has also
been spotted wearing a Happy Father’s
Day T-shirt made by Liam. “I’ve
learned a lot about being an appropri-
ate father over the years,” he says.
The couple recently purchased an
estate on the west side of Los Angeles
for a reported $12.5 million, and Ford
is overseeing a major renovation of the
house. He’s in his element on the job
site, occasionally wielding a hammer
himself. He is meticulous—woe to any
subcontractor who does subpar work.
Does he ever tell workers to rip things
out and start over? “Yep,” he says.
Ford plans to focus on this construction project until he and Calista
and Liam move in near the end of the
summer. He isn’t sweating that he
has no new role lined up. “I’ve been
enormously lucky,” he says. “I’ve had a
long run.” Eventually, it would be nice
if other juicy character parts come his
way. He enjoys being surprised by a
great script. “I like waiting for something to drop out of the sky,” he says.
The Citation is in its hangar, and
the boss is heading home to his wife
and son. Before he goes, he is asked
what he considers the most important things in life. “People and work,”
he says. After a pause he adds, “And
learning.” After all these years, he’s
achieved a remarkable balance: feet
on the ground, head in the clouds. ;
Obama’s Wish
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49)
What about Social Security?
I think we can make progress. We’re
ahead of the game in the sense that
we’re already having a vigorous debate now, and there’s no danger of
Social Security going bankrupt.
The issue is, can we make these
tweaks to ensure that everybody
who’s expecting a dollar in Social
Security payments gets a dollar instead of 75 cents? And the sooner we
do it, the better off we’re going to be.
I think that if we can make some progress first on Medicare and Medicaid,
because those are the entitlement
programs that are really driving the
long-term debt, we’ll have a framework of negotiations to actually do
something on Social Security as well.
Back to your birthday: Have you
asked for anything special?
A much lower unemployment rate.
And lower gas prices. [Laughs.] Those
would be perfect gifts for my birthday.
Let’s talk about the economic recovery. You’ve said all along it will
take time. But how long do you
think you can counsel patience?
Well, keep in mind that the economy
is growing and has been growing for a
year and a half, two years now. We’ve
seen enormous job growth— 2 million
private-sector jobs created. The question is, can we get it moving faster
so that more people feel the impact?
Because if you’re out of a job, the only
improvement you want to hear is that
you’re going to have a job.
So to the unemployed, those who
are underwater on their homes,
folks who are supporting their adult
kids and aging parents, too—what
can you say to offer hope?
What I can say to them is that things
are getting better. Traditionally it
takes a little longer to come out of a
financial crisis than out of a normal
recession. The tax cut that we passed
in December on a bipartisan basis—
