Glenn Ford: A Life (Wisconsin Film Studies) (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

There are many reasons why I was drawn to this very fine biography; the first being that, like other reviewers, I've been a Glenn Ford fan for about as long as I can remember and I'd been looking for a biography ever since he passed away in 2006. The second reason, upon spotting this new edition, was that I checked Amazon's US site and saw that the book had garnered 57 reviews, of which 51 were five stars. That's some recommendation. I was also swayed by the fact that it was penned by his son. I figured if anyone knew the man, it would have to be Peter Ford. This account of his father's life and career was well worth the wait.But it ain't all roses.Ford was, in my view, a severely under-rated actor - one of those who made it look so easy - but he was no saint, that's for sure. It's to his eternal credit that Peter Ford has pulled no punches in describing his father's many foibles, from his often martinet treatment of his family and his infidelities to his drinking and his strange, not to say, rather unsavoury habit of taping private telephone conversations, including those within his own family as well as, of all people, Richard Nixon, whom Ford got to know very well during Nixon's presidency!Tantalizingly, Peter Ford tells us that half of Hollywood's Golden Age performers are preserved on the tapes for posterity, with many conversations being both of an intimate and sensational nature. Sadly, but wisely, Ford has declined to illuminate those that did take place, but you can't help thinking what wonderful material they would make for another book!As well as Ford's home life, of course, Peter Ford recounts the peaks and troughs of his father's film career. From westerns - The Sheepman, The Fastest Gun Alive and the superb 3.10 to Yuma - to the erotic (for the time) film noir classics, Gilda and The Big Heat. If you add the ground-breaking Blackboard Jungle and comedies such as Teahouse of the August Moon, there wasn't much that Ford couldn't turn his hand to, and when his film career began its inevitable decline, he turned to television and radio.And there wasn't anybody with whom he didn't work ( or in the case of his leading ladies, sleep ). From Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe to William Holden, John Ford, Sinatra, Jack Lemmon and countless others - far too many to mention here - he knew and starred with them all.Ford served his country, too, a fact which isn't widely known; briefly in the US marines and in 1963 he was appointed a full commander in the United States Naval Reserve, making several forays on the front lines in Vietnam.By any standards, this is a terrific read though I'm not sure after you've turned the final page that you'll have warmed to the man. But if you love movies and glamour and mourn the passing of film stars who make today's so-called A-Listers look pretty tame by comparison, you'll not be disappointed.

good book

I have found the many books by children of film stars tend to be little better than hagiography.Not this book.The author ,the son of Glenn Ford and top tap dancer of the 1930s,Eleanor Powell,gives an excellent account of his father's life.He is honest and does not shy away from unplatable truths.His mother and father seemed to have a rather strange marital relationship.They didn't live together till a year after their marriage.Even then they had single rooms with his mother having a bedroom inbetween.Unfortunately for the son whenever there was a row involving his parents he seemed to get the blame.Ford clearly enjoyed his film star lifestyle and all the perks that went with it.However once any star gets into their forties they find that it becomes more difficult to maintain their status and image.So the films are made for money alone and the women get younger and younger.So for someone like Ford old age became even more of a problem.His final marriage to a much younger woman lasting just 49 daysand obviously alienating his family.All this is recounted in a very vivid manner by his son who suffered the trauma of all this.There are lots of first hand interviews and I would say that this is one of the best of its type that I have read in recent times.

Oh, my goodness. I have just finished this book with tears in my eyes. Sad, sad ending. When you think of the dedication, time and hard work that those actors went through back then - and working under those tyrannical studio bosses - and then in later life they're just washed up and abandoned, not to mention forgotten. Peter Ford did a terrific job in the writing of his father's biography. His love for his parents just shines through. But what a life Glenn Ford lived!!! What a wonderful, magnificent life!! When you look at him and Rita Hayworth in GILDA (the sizzle, the energy, the passion!!....they were both so beautiful in 1946) and then you learn how, decades later, they went downhill....it's just sad.A great book for a great life.

There are few books on Glenn Ford's life and movies, this one is informative.

Like many other Ford fans I have been waiting patiently for this book to be published. It was worth the wait. His son describes the ups and downs of their complex relationship very fairly. This is no hatchet job on his father. It contains lots of interesting information. Now I know why the chemistry between Ford and Geraldine Brooks in 'The Green Glove' was so convincing! It was wonderful to read about what a very loyal and caring friend he was to Rita Hayworth all of her life. Peter Ford goes into quite a bit of detail regarding many of the very many of Ford's ladies but he also includes many anecdotes and quotes from fellow actors regarding his huge body of work in film. This is a must for Ford fans but anyone interested in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Eleanor Powell would find this very absorbing.

I have given this top rating, I had the privilege of conversing with Peter on when this book would be available and must say it has been worth the wait. I like the honest insight from Glenn Ford's son which must have been a challenge to become 'a fan' and share with the rest of the world private details that families outside of the silver screen usually bury.Well done for this wonderful biography, I read it in three days because I was so transported to this exciting era I found it hard to come off my Kindle.I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book about the career of a great but strangely overlooked filmstar. Written by GF's son it is a warts and all portrayal which does actually focus on the work, as well as, the warts and GF's personal life. Would recommend to anyone interested in the classic Hollywood stars, westerns and the classic film noir period.

This book is very well-written about an actor who was amazing- talented, great-looking, with tons of charisma. I love Glenn Ford + it was a big treat to read this book!

A vida das stars de Hollywood sempre me interessou

Per chi ha amato i film anni ‘50 e le storie dei protagonisti.Il racconto dell’amore di un figlio ...

A good read. I do like film star biographies and Peter Ford does a fine job telling his father’s story. I’m half way through and so far so good.

Glenn Ford, Glenn Ford, he's an actor few remember right now, though in his heyday he was a top box office star--the #1 world star in 1958. He has some fervent admirers, who claim that it wasn't his fault he was in so many terrible movies. Peter Ford, the only son of the actor, has written a tremendous book that works both as indictment and celebration of the studio system/ Columbia owned him pure and simple, and dictated what parts he would play and who would direct him. The first thirty or forty pictures that he made were pretty undistinguished, but they allowed him to learn his craft. They would have sunk a lesser man, but eventually he--and his phantom twin counterpart, William Holden, also a Columbia contract player--eventually Ford became a star, and viewers who liked him in Gilda (1944) didn't really care what he was in, they just wanted more of his tough guy ways.Ford was a man of the flesh, who believed in availing himself of the many offers he received from co-stars and lesser lights. It seems as though he fell in love often too, something of a Canadian romantic. His affairs with Geraldine Brooks and Hope Lange gave him more pain than pleasure. He was always on the make, and confided details of his lovemaking to his son, and the stories make for amazing reading. When he was young, for example, he played in a movie adaptation of one of Jack London's autobiographical novels. The studio brought in sixtyish Charmian London, Jack London's widow, to coach Glenn Ford, and Charmian liked what she saw. Love these cougar stories! In the 1950s he recalled John Barrymore's advice (that an actor should always go for the evil parts) and acquitted himself admirably, becoming one of the few leading men of noir to also enjoy a career as a good guy too. He seemed like he could flip easily. When just a nobody, or practically so, he had married one of the leading ladies of MGM musicals--the tap dancer Eleanor Powell, three years his senior, and soon enough he had slipped into a pattern where he could work his marriage for publicity reasons, and forget it when it wasn't convenient. Did he resent Powell for being (initially) the bigger star? He certainly treated her like a convenience. At the same time, his son grew up both resenting his dad for his cheating ways, while admiring him as a role model, and as a fine actor.Harry Cohn strung Glenn Ford along as hard as he could, promising him the top parts the studio had to offer in order to get Ford to sign on the dotted line one more time. And then he'd pull the rug out. So William Holden and Judy Holliday played in Born Yesterday, instead of Ford and Rita Hayworth; and Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr starred in From Here to Eternity, and not Ford and Hayworth. The reader starts to live in an alternate film universe, one in which Glenn Ford would have been in great movies, instead of so many sucky ones. Of course he played in some terrific movies, but I think no other great star had such a low percentage of critical successes. He was the Steven Seagal of--well, of the movies. Except he could act better. One of the best movie star biographies of recent years, GLENN FORD A LIFE has only one basic flaw, we never find out why Ford, the man who had everything, was such a cheap, vindictive creep to those who loved him best. It is a tale of pity and woe, without sentiment, nor transcendence.