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Glenn Ford: A Life (Wisconsin Film Studies) Paperback – May 12, 2011

by Peter Ford (Author), Patrick McGilligan (Foreword)

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Glenn Ford—star of such now-classic films as Gilda, Blackboard Jungle, The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Rounders—had rugged good looks, a long and successful career, and a glamorous Hollywood life. Yet the man who could be accessible and charming on screen retreated to a deeply private world he created behind closed doors.
Glenn Ford: A Life chronicles the volatile life, relationships, and career of the renowned actor, beginning with his move from Canada to California and his initial discovery of theater. It follows Ford’s career in diverse media—from film to television to radio—and shows how Ford shifted effortlessly between genres, playing major roles in dramas, noir, westerns, and romances.
This biography by Glenn Ford’s son, Peter Ford, offers an intimate view of a star’s private and public life. Included are exclusive interviews with family, friends, and professional associates, and snippets from the Ford family collection of diaries, letters, audiotapes, unpublished interviews, and rare candid photos. This biography tells a cautionary tale of Glenn Ford’s relentless infidelities and long, slow fade-out, but it also embraces his talent-driven career. The result is an authentic Hollywood story that isn’t afraid to reveal the truth.

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Editorial Reviews

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“Glenn Ford never got the respect he deserved for being a tough, straight-ahead actor who always had a way of rising to the occasion demanded by Fritz Lang or Vincente Minnelli. His son’s biography is a welcome tribute to a conflicted man and an often overlooked star.”—Scott Eyman, author of Pieces of My Heart

"A frank portrait of a conflicted man and a respected star of Golden Age Hollywood. . . . Peter succeeds in objectively revisiting his father’s life and work while peeling back without fear the painful layers in their mutual history. . . . This biography should rank with Maria Riva’s Marlene Dietrich as one of the best examples of a family biography and should appeal to film scholars and film fans alike."—Library Journal

“Glenn Ford was a perfect gentleman, educated and kind. When called upon to perform, he was a hell of an actor.”—Mickey Rooney

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Product details

Series: Wisconsin Film Studies
Paperback: 358 pages
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (May 12, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 029928154X
ISBN-13: 978-0299281540
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 142 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #180 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > Midwest
- #1171 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Movies > History & Criticism
- #1403 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Television Performers

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R. de Aquino

A superb, discerning look into a great actor's life and work.

March 10, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A labor of love. A well-written, informative, sensitive biography by someone who knew his subject most intimately. Glenn Ford may not have won awards for his impressive body of work on film, and we all know that recognition was unfairly given to performances of lesser substance during Glenn Ford's lifetime, but no matter. Glenn Ford was an Actor's Actor. He was a natural. Never a false movement or an insincere performance in his curriculum. Peter Ford illuminates both the man and the artist for us, and he does it most beautifully.

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Barbara L. Celello

Triumph!

May 25, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

From Canada to America, to Europe and elsewhere, the entire contextual ride throughout the book authored by Peter Ford, "Glenn Ford,A Life"
is an immense journey. The story of Glenn Ford's life is infinitely
detailed, defining much of the history of Hollywood life during an era
when Hollywood Stars acquired pedestal images. Peter informs the reader
of the many sacrifices some of those Stars, their spouses and children,
would make for the sake of fame.
Those of us who lived within the margin of Hollywood life had an advantage
of knowing some of the "inside scoop" before Hedda Hopper news hit the
streets. Yet, Peter has defined Hollywood history in truths that we would
otherwise not have known. His story is not of resentment, but of candor,
including "trysts and turns" of celebrity relationships.
Through his son, Peter, Glenn Ford has finally outperformed the Academy.
This literary ride is one not to be missed, a real triumph!

Comment 19 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Jim Borger

The inside scoop on an underated actor. .

August 29, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read books about movie people because I am interested in knowing the back story, how who got what role in which movie, how the movie was made, etc. I don't care who was sleeping with who but that is a part of the story. This book was written by Peter, his oldest child. Glenn Ford was one of my favorite actors but he didn't always choose the right roles for him. He could do drama and comedy but he was at his best in westerns, his personal favorite genre. Besides Ford's story you also get insight into the studio system that used to rule Hollywood.

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jmc2

Very well written, I thought.

September 13, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Well written account of the life of a fine actor I remember growing up. Not my favorite actor, but he always did a great job in his roles. He had a great value system in that he treated most everyone with great respect in light of criticism. Peter gave great respect to his father in this book.

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michael a. sheets

A great actor but a man deeply flawed

February 18, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Extremely well researched. Tells you everything you may have wanted to know about Glenn and perhaps something's you would rather not have known. A great actor but a man deeply flawed.

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Michael S. Carroll

Revealing Look Inside A Complex Man

August 24, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Peter Ford's biography of his father Glenn Ford offers a rich and amazingly candid glimpse into the life a complex, driven man. In order to achieve the great success that Glenn Ford enjoyed, becoming the most popular box office star in Hollywood after struggling at a career for twenty years, you have to be focused, self-obsessed, and sacrificing. In the case of Ford, the greatest sacrifice he made was of his family life in favor of work, money, and women.

I've never known much about Ford's private life, but I've always liked his films and natural acting style. His easy, relaxed nature to a performance always made him seem more real to me, and made him stand out from the rest of the people around him who were working so hard at their acting. This is most particularly the case in his films starting with "The Blackboard Jungle" and continuing on for the next decade or so of his career when he seemed to "find himself" as both an actor and a star. These films would include "3:10 to Yuma," "Trial," "Imitation General," "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," and "Fate Is The Hunter" just to name a few of my favorites.

Peter Ford has done a very brave thing with this book, and at his father's encouragement it should be noted, of not glossing over his father's life and editing it to make it into a publicist's press book. This book is bare-knuckles honest. Showing his father Glenn Ford at his best and at his less admirable moments, such as with his many affairs, which he wrote about in his personal diaries and was unbelievably candid about to his son Peter in his adult life.

It is as much a biography, thoroughly researched and supported with interviews with people who worked with Ford, even going back to when he was a teenager in Santa Monica community theater, as it is Peter Ford's personal memoir about his life with and without his father. They had a difficult father-son relationship with many lows and just as many terrific highs.

It is also, towards the end of the book and Glenn Ford's life, a cautionary tale about aging, about turning your life over to others to manage and how that life can be exploited, taken advantage of, and systematically robbed of almost every penny you have. Elder abuse is one of the great tragedies that befall so many people, of all walks of life, in the final act of their lives. The last chapters of this book should be read carefully and readers should take note to not let these nightmares happen to them.

In the end, "Glenn Ford: A Life" is a diverse and in-depth look into one man's life and how he lived it, for better and for worse. It is much like all of our lives when we have the opportunity to look back on them in later years, filled with our own successes, failures and personal regrets.

Not only is this book well worth reading, it is detailed enough to be worth reading again.

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The Good, Bad, and Ugly

May 19, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is actually one of the best celeb bios I've read and it is only more remarkable because its author is also the son of Glenn Ford. Peter Ford manages to review his father's career with an objective eye while also providing insight into his often remote relationship with a father who was difficult at times to connect to. Within the confines of this biography, Peter Ford also manages to convey what life was like growing up in Beverly Hills as the only child of two high profile celebrities and provides glimpses of his mother Eleanor Powell who was not surprisingly every bit as nice as I expected.
An actor who always managed to keep working until old age finally got him, Glenn Ford was often not a very admirable person in terms of his personal life. An unfaithful husband, he was ideally someone who probably should have never married. He had affairs with many of his co-stars and had tempestuous relationships with Rita Hayworth and Geraldine Brooks. He had a fondness for drink and had a foul personality when drinking, yet he was also a dedicated actor who worked hard to nail a role.
Peppered with anecdotes and personal impressions, this book provides a window into the life and career of Glenn Ford and creates a unique view of '40's and '50's Hollywood and beyond. This bio is by no means a 'Mommie Dearest", but it does get to the truth.

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Most recent customer reviews

Steve

It's nice to find books like this for people who remember ...

Given as a gift. It's nice to find books like this for people who remember the stars of yesteryear. It was written by his son so it's not just a rehash of his movies and fan...Read more

Published 4 months ago

Rolex2Tophorseman1

"Life Is Illussory Even To The Famous and Wealthy"

An excellently written biography by Glenn Fords son. Objective, incisive, illuminating from so many aspects of his fathers life, and breadth of character as a man, a movie star...Read more

Published 4 months ago

Roman Descendant

Not As Great As Other Reviews Said

I'm afraid it's boring, containing a litany of his many many movies, complete with mind-numbing listings of cast, director, producer, screenwriter, screenwriter who redid the...Read more

Published 4 months ago

navy67

GOOD READ

Published 7 months ago

Charles Stamper

Two Stars

Not very good reading. Sounds as if the son did not know his father. Very overrated

Published 9 months ago

Sam

This was a fascinating read, due to all of ...

This was a fascinating read, due to all of the personal life of Glenn Ford that I never knew about. Once you started reading it was hard to put down.

Published 12 months ago

Kindle Customer radio bones

Glenn Ford: an actor.

This is a fascinating look at a man who, on screen, made me believe everything he told me. For example I knew that when he was done with that horse for the day he would unsaddle...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Sherry J. Ruley

I really enjoyed this book

I really enjoyed this book. I can tell you he was not the man I thought he was. he was a man with many affairs and so much more. this really is a tell all book I loved it.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Kindle Customer

Peter Ford: Crybaby with daddy issues

As a huge fan of Glenn Ford I found his son, Peter Ford's, biography disappointing. I hope this effort on Peter's part was therapeutic for him.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Bibliophile

Four Stars

A good book. Sad, in many/most ways.

Published 1 year ago

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