If Harrison Ford had listened to the advice of studio heads early in his career, he would have remained a carpenter and never gone on to star in some of Hollywood's biggest films and become one of its most bankable stars. Born in Chicago and raised in a middle-class suburb, he led an average childhood. An introverted loner, he was popular with girls but picked on by school bullies until he one day lost his cool and beat the tar out of the gang leader responsible for his being repeatedly thrown off an embankment. He had no special affinity for films and usually only went to see them on dates because they were inexpensive and dark. Following high school graduation, Ford studied English and philosophy at Ripon College in Wisconsin. An admittedly lousy student, he began acting while in college then worked briefly in summer stock. He was expelled from the school three days before graduation because he did not complete his required thesis. In the mid-60s he moved to Hollywood, where he signed as a contract player with Columbia and then Universal. After debuting onscreen in a bit as a bellboy in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) he played secondary roles, typically as a cowboy, in several films of the late '60s and in such TV series as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, and Ironside. Discouraged, he abandoned acting and taught himself, via library books, to become a carpenter; he used his recently purchased run-down Hollywood home for practice. Ford proved himself a talented woodworker and after successfully completing his first contract to build an out-building for Sergio Mendez, found himself in demand with other Hollywood residents. As an actor his luck changed when a casting-director friend for whom Ford was doing some construction, helped him get a part in George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973), a film which became a blockbuster and greatly increased his familiarity. Still, his career remained stagnant until Lucas cast him as space-pilot Han Solo in the mega-hit Star Wars (1977), after which he became a minor star. He advanced to major stardom with his portrayal of action-adventure hero Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), yet another enormous hit. He went on to play 'Indy' twice more. For his role as a big-city police detective who finds himself masquerading as an Amish farmer to protect a young boy who witnessed a murder in Witness (1984), Ford received an Oscar nomination. Having appeared in several of the biggest money-makers of all time, he was able to pick and choose his roles in the '80s and '90s. In 1992 he signed an unprecedented $50 million contract to play CIA agent Jack Ryan in a series of five films based on the novels of Tom Clancy. Other major successes include The Fugitive (1993). His wife is screenwriter Melissa Mathison, whose credits include E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). They live quietly with their children (Ford's other two children from his first marriage are grown and have chosen careers other than show business) on an 800-acre ranch near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A devoted husband and father, Ford has a clause in his movie contracts permitting him to bring his family with him for location shooting.