HARRISON FORD A CREDIBLE HERO

Four years after that came that pivotal role as Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope where people worldwide paid attention to the soft-voiced young star with the charismatic personality.

Four years further on and Harrison was cast as swashbuckling archaeologist Indiana Jones in the first film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Industry insiders and audiences of all ages loved his winning combination of understated emotion, light comedy touch and willingness to be an energetic part of the impressive action. Harrison’s film stock rode high.

HOW many actors could happily tackle a tough adventure role at the age of 81 and make a credible hero? Well, Harrison Ford can.

And he is still wowing audiences with his latest film – predictably as enduring favourite Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now delighting fans and box-offices around the world - the first of the highly successful series without Steven Spielberg behind the camera.

Scroll back the takes to the 1940 Chicago childhood of young Harrison, though, and it’s hard to spot the superstar potential. An ordinary student who failed to excel at sports, he dropped out of Wisconsin’s Ripon College where he had done some acting and later Summer stock.

Harrison’s next move, however, was more noteworthy. He signed a Hollywood contract with Columbia and then later Universal, enjoying roles in some – admittedly, fairly unremarkable - films and TV series including Ironside and The Virginian.

In fact, he was so discouraged that he turned to a career in professional carpentry before the silver screen called him back in 1973 for the surprise film hit American Graffiti.

He won more fans in the 1982 classic Blade Runner and then reprised his Han Solo role in 1983 with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Roll on 1985 and he received an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his sensitive handling of the role of undercover cop John Book in the Amish community in another hit film Witness.

Further success beckoned with subsequent Indiana Jones’ sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

By the time the last film was released, the brand was perhaps looking in need of a refresh and adding popular British star Phoebe Waller-Bridge into the mix for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny as the college professor turned adventurer hero-s goddaughter certainly seems to be helping revive its fortunes.

The public’s love of Harrison Ford, though, has never wavered. And it has never seemed to matter what role or what genre was involved.

In the 1988 film Working Girl he impressed audiences in a contemporary romantic comedy alongside Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. The role seemed effortless for him and played a large part in the film’s enduring success.

He played thriller writer Tom Clancy’s engaging hero Jack Ryan in the excellent Patriot Games in 1992, following up the role two years later with another hit movie Clear and Present Danger.

The following year, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for the part of Dr Richard Kimble in compelling thriller The Fugitive. Then in 1997 was promoted to President – be it an action-packed version – for the political thriller Air Force One.

Harrison is nothing if not flexible with his talents and in 1998, played the down-on-his luck pilot to Anne Heche’s stroppy New York magazine editor marooned together after a plane crash in Six Days Seven Nights.

More diversity came from the 2002 blockbuster K-19: The Widowmaker in which he played an inspirational leader in the historical submarine film charting the maiden voyage of a Soviet nuclear sub.

Part of Harrison Ford’s understandable popularity comes not just from an effortless acting style that offers relaxing viewing for audiences but also in his willingness to throw himself into the action, whatever it is.

He holds a private pilot’s licence and owns both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, providing emergency helicopter services on several occasions.

On set, his concern for his own safety seems equally cavalier. He scared director Steven Spielberg and the crew during the making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when, without warning, he ran out across the rope bridge used in the film’s climax to test its safety.

Spielberg is later reported stating: “What can I say? Harrison really IS Indiana Jones.”

Nor is he an actor without his own ideas on the films in which he stars.

He is reported to have said: “It’s a little-known fact but I wanted Han Solo to die at the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. I thought it would give more weight and resonance. But George Lucas wasn’t sympathetic. He didn’t want me killed by those teddy bear guys.”

Harrison was also apparently initially against casting Sean Connery as his father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade because Connery was only 12 years older than him.

He later changed his mind and found he enioyed working with the former Bond star immensely. Certainly, the screen chemistry underlines that result.

Away from films, twice-divorced Harrison married Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart in 2010. They have a son of their own and he has four other children from previous marriages.

He owns an 800-acre ranch in Wyoming, around half of which he has donated as a nature reserve.

Harrison is known for his quiet and charming personality – a world away from the action-first heroes he has long played onscreen. Although it’s reported that Dial of Destiny is his last hurrah as Indiana Jones, Harrison isn’t sad. He told film website Decider:

Nor does this particular “ending” signal his screen retirement. Harrison can still be seen in the Paramount series 1923 alongside Helen Mirren.