Glenn Ford

Son of a humble railway worker of Welsh descent, Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford was born on May 1, 1916, in Quebec (Canada). Little is known about Ford’s Canadian origin, and in any case he lived most of his childhood in the US, specifically in Santa Monica (California). At school he already performed in school functions, and at the age of 20 he joined a theater company with which he toured the United States. In 1938 he was successful on Broadway with “Soliloquy.” At that time he auditioned for the production company Twentieth Century Fox, whose executives rejected him. Months later, they thought better of it, and they called him to play one of the protagonists of  Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence , a 1939 drama, followed by films with a certain commercial pull like  Texas,  The Ship of Death  and  Los Desesperados , a western in which she co-starred with Randolph Scott . In 1943 the actor married the dancer Eleanor Powell , with whom he had his only son, Peter, also an actor. Ford already had some popularity when the United States announced its entry into World War II. Ford immediately enlisted in the Navy, making a hiatus in his career.

After the war ended, he returned to the cinema with good fortune, playing his best-remembered film,  Gilda , where he was a cheating gambler who fell in love with the wife of his boss, owner of a sumptuous casino. There was never a movie like  Gilda , a milestone in 1940s cinema, which made a big star out of Rita Hayworth , with whom Ford had an affair in real life.

The drama  A Stolen Life , along with Bette Davis , gave way to Ford’s most popular days, who were pigeonholed in the western, with titles like  The Man from Colorado ,  The Gold Rush ,  The Cowboy and the Redhead ,  The Deserter del Álamo ,  A Gunman Arrives ,  Violent Men ,  Jubal ,  The 3:10 Train to Yuma and especially Cimarrón . Outside of the genre, the two well-rounded collaborations of his with the maestro Fritz Lang ,  Los sobornados , stand out, a classic film-noir where he was detective Dave Bannion, facing the crime syndicate, and  Human Desires , of the same genre, loosely based on a novel by Zola, where Ford played a railwayman like his father. On both occasions he had the unrepeatable Gloria Grahame as a co-star .

In the 1960s, Glenn Ford discovered his comic vision, participating in such memorable films as  A Gangster for a Miracle  and  Eddie’s Father’s Engagement , although he also had time to star in the drama  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse , a resounding flop with which his career went into decline. Until the end of the decade, he participated in numerous films such as  Ese disinterested love ,  Does Paris burn? and more westerns, such as  Los desbravadores ,  The ride of the damned ,  Duel to the death in Río Rojo  and  A paradise at the blow of a revolver. During those years he divorced his first wife, replacing her with the actress Kathryn Hays , and later with the model Cynthia Hayward .

In the 70s he triumphed on the small screen, starring in the series  Cade’s County , a modern western in which he played sheriff Sam Cade. He also participated as a luxury secondary in  The Battle of Midway (1976) and in Superman  (1978). This was his last big hit, though he didn’t retire until 1991, when he starred in the B-movie thriller  Raw Nerve , and the telefilm  Final Verdict . He then began to suffer from heart problems that prevented him from ever getting back in front of the cameras. A few months before his death, his lack of health prevented her from attending the tribute organized in his honor at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The actor sent a recording, thanking the tribute.