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John Ford is an American director whose lengthy career was one of the most honored in Hollywood history. Four Oscars for Best Director, which is still the record. Filmed some of the most iconic [[TheWestern Wild West]] and [[WorldWarII war movies]] of the age.

Born John Feeney in 1894 (or 1895) in Maine to a large Irish family, he traveled with his older brother Francis to Hollywood during the early years of film-making. Changing their last names to Ford, Francis went to work as an actor while John found himself finding work behind the camera. By the 1920s and 1930s, John Ford was working on small-time, quickly made Westerners but was moving on to bigger and better projects. He won his first Best Director Oscar for ''TheInformer'', a political thriller about the [[TheTroubles IRA]] which cemented his reputation as a great director. Then in 1939 he directed ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', considered for decades to be the greatest Western ever made. He went on to win three more Best Director Oscars, more than any other film-maker. (Although, ironically, none of them were for the westerns he was so well-known for.)
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!! Provides examples of:
* BoisterousBruiser: Ford enjoyed getting his heroes mixing up in at least one boxing match to prove how manly they are. Even when there's no reason for them to fight.
* {{Oireland}}: Ford loved his Irish-American heritage, and it showed in nearly every film he made.
** Capped by his love letter to Ireland itself, ''TheQuietMan''. He had to make a deal with a small-sized studio (Republic) to get that film made when no major studio would back him. He won his fourth directing Oscar for that.
** A lot of his Westerns would underscore the cultural hostility directed at Irish-Americans during the 19th century... and also the early part of the 20th. Later generations may not get how the Irish were treated before WorldWarII.
* ProductionPosse: Ford used the same actors across all his films - what became known as the "John Ford Stock Company" - because he could count on them to perform as he needed.
** The best known were of course JohnWayne, JimmyStewart, HenryFonda, MaureenOHara, and WardBond.
** Also Harry Carey, Victor [=McLaglen=], Barry Fitzgerald, and his brother Francis Ford.
** Towards the end in TheSixties there were WoodyStrode, Patrick Wayne (John's son), and JeffreyHunter.
* RatedMForManly: In John Ford's World, Real Men ride horses, drink whiskey, start fights, love their women, and save the planet. Usually by Thursday, Friday at the latest.
* SceneryPorn: If the film is based outdoors, be it the West in Monument Valley Utah or [[TheQuietMan Ireland in County Mayo]], you are looking at some of the most ''gorgeous shots'' in film history. Cinematographers who worked with him - and would argue about what they were doing - tended to get Oscars for how beautiful the films turned out.
* TheWestern: what Ford is best known for. His classics - ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', ''SheWoreAYellowRibbon'', ''FortApache'', ''RioGrande'', even the ''TheSearchers'' - practically defined the black-and-white morality tales of the West that dominated cinema from TheThirties to TheSixties. Which actually is a misreading of Ford, as even ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'' subverts the black-and-white morality of many Westerns and ''FortApache'' and ''TheSearchers'' already did [[MisaimedFandom what later revisionist Westerns were credited for]].
* WorldWarII: He not only filmed movies about the great war, he ''filmed'' the war itself in the Pacific Theater. He won two Best Documentary awards (''TheBattleOfMidway'' and ''DecemberSeventh''), and was wounded at Midway Island during the attacks.
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