Today is St. Patrick’s Day. No one in the history of film symbolizes St. Patrick’s Day, and the Irish in general, more than John Martin Feeney, known professionally as John Ford. Contrary to public perception, Ford was not born in Ireland, but in in Cape Elizabeth, Maine on February 1, 1894.

One of eleven children of Irish immigrants, the future director followed his brother, actor/director Francis Ford, to Hollywood, appearing as an actor in sixteen films including D.W. Griffith’s 1915 epic, The Birth of a Nation.

Ford started out in his brother’s films as an assistant, handyman, stuntman and occasional actor, often doubling for his 12-years-older brother, whom he closely resembled. Francis gave him his first acting role in 1914’s. The Mysterious Rose. Despite an often-combative relationship with his brother, he become his chief assistant within three years, often working as his cameraman. He directed his first film, The Tornado, in 1917.

Ford’s first masterpiece was The Iron Horse in 1924 which was the greatest of his many silent western films, establishing his reputation as the premier director of the genre. His second was 1928’s Four Sons made on the lavish sets constructed for F.W. Murnau’s beautiful but somber masterpiece, Sunrise, which heavily influenced Ford’s films through the 1930s, most notably 1933’s Pilgrimage and 1935’s The Informer for which he won he first of his four Oscars for Best Director. That film also firmly established his reputation as a bona fide Irishman.

Ford’s films of the late 1930s included The Prisoner of Shark Island, The Hurricane, Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. Stagecoach, the first successful A western in years, earned him his second Oscar nomination and re-established his reputation as the premier director of the genre.

The acclaimed director won his second and third Oscars back-to-back for 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley with The Long Voyage Home and Tobacco Road made in-between them.

A documentary filmmaker for the U.S. Navy during World War II, his The Battle of Midway (1942) and December 7th (1943) won Oscars for Best Documentary.

Post-war successes included They Were Expendable, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Long Gray Line, Mister Roberts, The Last Hurrah, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Cheyenne Autumn, and 7 Women.

The first recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1973, the Rear Admiral was promoted to full Admiral for the evening by then President Nixon. Despite the honor from Nixon, his favorite presidents were Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy. He died later that year at 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)/HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941)

Ford’s films of John Steinbeck’s definitive novel of the Great Depression and Richard Llewellyn’s look back at a Welsh childhood are both screen masterpieces for which Ford won the second and third of his four directing Oscars. Henry Fonad, Jane Darwell, and John Carradine in the former, and Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, and Roddy McDowall in the latter, all give legendary salt-of-the-earth performances. Fonda as the stoic Tom Joad, Darwell as his indomitable Ma Joad, Crisp as the patriarch of Valley’s coal mining family and Allgood as its matriarch remain four of the greatest screen characters of all time.

THE QUIET MAN (1952)

Ford’s dream project was an ode to the land of his forbears. Its bucolic presentation of an Ireland that never was, remains that country’s biggest tourist magnet nearly seventy years later. John Wayne plays an Irish born, American prizefighter who retires to his native land after accidentally killing a man in the ring. Maureen O’Hara is the colleen he sets his cap for, Barry Fitzgerald their chaperone, Victor McLaglen O’Hara’s churlish brother, Mildred Natwick the local widow and Ward Bond the local priest. The film for which Foird won his fourth Oscar is a perennial TV favorite, especially on St. Patrick’s Day.

THE SEARCHERS (1956)

After decades of making westerns in which the Indians were the bad guys, Ford’s latterly regarded “greatest film” seems to be headed in the same direction, but instead makes its square-jawed hero (John Wayne) the film’s bad guy for much of the film. Wayne is the Civil War veteran out to avenge the deaths of his brother, sister-in-law, and young nephew, as he heads a seven-year search for his missing niece with the aid of his “half-breed” adopted nephew, Jeffrey Hunter. The entire cast is first rate with Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, John Qualen, and Olive Carey among those in key supporting roles.

THE LAST HURRAH (1958)

Ford’s “old man’s movie” stars Spencer Tracy as the aging New England Irish mayor who runs for re-election one last time. Co-starring Jeffrey Hunter as Tracy’s nephew and Dianne Foster as Hunter’s wife, the rest of the cast is a virtual who’s who of great character actors including Pat O’Brien, James Gleason, Donald Crisp, Basil Rathbone, Edward Brophy, John Carradine, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh, Jane Darwell, and Anna Lee, many of whom appeared in his earlier films. Tracy, who gives one of his finest performances, even has a last line reminiscent of Robert Donat’s in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962)

Ford’s last black-and-white film and next-to-last western was a modest hit in its day, but its reputation has grown immensely over time. Critics of the day were generally dismissive of James Stewart and John Wayne in their mid-50s playing characters in their 20s and early 30s. If you can get past that, it’s an ironic look at not just the myth of the west but of the western film of which Ford was the master. With Vera Miles as the woman both men love but only one can have, Lee Marvin as the title villain, and Edmond O’Brien as the reporter who gets the last line. As O’Brien says, “when the legend becomes the fact, print the legend!”

JOHN FORD AND OSCAR

• The Informer (1935) – Oscar – Best Director
• Stagecoach (1939) – nominated – Best Director
• The Grapes of Wrath (1940) – Oscar – Best Director
• How Green Was Valley (1941) – Oscar – Best Director
• The Battle of Midway (1942) – Oscar – Best Documentary Short Subject (Award given to United States Navy)
• December 7th (1943) – Oscar – Best Documentary Short Subject (Award given to United States Navy)
• The Quiet Man (1952) – Oscar – Best Director