When Did Harrison Ford Get Old?

Born 78 years ago in Chicago, Harrison Ford has been acting since the 1960’s, and it’s hard to imagine an acting career you would want more. Despite only being nominated for one Oscar (1985’s Witness, where he lost to William Hurt in Kiss Of The Spider Woman), the dude has a resume that is pretty unfuckwithable. He was Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Jack Ryan, Dr. Richard Kimble and Rick Deckard. The dude knows how to play characters who make crazy box offices.

He’s also old. That seems obvious, but it raises a lot of interesting questions. And here is the one I’m going to focus on right now:

When did Harrison Ford get old?

Let’s start by getting into what that question means exactly.

I was watching The Empire Strikes Back a few nights ago and was thinking a lot about Ford. He has a crazy interesting filmography filled with some massive successes and hilariously bad failures. But what struck me even more odd was how he aged.

Most normal people have an aging process. They’re a child, then a young adult, then middle-aged, then old. But Ford is interesting because he seems to jump around the spectrum a lot. For example, here is his high school picture.

What’s interesting is that in this picture, he kinda looks old.

But, in his film career, there doesn’t seem to be a gradual progression. One day, he was the dude playing rom-com and action leads and then, seemingly overnight, he became Grandpa Harrison. Where were the roles where he “just found some grey hairs” or “I’m not ready to be a young grandpa”? (Also, in my head, Young Grandpa would have starred Zac Efron and made $100 million dollars).

Seriously… here’s what I’m talking about.

Here is Ford in 2003’s Hollywood Homicide. Yeah, he’s playing a cop with some years on him, but he’s also still got that vibe. He’s got some fucking moxie. Hell, just three years earlier, he was Michelle Pfiffer’s husband in What Lies Beneath.

Here he is, THREE YEARS LATER, in Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Dude looks every bit of his age here. Like, it’s clear Indy has an AARP. He may be saving the world, but it’s clear he’s doing so in orthopedic shoes.

So, using this as our logic points, the only rational answer is that Harrison Ford got old while making 2006’s Firewall. I guess it’s a movie where he works for a bank and there are hostages or some shit (Paul Bettany, who weirdly, is much too young for his age co-stars). Perhaps Ford is method and the stress of this role dramatically aged him.

Either way, welcome Grandpa Ford. You’re still a cool dude, but we know you also need to take your pills soon.