Harrison Ford Recalls the Film Executive Who Told Him He Was ‘Never Going to Make It in This Business’
Harrison Ford Recalls the Film Executive Who Told Him He Was ‘Never Going to Make It in This Business’
Victoria EdelWed, May 13, 2026 at 9:14 PM UTC
0
Harrison Ford in 1978 (left); Harrison Ford in 2025 (right)
Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
-
Harrison Ford remembered meeting a film executive during his first film who told him he didn't have what it takes to be a movie star
The executive later apologized after Ford found fame with movies in Star Wars and Indiana Jones
Ford has been a working actor for six decades
Harrison Ford faced at least one doubter in his rise to stardom.
Ford, 83, talked about his career on the May 13 episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Namepodcast, hosted by Ted Danson and Ford's longtime friend Woody Harrelson. During the episode, Ford told the story of a time an executive told him he had no future in show business.
“I played a bell boy in a movie with James Coburn,” Ford remembered. The movie was Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, released in 1966 by Columbia Pictures. Ford's part was small. He was dressed as a bell boy and said, “Mr. Jones, paging Mr. Jones.” When the actor playing Mr. Jones came over, “I say, ‘Oh, Mr. Jones, room 251.' And he'd say, ‘Yes.' and I gave him the telegram.” That was his whole part.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd
“I got called into the office of the head of the new talent program, a man named Jerry Tokofsky. He was a few years older than me, so that allowed him to call me boy,” Ford, who was about 23 at the time, said. Tokofsky died in 2025 at 91.
Ford continued, “‘Boy,' he said, ‘You're never going to make it in this business. I saw the dailies from yesterday. I'm going to tell you a story. The first time Tony Curtis ever walked on a stage, he delivered a bag of groceries. You took one look at that guy, and you said, ‘That's a movie star.' ”
Ford wasn't buying it. He remembered, “And I leaned across the desk and said, ‘I thought you were supposed to think it was a grocery delivery boy.' ” Tokofsky told him to “get the f--- out of here," and he listened. But things between them continued to devolve for “a year and a half.”
“He did not like me. I did not like him,” he said.
Advertisement
Ford eventually had his breakthrough moment when he was cast as Han Solo in 1977's Star Wars. Soon, he became one of the biggest movie stars in the world, with roles in the Indiana Jones series, the Jack Ryan movies and many more. He received an Academy Award nomination for 1985's Witness and starred in movies like Working Girl, The Fugitive, Air Force One and Blade Runner.
Harrison Ford in 'Witness'
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty
Tokofsky made one more appearance in Ford's life. “Years later, I'm sitting in the commissary at... 20th Century Fox. And I'm sitting there in the executive dining room, having lunch,” he remembered. “And a man comes over with a little tray, and there's a card on it, just like in the movies.
“And I pick up the card, and it says Jerry Tokofsky,” Ford said. “And I turn it over, and on the back it said, ‘I missed my bet.' ” When Ford looked around the room, “Everybody looked like Jerry Tokofsky to me.”
He said, “I did not disturb anybody's lunch. I just went on with my life.”
Ford was honored for his 60 years of acting when he received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award this past March. During his emotional speech, he said in part, "Sometimes we make entertainment; sometimes we make art. Sometimes we're lucky to make 'em both at the same time, and if we're really fortunate, we also get to make a living doing it.”
He continued, "Success in this business brings a certain freedom that comes with responsibility to support each other, to lift others up when we can, to keep the door open for the next kid, the next lost boy who's looking for a place to belong. I'm indeed a lucky guy. Lucky to have found my people, lucky to have work that challenges me, lucky to still be doing it. And I don't take that for granted."
Ford has moved into TV in recent years, starring in the Yellowstone prequel 1923 and on the Apple TV series Shrinking.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
