Beverly Hills (California): Actor Glenn Ford, who played strong, thoughtful protagonists in films such as The Blackboard Jungle, Gilda and The Big Heat, has died, police said. He was 90.
Paramedics called Ford’s home on Wednesday evening and found him dead. Ford suffered a series of strokes in the 1990s.
"It comes to mind instantly what a remarkable actor he was," said actor Sidney Poitier, who also starred in The Blackboard Jungle. "He had those magical qualities that are intangible but are quite impactful on the screen. He was a movie star."
Failing health forced Ford to skip a 90th birthday tribute on May 1 at Hollywood's historic Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. But he did send greetings via videotape, adding, "I wish I were up and around, but I'm doing the best that I can.... There's so much I have to be grateful for."
At the event, Shirley Jones, who co-starred with him in the comedy The Courtship of Eddie's Father, called Ford "one of the cornerstones of our industry, and there aren't many left."
Ford appeared in scores of films during his 53-year Hollywood career. He was cast usually as the handsome tough, but his acting talents ranged from romance to comedy.
His more famous credits include Superman, Gilda, The Sheepman, The Gazebo, Pocketful of Miracles and Don't Go Near the Water.
Ford appeared in a number of Westerns, Cowboy, The Rounders, The Fastest Gun Alive and the remake of Cimarron among them. His talents included lighter parts, with roles in The Teahouse of August Moon and It Started With a Kiss. He also worked on TV.
Ford continued working well into his 70s. In 1992, though, he was hospitalised for more than two months for blood clots and other ailments, and at one point was in critical condition.
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"Noel Coward once told me, ‘You will know you're old when you cease to be amazed.’ Well, I can still be amazed," Ford said in a 1981 interview.
After getting his start in theatre in the 1930s, he got a break when he was signed by Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn.
After serving with the Marines during World War II, Ford starred in 1946 as a small-time gambler in Gilda, opposite Rita Hayworth.
The film about frustrated romance and corruption in postwar Argentina became a film noir classic. One of his best-known roles was in the 1955 The Blackboard Jungle, where he portrayed a young, soft-spoken teacher in a slum school who inspires a class full of juvenile delinquents to care about life.
"We did a film together, and it was for me a great experience because I had always admired his work," recalled Poitier. "When I saw him in films I had always marveled at the subtlety of his work. He was truly gifted."
In The Big Heat, 1953, a gritty crime story, Ford played a police detective.
"Acting is just being truthful," he once said. "I have to play myself. I'm not an actor who can take on another character, like Laurence Olivier. The worst thing I could do would be to play Shakespeare."
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