Hollywood Flashback: Pre-Han Solo, Harrison Ford Found ‘Love, American Style’
Eight years before he encountered the Force with Star Wars, Harrison Ford played a shaggy-haired love interest on Love, American Style. Ford had worked steadily as a bit-part actor on shows like Gunsmoke, Ironside and The FBI before getting cast on the ABC anthology series, a corny throwback to the era of free love that aired from 1969 to 1974 and was named as a play on the title of the 1967 Dick Van Dyke feature Divorce, American Style (itself a spoof of the 1961 Italian comedy Divorce, Italian Style).
Each episode featured vignettes centered around romance, and provided early showcases for other actors like Diane Keaton, Albert Brooks and Sissy Spacek. (One that starred Ron Howard and Anson Williams as teenagers named Richie and Potsie served as a pilot for Happy Days.) Ford’s segment let him show off the comedy chops he would come to be known for as Han Solo and, later, Indiana Jones. In 1969’s “Love and the Former Marriage” (every title began with “Love and the …”), Ford, 27 at the time, plays the “older man” about to elope with a younger girl (Jenny Sullivan), much to the consternation of her divorced parents.
The series was never a hit with critics — THR criticized its “dead story” in a 1973 review and later referred to it in passing as “innocuous and vacuous” — but it did earn six Emmy noms over its run, with two wins for composer Charles Fox’s score.
Meanwhile, Ford was so frustrated with the parts he was getting around this time that he took up carpentry to support his young family. This led to him meeting George Lucas and to a small role in Lucas’ 1973 feature American Graffiti. Lucas later asked Ford to read Solo with some of the actors auditioning for Luke and Leia — and he was so good at it, he got the part.
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In 2023, Ford returned to small-screen comedy, playing psychiatrist Dr. Paul Rhodes in Apple TV+’s Shrinking. This year, he landed his first-ever Emmy nomination (a distinction he shares with Ron Howard, incidentally) at age 83, for best supporting actor.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
