Famous for his roles as surly heroes and everymen, Ford will likely always be best known for his iconic portrayals of effortlessly cool adventuring archaeologist Indiana Jones and cocky intergalactic smuggler Han Solo.

Born in Chicago to an ad executive and a former radio actress in 1942, Harrison Ford (then going by "Harry") was a mediocre student who occasionally took part in his school's radio club. At Ripon College in Wisconsin, Ford signed up for an acting class in a dual effort to meet women and amplify his ailing GPA. Though Ford's educational aspirations would fall short (he was expelled for academic reasons), he did manage to nab the role of Mack the Knife in the school's production of Threepenny Opera and meet his first wife, to whom he would be married for 15 years.

After moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, Ford picked up a job as a carpenter to support himself and his family while he looked for work in film. Despite signing a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1964, he didn't find many roles – partly due to his vocal disapproval of scripts and direction he considered not up to par. Ford landed a few small roles with Columbia, debuting as a bellhop in Dead Heat on the Merry-Go-Round, but was eventually let go by the studio. He signed on with Universal, but was fired again. Fortunately, his carpentry career was going much smoother – Ford built a sun deck for actress Sally Kellerman and worked on Francis Ford Coppola's office expansion.

Ford's big break came playing small-town drag-racer Bob Falfa in George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973). After a small role in The Conversation (1974), Ford was asked to read lines opposite actors and actresses auditioning for Lucas' upcoming Star Wars. This opportunity came in part because of Ford's success as a carpenter – he had been working on Francis Ford Coppola's office, where Lucas was holding his auditions, when he was asked to read. Ultimately, Steven Spielberg (a close friend of Lucas) would convince the director that Ford was the right man to play Han Solo (though apparently Christopher Walken was considered for the role). Ford brought his trademark brutal honesty to the Star Wars set, famously telling Lucas, "George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can't say it," and insisting that Han Solo's response to Princess Leia's declaration of love (in The Empire Strikes Back) should be not "I love you, too," but "I know."

The next few decades would see Ford in blockbuster after blockbuster – with starring roles in the Indiana Jones trilogy, <Blade Runner (1982) (though now deemed a classic, the film was a critical and commercial failure at the time), Witness (1985), Working Girl (1988), Patriot Games (1992), The Fugitive (1993), and Air Force One (1997)… among many more. Though his choices in the late 1990s and early 2000s were less than reputable, Ford was (and is) among the highest paid actors of all time, pulling in a salary of $25 million for K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) and close to $90 million (that's including residuals) for 2008's Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

In recent years Ford has returned to the genre that made him famous, starring with Daniel Craig in 2011's Cowboys & Aliens (he and long-term girlfriend Calista Flockhart were married during the production) and signing on to 2013's long-awaited adaptation of Ender's Game as Colonel Graff.

Ford's heroics aren't just relegated to the big screen. He's a dedicated conservationist, so much so that two species have been named in his honor – Pheidole harrisonfordi (a Central American ant) and Calponia harrisonfordi (a spider) – he's on the board of directors for Conservation International, and he is occasionally called upon by local authorities to put his piloting skills to use in small-scale rescue efforts. Perhaps most heroically, he appeared in the straight-to-DVD film Water to Wine as a favor to his son, spawning this glorious clip of Ford as a bus driver.