Harrison Ford in 1977: I've Never Been Recognized by Fans

When Star Wars opened in May 1977, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill went from unknown actors to mega-stars — but in Ford’s case, the full effects of fame took a while to sink in. Despite having the most film credits out of all his co-stars (with the exception of the esteemed Alec Guinness), Ford told a reporter in June 1977 that he had never been recognized by a single fan, even at a recent screening of Star Wars. Watch the clip above.

“Well you know I saw the film with an audience for the first time about three days ago,” Ford, then 34, told journalist Bobbie Wygant. “I sat next to two people who were sitting through the film for the second time, and they engaged me in a conversation about the film, telling me how much they enjoyed it and what it was all about… After the film was over they asked me why I had left during the middle of it, if I didn’t like the movie. And they didn’t recognize me at all, no.”

“I’ve never been recognized,” Ford continued. “In fact in my early career, I considered that to be sort of a problem, that characters that I played in different movies — it was not acknowledged that it was the same person doing the job.”

Prior to Star Wars, Ford had been a working actor for a decade. Among his credits were a notable supporting role in George Lucas’s film 1973 American Graffiti, a small part in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation, an uncredited appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 drama Zabriskie Point, and a major role in the 1976 TV movie Dynasty (not to be confused with the 1980s TV series Dynasty). Even so, it took a flight in the Millennium Falcon to set him apart from all of Hollywood’s other handsome faces — and 40 years later, we’re guessing he’d love to have the problem of not being recognized in public.

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