Glenn Ford Dies At 90

He was maybe the last of the old Hollywood actors, I can't think of any others still alive, at least not of his 'star' fame. He made over 100 films spanning almost 60 years and was one my boyhood favourites, I guess because he was a good-looking guy, (in my innocence I always associated good looks with the good guys).

Eleven weeks ago on the 17th June it was my privilege to be invited to his house by his only son, Peter. He and his wife Lynda entertained me and my friend Fred from Nashville for several hours, and showed us around the house and his father's collection of memorabilia. (Glenn was upstairs in bed in very bad health suffering from Altzheimers disese, unable to receive visitors (Peter told me that some days his father didn't even know who HE was)

The pool table was in a largish room with framed photos signed to his dad from practically every major star in movies. He even had one from James Dean, hanging between an Elvis Presley photo and a Marilyn Monroe. There must have 500 hundred of them. One in particular that caught my eye was from James Stewart. I remarked on it and Peter went to a draw and let me read a personal letter Stewart had sent to him when his mother, Eleanor Powell had died, (they had made several movies together apparently).

In the corner was a golf bag filled with clubs. I asked Peter if they were his or his dads, and he related to me that Glenn had appeared in a movie playing the great American golf legend, Ben Hogan. Hogan had apparently been playing in the US open and had won it during the shooting of the movie. He visited the film set to meet Glenn and gave him the set of clubs he'd used during the championship. Peter let me take a couple from the bag swing them.

In the centre of the house is a large living room with a sunken area in the middle. It has a custom made sofa around three sides and on the side facing the wall a cinema screen descends from the ceiling. Peter told me that as a boy he would sit there between John Wayne, Rock Hudson and other stars that would come around to watch movies with his dad. I bet that sofa could tell some yarns!

He also told me an hilarious anecdote about the 90th birthday celebration that was held for his dad at Graumann's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I'd always thought that Glenn Ford was a quiet family man, I suppose because he never seemed to make the gossip columns, (at least not in the UK). Anyway, Glenn was too ill to attend the party and Peter being the only child was obliged to do the formal greetings thing. He told me that well-known actress Carol Lynley stopped to chat to him and said to him, 'Tell me Peter, is there ANY woman in Hollywood your father hasn't screwed?'

Before we left he posed for photos and gave us signed pics of his dad.

One thing I read in an obituary today is that he 'was found dead at his Hollywood mansion'. Well it ain't exactly a mansion, just a largish sprawling house, in fact quite modest by Hollywood standards.

RIP Glenn.