John Ford

Ford, John (1895–1973), U.S. motion picture director. One of the great masters of his craft, he began directing the first of his more than 125 films in 1917. He won Academy awards for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1942), and The Quiet Man (1952). In later years, his principal output consisted of Westerns, a form he had pioneered with such early films as The Iron Horse (1924) and Stagecoach (1939).