Legendary Western director John Ford had an extremely long and productive relationship with one actor at the start of their careers, and they ended up making 25 films together in just four years. Some of John Ford’s best movies are also some of the best Western movies ever made, such as The Searchers and Stagecoach. Ford is a legend in the Western genre for a reason, and part of that reason was that he elevated the actors he worked with to a new level. Evidently, that trend started very early in Ford’s career with one legendary actor in 1917.
Many directors, John Ford included, have been known to work with certain actors they mesh well with professionally. For example, Quentin Tarantino has a list of recurring actors, while Sam Raimi puts Bruce Campbell in nearly all his films. Likewise, John Ford made nine Westerns with John Wayne, plus an additional 15 in other genres. A different recurring actor in Ford’s movies has them all beat, however, as they made 25 films together in just four years. John Ford’s work with actor Harry Carey isn’t just interesting in its own right, it also highlights an interesting trend that made cinema wildly different 100 years ago.
John Ford & Harry Carey’s Long Western Partnership Explained
Ford & Carey Made 25 Films Together From 1917 To 1921
John Ford and Harry Carey worked together extensively from 1917 to 1921, and in those four years, they made 25 of their 26 movies together. Carey even starred in Ford’s first feature-length film, Straight Shooting, in 1917, and their last film together came much later in both men’s careers, with 1936’s The Prisoner of Shark Island. Even though they made 26 films together, most of them aren’t around anymore. Of the 26 films Ford and Carey made together, 21 either exist in only an incomplete state or are lost entirely. That number actually used to be 22, before The Scarlet Drop was found in Chile.
Their relationship wasn’t strictly professional, however, as Ford and Carey became good friends over the years. After Carey’s death in 1947, Ford dedicated 3 Godfathers to his memory, calling Carey the “Bright star of the early Western sky.” Then, Ford would go on to have an extensive relationship with Carey’s son, Harry Carey Jr., who he made 11 movies with. It’s safe to say that John Ford and Harry Carey’s personal and professional relationship was one of the greatest in Western history.
Ford & Carey’s Movie Streak Wasn’t Totally Unheard Of 100 Years Ago
Other Silent Film Era Actors & Directors Worked Together Just As Much As Ford & Carey Did
While John Ford and Harry Carey’s professional relationship seems unheard of today, it was actually fairly common 100 years ago. Some of the biggest stars of the silent film era would work with the same director on a litany of films. For example, Mary Pickford made nearly 100 feature-length and short films with director D.W. Griffith, and they even started United Artists together. In fact, making dozens of movies with the same director wasn’t even unheard of for Harry Carey. From 1913 to 1915, Carey made 28 movies with director Anthony O’Sullivan, which is even more in a shorter time than he made with Ford.
John Ford and Harry Carey’s partnership highlights just how different cinema was in the early 1900s versus 100 years later. In the silent film era, actors and directors could pump out movies at an astonishing rate. Today, a single film takes years to develop, and there simply isn’t enough time for an actor and director to create such a prolific relationship. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that there will never be another partnership like the one John Ford and Harry Carey had.