Harrison Ford's Producer Tried to Make Him Change His Name, Faced Young Actor's Fury
Early in his career, it was suggested that Harrison Ford changed his name to something less “pretentious”... The actor clearly didn’t follow through — and he’s still pissed to this day.
Harrison Ford is one of the most legendary actors to have ever lived, and after decades in the industry, he’s built a phenomenal legacy of iconic movies and characters. Even if you’re not familiar with any of the big-name franchises that he was part of (impossible, this one), you 100% know his name. Everyone does.
“Harrison Ford” is borderline the coolest name that’s ever existed, too, and it’s only right that it belongs to such an outstanding performer. However, if Ford wasn’t as stubborn in his youth as he is now, we might have known him as INSERT NAME now. What exactly do we mean by that, you may ask?
Early in Harrison’s career, one of his producers, Jerry Tokofsky, was heavily suggesting that Ford had to change his name to something less “pretentious.” This obviously didn’t sit right with the young actor, and…we’ll let him tell you the rest.
“[Tokofsky] said, ‘That’s too pretentious a name for a young man.’ He was about four years older than me, [but] he always called me ‘boy.’ ‘Boy!’ [So I came up with an alternate name:] Jerry Tokofsky,” shared Ford on a podcast.
It’s clear as day now that Harrison Ford’s name was by no means too pretentious. It was just a name, even if it sounded cool; even then, it belonged to an outstanding young actor who would later play a very significant role in shaping the future of both a bunch of world-famous franchises and the movie industry as a whole.
And if we’re being honest…when a person named Jerry Tokofsky tells you that your name’s bad and you need to change it, there’s only one appropriate answer, and one of the podcast’s hosts delivered it perfectly: “Physician, heal thyself!”
Source: Harrison Ford via YouTube