Harrison Ford has effortlessly embodied multiple characters that are instantly recognizable by even just the name alone.
Before he played two famous “doctors” — Indiana Jones several times and Richard Kimble in The Fugitive — Ford was of course known for two names that resonate across the decades of time and space.
Han.
Solo.
Ford has played the iconic, bombastic, egotistical loner with a buried heart of gold (or at least silver) since Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977. A New Hope was Ford’s ninth film since his debut in 1966.
So just how old was Ford in Star Wars? How about his age in every Star Wars movie he’s appeared in so far… although fans of Ford, Han Solo, and Star Wars largely know by now that his character was killed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he still appeared in the third film of the sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, which came out in 2019, 42 years after the original debuted.
We wouldn’t bet on Ford appearing in anything Star Wars related again, as his character arc was mostly fulfilled and there’s already been a younger version of Ford’s Solo pop up in the standalone film by the same name. Then again, Mark Hamill has appeared more times than anyone expected, and Disney Plus could always figure out some project that they could loop him into it. We’re just not counting on it, but we have some other numbers to get to!
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Episode IV as it’s now also known as, aka A New Hope, was released in theaters on May 25, 1977.
Ford was born July 13, 1942, in Chicago, which would put his age at 34 when A New Hope was released.
However, as you likely know, filming takes place a year, sometimes even a couple or few years before a film ever is released to the public.
Reporting largely puts the beginning of creator George Lucas’s still ongoing saga of sagas starting its very first production for A New Hope in the middle of 1976.
Apparently, production for A New Hope began in Tunisia on March 25, 1976, which means Ford was actually 33 years old when filming for the original Star Wars began, and he turned 34 years old while the movie was still being shot.
Let’s run through the rest of the five Star Wars films released in which Ford appeared. Han Solo did not turn up in any of the prequel series films.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Released on May 21, 1980, in the US, The Empire Strikes Back was filmed fairly quickly, from March to September 1979, meaning that once again production for the film overlapped and passed Ford’s July birthday.
So, in The Empire Strikes Back aka Episode V, Ford would have been 36 when filming began and turned 37 during that year, the same age he would have been at when the film released in the US.
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Following the same release format as the prior two films, Return of the Jedi released in the late spring once again, coming out on May 25, 1983.
Unlike the other films to date, this movie wrapped up filming and production a year before it was even released, with filming taking place between January and May of 1982.
With those dates set, Ford would have been 39 years old during filming of Return of the Jedi, and in all the scenes in the finished film. He was 40 when the movie was actually released, however.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Ditching the May release theme from decades ago, The Force Awakens was released on Dec. 18, 2015, in the US.
Filming began in May 2014 for the seventh Star Wars film, and the beginning of the sequel trilogy, which drew back in the original star trio, with Hamill and Carrie Fisher joining Ford to reprise their Luke and Leia Skywalker roles, respectively.
However, shortly after filming began Ford actually fractured his leg when a hydraulic door to the Millennium Falcon set fell on him. Eventually he returned to filming and director J.J. Abrams worked to resume shooting scenes that included Ford in August 2014, with things wrapping up by November of that year.
So once again filming spanned Ford’s birthday, with the actor being 71 when filming began and 72 when it concluded, and he was 73 by the time the film released into theaters at the end of 2015.
And this was the last film in which Ford’s Solo was still alive, as he died at the hands of his on-screen son, Adam Driver’s Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, toward the end of the film.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The final film (for now) of the so-called Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker aka Episode IX came out in accord with the other films, releasing into theaters in the US on Dec. 20, 2019.
As we know, Ford’s Solo did not appear in the prior film, 2017’s The Last Jedi, following the death of his character, but he made an uncredited cameo appearance in The Rise of Skywalker.
His appearance comes not as a force ghost or some other apparition, but as imagined by Kylo Ren/Ben Solo with a short, nearly two-minute scene being the only appearance for Ford here.
We can imagine that Ford might have shot this scene last time he was around, or, he might have come back to set to shoot it during production for The Rise of Skywalker.
If it’s the former, well, we already know what his age would be here then.
But if it’s the latter and he was present during filming of Episode IX, with production largely taking place between August 2018 and February 2019, then Ford would have been 75 years old here.
The storied actor is now 80 years old and still kicking ass, with his fifth appearance as Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, who we all know and love as Indy, still a year away.
