Leon Ford is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television and theatre productions.^[1] He is best known for his roles in the television series The Cooks, Changi and the telemovie Stepfather of the Bride.

Early life

Ford attended Telopea Park School and Narrabundah College in Canberra, Australia.

Career

Film & television

Ford portrayed 1st Lieutenant Edward 'Hillbilly' Jones in the Emmy award-winning HBO miniseries The Pacific, which follows the story of World War II Marines through different battles of the Pacific theater of war.

He has also appeared in many other television series and films including All Saints, East West 101 and McLeod's Daughters, the 2005 movie The Great Raid and voiced a character in the 2008 stop motion animated movie $9.99. He recently appeared in the joint BBC and Stan production Ten Pound Poms and Baz Luhrmann's feature film Elvis.

Stage

Stage roles include playing pious charlatan Tartuffe in the 2014 Bell Shakespeare version of Tartuffe, based on the French play originally written by Molière.

Directing/writing

In addition to acting, Ford is both a director and screenwriter. In 2010, Ford notably wrote and directed the movie Griff the Invisible, starring Ryan Kwanten as a man who is bullied by his coworkers during the day, but a superhero by night. The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it was well received by audiences and critics. Ford attended Binger Filmlab in 2008, where he developed short film The Mechanicals.^[2]

Author

Ford is also an accomplished author. In 2009, penned "What Doesn't Kill You", the story of a man waking up to find that, instead of the ideal life he'd been living, everything has gone horribly wrong overnight. He wakes up in the wrong house, his wife doesn't love him anymore, he no longer has a job, one of his friends betrayed him in the worst possible way and his car exploded.

Filmography

Television

Film

Writing/directing

Television

Film

Stage

^[3][4]

Awards and nominations

^[5]

Personal life

Ford first met his wife Alice Bell at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in 2006 while appearing in Josh Lawson’s play Shakespearealism. Alice wrote a part for him in Puberty Blues.

Ford moved from Sydney to Los Angeles in 2018 with his wife and their three children, in order for Alice to work on The Expats, a U.S. series she was the writer and creator of (produced by Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films).^[6]