Steven Meigs Ford is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor and son of former United States President Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 and Former First Lady

First Lady

First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...

 Betty Bloomer Ford

Betty Ford

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...

.

Early life

Ford was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan

East Grand Rapids, Michigan

East Grand Rapids is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is a suburb of Grand Rapids and is located on the shore of Reeds Lake. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,694.-Geography:...

, the third child and youngest son of former United States President Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 and First Lady

First Lady of the United States

First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...

 Betty Ford

Betty Ford

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...

. Ford graduated from T. C. Williams High School

T. C. Williams High School

T. C. Williams High School is a public high school in Alexandria, Virginia, named after former superintendent Thomas Chambliss Williams of Alexandria City Public Schools who served from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s...

 in Alexandria, VA June 14, 1974. Ford attended Utah State University

Utah State University

Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....

, studying range management. while his older brother Jack

John Gardner Ford

John "Jack" Gardner Ford is the second child and second son of U.S. President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.In 1977, with William Randolph Hearst III and Jann Wenner, he was part of the founding staff of the magazine Outside...

 studied forestry

Forestry

Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...

 there. Ford also attended California Polytechnic State University

California Polytechnic State University

California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, is a public university located in San Luis Obispo, California, United States. The university is one of two polytechnic campuses in the 23-member California State University system....

 in San Luis Obispo. He studied Animal Science-Equine Studies while at Cal Poly.

Career

Ford was cast in the 1978

1978 in film

The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....

 film Grease

Grease (film)

Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...

as Tom Chisholm, but dropped out before filming began and was replaced by Lorenzo Lamas

Lorenzo Lamas

Lorenzo Lamas y de Santos is an American actor. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful...

. Ford joined the cast of The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...

in 1981, creating the role of private investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

 Andy Richards. He was a regular member of the cast from 1981 to 1987 and briefly from 2002-2003. Ford has since appeared in minor roles in a number of films and television series, including Escape From New York

Escape from New York

Escape from New York is a 1981 American science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security...

, Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Babylon 5: In the Beginning is a science fiction television movie set in the Babylon 5 fictional universe. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Michael Vejar....

, Armageddon

Armageddon (film)

Armageddon is a 1998 American disaster film, directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures. The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth...

, Black Hawk Down, Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers (film)

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier , directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers franchise...

, When Harry Met Sally, Heat, Transformers, Contact

Contact (film)

Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....

.

Personal life

Ford serves on the board of trustees for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

. He describes himself as a "moderate Republican" and a "fiscal conservative." He also acknowledged that he suffered from alcoholism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although he still takes on occasional acting assignments, he spends most of his time raising money for charitable organizations and giving speeches, as well as motivational talks, to student groups on alcoholism.

He has never been married. In 1991, he announced his engagement to Laura Carlos. Later, he claimed that his marriage plans didn't go forward as he was working on his sobriety. In February 1980 he filed a lawsuit in California to determine if he was the legal father of a boy, named Lawrence, born in December 1979. There was "a complete and amicable settlement" very shortly afterward, details being kept private.

Further reading

• Wead, Doug, All the President's Children, Atria Books, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-4631-3

External links