Glenn Ford

Born: 1 May 1916
Where: Sainte-Christine, Quebec, Canada

The fastest 'gun' in Hollywood, able to draw and fire in 0.4 seconds, Glenn Ford became an early superstar and Western favourite.

"The Western is a man's world and I love it," the Canadian-born actor once said.

Ford made an early start in school plays and local productions and was spotted by a Twentieth Century Fox talent scout before being signed by Columbia Pictures in 1939.

He made his film debut in Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence.

His rise to stardom was interrupted by military service during World War II, when he helped build safe houses in France for those hiding from the Nazis.

He resumed his career after the war with A Stolen Life, thanks to Bette Davis, but it was 1946's film noir, Gilda, which made him a star. It was also the first of five pairings with leading lady Rita Hayworth.

Ford made almost 100 films during his prestigious 50-year movie career but is best remembered for westerns such as 3:10 to Yuma, The Rounders and Sheepman.

He often insisted on being shot looking to camera left - he had been kicked in the right side of his jaw by a horse and insisted the left side was much more attractive.

In the Seventies he transferred, by and large, to TV, although the odd film role followed, including Clark Kent's dad in 1978 movie Superman.

Ford has been married four times but has just one son, actor Peter, from his first marriage to tap dancer Eleanor Powell.

He was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Seventies and awarded the French Legion of Honour medal in 1992 for his war work.

"I've never played anyone but myself on screen," he has said of his long career. "People laugh when I say I'm not an actor, but I'm not, I play myself."