Happy Birthday, Harrison!

Aw, look at the cute little baby picture.  Yes, folks, today is Harrison Ford's birthday.  For those of you who don't know, he is now, dare I say it, 70 years old.  Yikes.  And in spite of that number and the fact that it means he remains more than twice as old as I am, I still love him. 

Go ahead and use that one to help you imagine what his kids with Leia might look like.  I'll admit I don't really love it when I am reminded of how old he's gotten.  But then again, since we've never met, I can just go ahead and pretend in my mind tha the always looks like this:

It is kind of incredible to think of all of the things he's done, but at the same time, it is also incredible to think that his life as a "real" actor didn't begin until he was close to his mid 30s when he got the role of Han Solo.  To be honest, that makes me feel better because it means I still have time to make something of my life ;)  Sure he was in some movies before that, but nobody had a clue who he was.  I think I even read once that he went to see Star Wars in the theater and wasn't recognized.  Yeah, that wouldn't happen now. 

What would we all do if he wasn't Han Solo?  I actually wonder about this sometimes.  I sincerely doubt that I'd be obsessed with this stuff if he wasn't in that role.  He made it so much more than it could've been and of course we've all talked about the chemistry.  Although maybe if Christopher Walken had gotten the role I'd have more of a social life ;)

Wow, no wonder I've had a crush on him for as long as I've had crushes on people even though he's older than my parents.  If anyone is interested, he's actually been quite busy lately.  He's got three movies in the works right now, like in the filming stages so something we'll actually eventually see, and that doesn't include another Indiana Jones movie, which they still seem to be dangling in front of us.  Obviously the last one was not my favorite, but I'll admit I enjoyed it.  Yes, I have low standards.  But don't you want to see him as Indy again?

Ok, he won't look exactly like that, but still.  I was personally far less upset about the alien thing than I was about the long-lost son thing.  I don't really get why people can accept an artifact that spontaneously melts people's faces if they look at it, a guy who can rip people's hearts out but they live long enough to be burned alive, or a cup that gives you everlasting life but they get really bent out of shape over "interdimensional beings."  I'll say the same thing about the fridge thing.  Indy did some crazy stuff in those other movies.  You know he did. 

Here's another picture of Han, even though we know he will never play him again.  I know a lot of people are very cynical and angry with him for some choices he's made or whatever.  But honestly, the man doesn't have to work again, ever.  He could just hang out at home with his way-younger wife and fly his planes and hang out and drink coffee.  We should be glad he wants to work at all! 

He's still doing pretty well, right?  I don't know a lot of people who are 70, but I bet most of them don't look like that.  So good for him.  Let's hope he continues to age well and at least occasionally do a cool movie and we can be glad that he's still way younger than Clint Eastwood.

Oh, and go ahead and use this as fodder to write a story about Han's birthday if you want.  Happy birthday, Harrison!  Both of his parents lived well into their 90s so we should still get him to hang around for a while.