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60 free John Ford trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This John Ford trivia quiz covers the director with more Best Director Oscars than anyone, from his birth as John Feeney in Maine to the AFI tribute where Nixon made him an admiral. It follows him through the silents with Harry Carey and The Iron Horse, the Will Rogers comedies, the Oscars for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man, and the Westerns that made Monument Valley famous: Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, the Cavalry Trilogy, The Searchers and Liberty Valance. It also digs into the man: the OSS photographic unit and the wound at Midway, the storyboards he never used, the handkerchiefs he chewed, the eyepatch, the yacht, the punch that ended his friendship with Henry Fonda, the Directors Guild speech that began 'My name's John Ford. I make Westerns', and the Stock Company of actors he used for decades. About a third of the questions suit any classic-film fan; the rest are for people who can name all three films of the Cavalry Trilogy. Our John Wayne and Westerns quizzes are the natural next stops. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Ford and his films, and each explanation adds one more detail.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many Academy Awards for Best Director did John Ford win, still a record?
Four
They came for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man; William Wyler and Frank Capra are next with three.
Q 02Under what surname was Ford born?
Feeney
He later liked to give his name as Seán Aloysius O'Feeny.
Q 03In which state was John Ford born, to Irish immigrant parents?
Maine
He was born in Cape Elizabeth and grew up in Portland's Irish neighbourhood of Munjoy Hill.
Q 04What nickname did Ford earn playing fullback at Portland High School?
Bull
It came from the way he lowered his helmet and charged the line.
Q 05Ford broke into films in 1914 working for which older brother, already a Hollywood actor-director?
Francis
He adopted the name Jack Ford and appeared uncredited as a Klansman in The Birth of a Nation.
Q 06Ford's directorial debut Straight Shooting (1917) starred which silent Western actor, his partner on 26 films?
Harry Carey
Only three of their collaborations survive; Ford later dedicated 3 Godfathers to him.
Q 07Ford's early triumph The Iron Horse (1924) told the story of building what?
The transcontinental railroad
Fox sent him to shoot on location at Wadsworth, Nevada.
Q 08Which 1930 Ford film marked the screen debuts of both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart?
Up the River
Both were signed to Fox on Ford's recommendation, then dropped.
Q 09Ford's first Oscar came for The Informer (1935), a drama set during which conflict?
The Irish War of Independence
Victor McLaglen won Best Actor as Gypo Nolan, who betrays a comrade for a £20 bounty.
Q 10Which humorist made three films with Ford, ending with Steamboat Round the Bend, before a 1935 plane crash?
Will Rogers
Judge Priest, their second film, was one of the top-grossing pictures of 1934.
Q 11Which child star headlined Ford's 1937 film Wee Willie Winkie?
Shirley Temple
It grossed over $1 million in its first year, as did The Hurricane the same year.
Q 12Stagecoach (1939) was adapted from a short story by Ernest Haycox with what title?
The Stage to Lordsburg
Dudley Nichols wrote the screenplay.
Q 13Which stuntman performed the famous horse-and-coach stunts in Stagecoach?
Yakima Canutt
The Apache attack was filmed at Lucerne Dry Lake near Victorville, California.
Q 21During World War II, Ford headed the photographic unit of which agency?
The Office of Strategic Services
He rose to become a top adviser to OSS chief William Donovan.
Q 22Ford was wounded in the arm while filming which 1942 battle for his Oscar-winning documentary?
Midway
He shot the Japanese attack from the power plant on Sand Island; the 18-minute film was narrated by Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp and Jane Darwell.
Q 23With which cinematographer did Ford co-direct the propaganda documentary December 7th about Pearl Harbor?
Gregg Toland
The 82-minute original was shelved; a 32-minute cut won the 1944 documentary short Oscar.
Q 14Which director claimed to have watched Stagecoach more than 40 times while preparing his own first film?
Orson Welles
He called it 'a perfect textbook of filmmaking' before making Citizen Kane.
Q 15Which Arizona-Utah border location did Ford first use in Stagecoach and return to for six more Westerns?
Monument Valley
Its sandstone buttes rise up to 1,000 feet above the valley floor on Navajo land.
Q 16Which character did John Wayne play in Stagecoach, the role that made him a star?
The Ringo Kid
He had already appeared in a Ford film in 1928, as an excitable spectator in Hangman's House.
Q 17In Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), the young lawyer wins a murder trial using what piece of evidence?
An almanac
He proves the moon had set before the time of the killing.
Q 18Who played Tom Joad in Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940)?
Henry Fonda
Gregg Toland, on loan from Goldwyn, shot it; the film ends with Ma Joad's 'We're the people' speech.
Q 19How Green Was My Valley famously beat which film to the 1941 Best Picture Oscar?
Citizen Kane
It also beat The Maltese Falcon and Sergeant York, and Ford took his third directing Oscar.
Q 20Where was the Welsh mining village of How Green Was My Valley actually built?
In the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu
The 80-acre set stood at Brent's Crags; the film is narrated by the adult Huw, who never ages on screen.
Q 24To what naval rank was Ford promoted on the day he left service after the Korean War?
Rear Admiral
Nixon made him a full Admiral in 1973 while presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Q 25Who played Wyatt Earp in Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946)?
Henry Fonda
Victor Mature played the consumptive, Shakespeare-loving Doc Holliday.
Q 26Fort Apache (1948) was the first of Ford's 'Cavalry Trilogy'. Which film completed it in 1950?
Rio Grande
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon came between them; all three starred John Wayne.
Q 27Fort Apache's story of a glory-seeking colonel drew on which historical disaster?
Custer at the Little Bighorn
Henry Fonda's Colonel Thursday resembles Custer; the Fetterman Fight was another source.
Q 28Which artist's paintings did Winton Hoch use as the model for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon's look?
Frederic Remington
Hoch won an Oscar despite fighting Ford over shooting a cavalry column in a real thunderstorm.
Q 29Ford dedicated 3 Godfathers (1948) to which recently dead actor, 'Bright Star of the early western sky'?
Harry Carey
He had filmed the same story in 1919 as Marked Men, now lost.
Q 30Ford named which 1950 film about Mormon pioneers crossing the desert as his personal favourite?
Wagon Master
He told Peter Bogdanovich it 'came closest to what I had hoped to achieve'; it was the only film since 1930 he scripted himself.