Paul Ford was born Paul Ford Weaver on November 2, 1901, Baltimore, Maryland, U.SA.
Before he became an actor, he had been a proofreader, script writer and salesman of ads, adding
machines and magazines. His most enjoyable hobbies were sculpting and contract bridge.
Paul became an actor at a very late stage. He was 38 when he made the decision to give up his job as a
gas station attendant and try acting. His wife, curiously called Nell the same as his onscreen spouse,
wondered if this was a wise move.
"I told her that I'd soon be making as much as $100 a week." Paul said at the time. "Since that was about
what I was making a month at the time she thought I belonged in the looney bin. Nell wanted me to give
up the idea of acting and take a more suitable occupation as superintendent of our building."
But Paul didn't see any hope or future in that job. He had been bitten by the acting bug by his neighbour,
Loyal T. Lucas, he was a thespian who worked on a WPA puppet show!! Paul had helped him with the
puppets and then essayed amateur dramatics.
His first acting paycheck was for a part in a radio serial. He went on to be an established radio actor until
one day he made another fateful decision. At this time he was combining his radio work with appearances
acting on Broadway, then he ceased to do the $200 a week radio shows and instead he accepted a
part, at $86 a week, playing Mr. Arthur Malcolm in the Broadway play, Command Decision.
His wife Nell made no protest this time. Accustomed to the role of an actor's wife, she simply resigned
herself to Paul's command decisions.
Since he became an actor, Paul has been in many Broadway plays, among them Flamingo Road,
Another Part of the Forest, As We Forgive Our Debtors and The Teahouse of the August
Moon. It was while he was in the last named hit, where he played a United States Army colonel, that he
was spotted and hired by writer-producer Nat Hiken to play another army colonel, the one soon to be
beset on by Sergeant Ernie Bilko et al.
"It's curious," Paul said at the time. "I've worked in 14 plays and nine movies, and I was still pretty much an unknown. Then I play an incidental character on Phil Silvers' television show and people treat me like a big star and a genius."
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