Movies - TV
How Ward Bond Accidentally Sabotaged a Scene On The Set Of The Searchers
By SHAE SENNETT
“The Searchers” is considered to be director John Ford’s greatest western and starred John Wayne in the leading role with frequent Ford collaborator, Ward Bond, in a supporting role. In Scott Allen Nollen’s biography “Three Bad Men” about the aforementioned director and actors, Olive Carey (Mrs. Jorgenson in "The Searchers”) explained how, unbeknownst to Ford, Bond once ruined a scene.
During a major emotional scene for Carey, Ford heard the camera operator, Winton Hoch, muttering behind him, which led the director to stop the take to ask Hoch what was wrong. It turned out that the camera had suddenly stopped working for an unknown reason, and while Ford didn’t dig into the cause at the time, it turned out that Bond was the culprit.
Carey recalled, "Ward Bond had come onto set with his electric razor. During the high point of the scene, he unplugged the camera, plugged in the razor, and proceeded to shave!" Hoch later told Ford the secret at a party that was held years after Bond had passed away. The director was speechless and was disappointed that he couldn’t make fun of Bond about it as chiding the actor was part of their special bond.