Fact Check: Photo Purportedly Shows Harrison Ford Holding Sign Reading, 'I'm the Same Age as Biden... Old Guys Rock!' Here's the Truth
Claim:
A photo of actor Harrison Ford authentically shows him holding a sign reading, "I'm the same age as Biden... Old guys ROCK!"
Rating:
On June 8, 2024, X user @kangaroos991 posted a photo of Harrison Ford standing behind a chair displaying the actor's name. The photo purportedly showed the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" star holding a sign supporting U.S. President Joe Biden's age in the months before the 2024 presidential election. The sign read, "I'm the same age as Biden... Old guys ROCK!" The user posted the text caption, "Love this guy!"
A review of the "Likes" feed for Ford's "Star Wars" co-star Mark Hamill showed he "liked" @kangaroos991's X post. Hamill's action likely helped boost the post's reach into the feeds of additional users.
However, the truth was an unknown user altered the words on the sign in the photo of Ford. A reverse-image search with Google produced numerous results for past shares of the same fake photo. We reached out to @kangaroos991 to ask if they were aware of the doctored nature of the photo and will update this story if they respond.
Reddit AMA from 2014
The original, unaltered picture of Ford was captured in 2014 for a Reddit question-and-answer session, better known as an AMA (Ask Me Anything). The photo appeared as a text link at the top of the post as proof the Reddit account u/iamharrisonford truly belonged to the actor, who was 71 at the time. The sign in the picture simply read, "Hello Reddit."
Actor Mia Farrow's Post
One past example of a prominent share of the altered image occurred on Oct. 15, 2023. Actor Mia Farrow's post received more than 4.3 million views.
Hamill shared Farrow's post on the same day she posted it in 2023. At the time, Hamill wrote: "Also Mick Jagger, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Walken, Malcolm McDowell, Billy Connolly, Eric Idle & Kurtwood Smith. #OldGuysROCK."
As of this writing on June 10, 2024, all the famous people Hamill named in his post were either 80 or 81 years old. Further, Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942, and is 81. Ford is also 81 and was born several months earlier than Biden on July 13, 1942.
Sources:
"Harrison Ford." IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/.
iamharrisonford. "I Am Harrison Harrison Ford. AMA." r/IAmA via Reddit.com, 13 Apr. 2014, https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/22xh4j/i_am_harrison_harrison_ford_ama/.
Paunescu, Delia. "Harrison Ford Is Pretty Sure He Could Beat Up Mark Hamill." Vulture, 13 Apr. 2014, https://www.vulture.com/2014/04/harrison-ford-sure-he-could-beat-up-mark-hamill.html.
Search with an Image on Google - Computer - Google Search Help. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808.
Weissert, Will. "Biden Celebrates His 81st Birthday with Jokes as the White House Stresses His Experience and Stamina." The Associated Press, 20 Nov. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/biden-birthday-81-age-trump-axelrod-polling-3325ad9d260c17be97d5608349378a91.