Who played the lead character in the "Indiana Jones" movies?

Harrison Ford played the lead character, archaeologist Indiana Jones, in the Indiana Jones movies. Ford first portrayed the globe-trotting professor in Raiders of the Lost Ark, released in 1981, and returned for the franchise’s subsequent feature films.

Indiana Jones is formally Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr., an American archaeologist who teaches at a university while pursuing ancient artifacts around the world. The films combine historical adventure, supernatural mysteries, cliff-hanger action and the serial storytelling style that inspired creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Ford played Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The fifth film was released in 2023, making Ford’s performance span more than four decades.

A common mix-up comes from the character’s younger portrayals. River Phoenix played a teenage Indiana Jones in the opening of The Last Crusade, while several actors portrayed younger versions in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Harrison Ford, however, is the franchise’s defining adult Indiana Jones.