Actor Ford, family tour Skagway

Actor Harrison Ford landed his personal plane in Skagway last night to spend a day in the picturesque Alaskan frontier town with his wife, actress Calista Flockhart and her adopted son, Liam.

“He’s probably the biggest celebrity to visit here,” said Scott Home, of the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau, who met Ford this morning.

“I just shook his hand and told him where to meet Buckwheat Donahue.”

According to Home, Donahue, the bureau’s director, has been charged with showing the Ford family Skagway’s sights and sounds.

Home said word of Ford’s presence has spread quickly around town and both locals and visitors are scrambling to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood star.

“He hasn’t been mobbed yet,” added Home, noting Ford’s low-key manner that could make him difficult to spot. “He’s not sticking out of the crowd, he looks like any other tourist with a backpack.”

Nominated for an Academy Award and four Golden Globes, the 66-year-old actor is probably best-known for his role as the swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones - his most recent reprise of the role in this spring’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

A pilot of both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, Ford is also an accomplished carpenter, and his wood-working skills helped land the then-struggling-actor his most important role.

In 1975, while building cabinets for film director George Lucas, Ford was asked to read lines for other actors being cast in a film called Star Wars; what would become one of the biggest-grossing films of all-time.

Following screen tests, Steven Spielberg convinced Lucas that Ford was perfect for the film and Lucas eventually cast him in the role of Han Solo, the incorrigible space bounty hunter.

After more than 40 years acting in film and television that included the original Star Wars trilogy, Ford has appeared and starred in a host of critically-acclaimed films.

They include American Graffiti, Zabriskie Point, Witness (for which he received his Oscar nomination), Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Frantic, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Mosquito Coast.

Eschewing the limelight and paparazzi of Hollywood, Ford is one of the few A-list stars to maintain a truly private life.

This is helped, in part, by residing on a sprawling 800-acre ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when he’s not making movies.