Inspired by a conversation with my coworkers, here’s Harrison Ford’s big-screen debut, in a 1966 crime thriller called Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round:

Dead Heat starred James Coburn as a criminal who’s pulling various con jobs as he gears up for a bank heist. It actually sounds like a pretty good flick, based on the plot summary, but I suspect the only reason anybody talks about it today is because of Ford’s somewhat ignominious debut. It is available on DVD, it appears, so maybe I’ll throw it in the Netflix queue, just for kicks.

Harrison was a contract player for Columbia at the time, earning $150 a week and going uncredited for his walk-on part in Dead Heat. He would struggle along in this bottom-rung position for a few more years, appearing in forgotten movies and random television episodes, mostly westerns. His big break finally came in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, in which Ford played the badass hotrodder in the black ’56 Chevy, Bob Falfa.

But then you folks probably knew all that, right?