He is best known for his roles in Guy Ritchie gangster movies Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and from appearing as separate characters in eight episodes of The Bill.
Ford was born on 23 February 1938 in Camberwell, South London, the eldest son of a seamstress and a taxi driver, and grew up in Elephant and Castle.
He left school at the age of 15 and took on various jobs, ending with two years of national service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
For three years he studied drama in all its forms: Shakespeare, Chekhov, restoration, commedia dell'arte, pantomime, music, dance, fencing, Stanislavski and improvisation.
Ford appeared in Exorcist: The Beginning and, much earlier, as Roosta in the original radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, along with a small speaking role in The Long Good Friday.