David M. Ford is best known publicly as the first husband of American actress Cybill Shepherd, the Memphis-born star whose career spans films such as The Last Picture Show and Taxi Driver and television successes including Moonlighting and Cybill. Ford entered Shepherd’s life during a very different chapter from the Hollywood years for which she later became widely known.
Shepherd returned to Memphis in the late 1970s during a difficult period in her personal and professional life. There, she became involved with Ford, whose occupations, as described in contemporary and biographical sources, included auto parts management, nightclub work, and music. They married in 1978 and had Clementine Ford in 1979. They divorced in 1982.
Unlike Shepherd, David M. Ford did not build a long-term public profile as a celebrity. As a result, a responsible biography must distinguish the small number of documented facts about him from assumptions created by his association with a famous former spouse.
Quick Bio
| Full Name | David M. Ford |
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| Relationship | First husband of Cybill Shepherd |
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| Public Profile | Former auto-parts manager and Memphis nightclub figure; also documented playing guitar |
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| Approximate Age | Reported as 32 in September 1982, placing his birth around 1949–1950 |
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| Known Location | Strongly associated with Memphis, Tennessee, during his marriage to Shepherd |
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| Marriage | Cybill Shepherd, married November 19, 1978; divorced in 1982 |
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| Children | Clementine Shepherd Ford, born June 29, 1979 |
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| Known Philanthropic Interests | No specific philanthropic work by David M. Ford is established in the reliable public record reviewed |
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| Social Media Presence | No verified major public social-media presence established |
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Who Is David M. Ford?
David M. Ford entered American entertainment history primarily through his marriage to Cybill Shepherd. Yet contemporary reporting shows that he was more than simply a name attached to a celebrity marriage.
A 1979 Washington Post profile described Ford as a former auto-parts manager and showed him participating musically in Shepherd’s performances by playing guitar. A later UPI report identified him as a maître d’ at a Memphis nightclub and stated that the couple had originally met there.
His public significance, therefore, comes from a specific period: Shepherd’s return to Memphis, their marriage, the birth of Clementine, and the years immediately before Shepherd rebuilt her Hollywood career. Ford did not subsequently develop the sort of independently documented entertainment career that produced decades of interviews and press coverage. That distinction matters because modern profiles can easily transform a relatively private individual into a more elaborate public personality than the evidence supports.
David M. Ford: Life, Marriage and Family
The Private Life of David M. Ford
Most publicly accessible information about David M. Ford is concentrated between the late 1970s and early 1980s. That is not unusual for someone whose press attention resulted mainly from marriage to a famous performer.
Photographic archives document Ford appearing with Shepherd and their infant daughter, Clementine, in Los Angeles in 1979. The images establish that he participated in at least some of the photographed family settings during the marriage.
After the divorce, however, coverage becomes far thinner. This should not automatically be interpreted as proof that Ford deliberately rejected fame or adopted a carefully planned private lifestyle. The stronger conclusion is simpler: major public sources have not extensively documented his later life.
That limited footprint explains why trustworthy accounts of Ford are necessarily narrower than Shepherd’s biographies.
Early Life and Background of David M. Ford
The high-quality sources reviewed for this profile do not establish Ford’s early childhood, parents, schooling, or precise date of birth.
One useful historical detail does exist. When UPI covered his divorce from Shepherd on 30 September 1982, the news agency described Ford as 32. That places his birth approximately in 1949 or 1950, depending on whether his birthday had occurred by the date of the report.
His professional background is better documented. Encyclopedia.com describes Shepherd’s first husband as an auto parts manager and musician, while the 1979 Washington Post profile calls him a former auto parts manager.
Those contemporary occupational details are more reliable than attempting to construct an undocumented childhood narrative around him.
Marriage and Partnership With Cybill Shepherd
Ford’s best-documented relationship began when Shepherd returned to Memphis.
Accounts of Shepherd’s life describe her return to her hometown in 1978 after becoming unhappy with the direction of her life and career. During that period, she became involved with David Ford. They married on 19 November 1978, according to biographical reference material.
UPI later reported an additional detail: the couple had married in England and eventually divorced in Memphis. The same report stated that Ford worked as a maître d’ at the Memphis nightclub where they had first met.
Their daughter, Clementine Shepherd Ford, was born in Memphis on 29 June 1979. She later became an actress herself.
Photographic records from 1979 also show Ford, Shepherd and Clementine together as a young family, giving the relationship a documented public dimension beyond retrospective celebrity biographies.
David M. Ford’s Role Behind the Scenes
It would be misleading to describe Ford broadly as the architect of Shepherd’s career or to assign him an undocumented managerial role in her Hollywood work. However, evidence suggests he participated in her musical activities during their marriage.
In its December 1979 profile of Shepherd, The Washington Post noted that Ford accompanied a performance and quietly played guitar. The report identified him as her husband and a former auto-parts manager.
That contemporary description offers a more grounded picture than later speculation. At least during this stage of the marriage, Ford was visibly present around Shepherd’s musical performances.
Shepherd would later experience a major television comeback with Moonlighting, which premiered in 1985, several years after the marriage ended. Ford therefore should not be presented as a documented behind-the-scenes participant in that later success.
Family Life: Raising the Next Generation
The central lasting connection between David M. Ford and Cybill Shepherd is their daughter, Clementine Ford.
Clementine was born in Memphis in 1979 and later entered acting. She appeared on her mother’s sitcom Cybill and became known for television work including The L Word and The Young and the Restless.
When Shepherd and Ford divorced in 1982, Clementine was three years old. UPI reported that Shepherd received custody of their daughter.
That custody arrangement is a documented legal fact. Claims about the detailed emotional dynamics of Ford’s relationship with Clementine should be approached more cautiously unless supported by direct interviews or strong primary documentation.
What can be said with confidence is that Ford remains an important part of Clementine’s biographical identity as her father, even though her later public career generated far more media coverage than his life did.
Philanthropy and Community Engagement
There is no solid basis for attaching particular charitable foundations, fundraising campaigns, or philanthropic causes to David M. Ford.
This is an area where celebrity-adjacent biographies frequently become unreliable. Public charitable work associated with one family member cannot automatically be attributed to another simply because they were once married.
Shepherd has maintained a long public career and participated in causes and public activities of her own, but those actions do not demonstrate Ford’s personal philanthropic interests.
For that reason, an E-E-A-T-focused biography should limit this part of Ford’s public identity rather than manufacture a narrative about community leadership, charity, or social causes that the available evidence cannot support.
The Power of Privacy: Influence Without Publicity
David M. Ford illustrates an important distinction between being connected to fame and pursuing fame personally.
During the marriage, he was photographed with Shepherd and Clementine and was mentioned by established publications. Yet the volume of material about him is small compared with the enormous archive surrounding Shepherd.
It would go too far to claim that Ford made a philosophical decision to “choose privacy,” because no reliable quotation from him reviewed here establishes that motive. The evidence supports only the observable result: his later public footprint is comparatively limited.
That restraint actually clarifies his story. Ford occupies a real, verifiable place in Shepherd’s biography without needing to become a celebrity in his own right.
Public Curiosity and Misconceptions About David M. Ford
Search interest in David M. Ford often stems from questions about Cybill Shepherd’s first husband, her daughter Clementine, and the period between Shepherd’s early film success and her later television comeback.
One source of confusion is Ford’s profession. Different reputable historical references use somewhat different descriptions. He has been called a former auto parts manager, musician, maître d’, and nightclub figure. These descriptions are not necessarily contradictory: they refer to different work he was reported to have done around the same period.
Another mistake is assuming that every personal detail circulating on biography sites is factual. Ford’s precise birthday, education, current occupation, finances, and present residence should not be stated definitively without stronger documentation.
Legacy and Future
David M. Ford’s public legacy is closely connected to a brief but significant chapter in the Shepherd family story.
His marriage to Cybill Shepherd lasted less than four years, but it occurred during an important transition in her life. Their daughter, Clementine, created a permanent family connection and later established her own identity as an actress.
Ford’s story also demonstrates why biographical accuracy matters. A person does not need an extensive celebrity résumé to be historically relevant. Sometimes the most responsible profile clearly defines what is known, preserves the context of the available evidence, and refuses to turn unanswered questions into facts.
Conclusion
David M. Ford remains best known as Cybill Shepherd’s first husband and the father of actress Clementine Ford, but contemporary reporting offers several additional details about his story. He worked in the auto-parts field, was associated with Memphis nightclub work, and played guitar during at least some of Shepherd’s musical performances. He and Shepherd married in 1978, welcomed Clementine in 1979 and divorced in Memphis in 1982.
After that period, Ford largely disappears from sustained mainstream celebrity coverage. That absence should be treated as a boundary of the historical record rather than an invitation to speculate.
His place in entertainment history is therefore modest but clearly identifiable: David M. Ford was part of a formative Memphis chapter in Cybill Shepherd’s personal life and remains connected to the entertainment world through their daughter, Clementine.
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(FAQs)
1. Who is David M. Ford?
David M. Ford is best known as Cybill Shepherd’s first husband and the father of actress Clementine Ford. Contemporary sources also described him as an auto-parts manager, musician, and Memphis nightclub worker.
2. When did David M. Ford marry Cybill Shepherd?
David M. Ford and Cybill Shepherd married on 19 November 1978.
3. How did David M. Ford meet Cybill Shepherd?
UPI reported that they met at a Memphis nightclub where Ford worked as a maître d’.
4. Did David M. Ford and Cybill Shepherd have children?
Yes. They had one daughter together, Clementine Shepherd Ford, born 29 June 1979, in Memphis.
5. When did David M. Ford and Cybill Shepherd divorce?
Their divorce was granted in 1982. A UPI report dated 30 September 1982 described the proceedings as amicable in appearance and said Shepherd had cited irreconcilable differences.
6. What did David M. Ford do for a living?
Historical sources describe Ford as a former auto parts manager, musician, and nightclub worker. The Washington Post also reported that he played guitar during one of Shepherd’s performances.
7. How much did David M. Ford receive in the divorce settlement?
UPI reported that Ford received $15,000, while Shepherd received custody of their three-year-old daughter, Clementine.
8. Is David M. Ford a public celebrity today?
Ford is historically connected to the entertainment industry through Cybill Shepherd and Clementine Ford, but he lacks the extensively documented independent public career associated with either actress.
