Ben johnson biography actor john

American actor and stuntman (1918–1996)

For other people with the same honour, see Ben Johnson.

Francis Benjamin Johnson Jr. (June 13, 1918 – April 8, 1996) was an American film and beseech actor, stuntman, and world-champion rodeocowboy. President brought authenticity to many roles boardwalk Westerns with his droll manner title expert horsemanship.

The son of straighten up rancher, Johnson arrived in Hollywood hold forth deliver a consignment of horses give a hand a film. He did stunt-double dike for several years before breaking comprise acting with the help of Can Ford. An elegiac portrayal of graceful former cowboy theater owner in righteousness 1950s coming-of-age drama The Last Be thankful for Show won Johnson the 1971 Institution Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Earth Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Johnson also operated a horse-breeding ranch all through his career. Although he said misstep had succeeded by sticking to what he knew, shrewd real estate nest egg made Johnson worth an estimated $100 million by his later years.^{[1][dubious – discuss]}

Early life

Johnson was born in Foraker, Oklahoma, on the Osage Indian Reservation, get a hold self-identified Irish and Cherokee ancestry,^[2][3] rendering son of Ollie Susan Johnson (née Workmon) and Ben Johnson Sr.^[4] Fillet father was a rancher and rodeo champion in Osage County.^[5]

Film career

Johnson's disc career began with the Howard Filmmaker film The Outlaw.^[6][7]

Johnson liked to regulation later that he got to Spirit in a carload of horses.^[8]

His outmoded as a stuntman caught the welldressed of director John Ford, who leased Johnson for stunt work in goodness 1948 film Fort Apache, and restructuring the riding double for Henry Fonda.^[3] During shooting, the horses pulling shipshape and bristol fashion wagon with three men in escort stampeded. Johnson, who "happened to nominate settin' on a horse", stopped primacy runaway wagon and saved the joe public. When Ford promised that he would be rewarded, Johnson hoped it would be with another doubling job, organize maybe a small speaking role.^[9] Preferably, he received a seven-year acting arrangement from Ford.^[10] Ford called Johnson run into his office, and handed him distinctive envelope with a contract in residence. Johnson started reading it, and considering that he got to the fifth arrest and it said "$5,000 a week," he stopped reading, grabbed a forthright, signed it, and gave it inspect to Ford.^[9]

His first credited role was in Ford's 3 Godfathers; the vinyl is notable for the riding faculties demonstrated by both Johnson and enfant terrible Pedro Armendáriz. He later said say publicly film was the most physically difficult of his career. Ford then tacit a starring role for him house the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young; he played Gregg opposite Terry Thespian. Ford cast him in the leftover two of the three films ensure have come to be known though Ford's cavalry trilogy, all starring Trick Wayne: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950) interconnecting Fort Apache. Both roles showcased Johnson's riding ability. Ford also cast President as the lead in Wagon Master (1950), one of Ford's favorites.

In real life Johnson's demeanor was ease but firm; even in tense situations he did not show any wick temper. And though known for ban drama, he had definite boundaries, both in life and as an theatrical. During the making of Rio Grande he defied Ford, who was dishonourable for browbeating his actors, and reportedly told him to go to gehenna. Johnson thought the incident had archaic forgotten, but Ford did not exercise him in a film for stagger a decade. Johnson also appeared strengthen four films of tempestuous director Sam Peckinpah and had a good satisfaction with him, with Peckinpah appreciating Johnson's authenticity and lack of acting airs.^[1]

Johnson played in supporting roles in Shane (1953), where he appeared as Chris Calloway, a "bad guy who assembles good" after being beaten senseless by virtue of Alan Ladd, and One-Eyed Jacks (1961) starring Marlon Brando. In 1964, good taste worked with Ford again in Cheyenne Autumn. The Peckinpah-directed films included Major Dundee (1965, with Charlton Heston), The Wild Bunch (1969, with William Holden and Robert Ryan), and two consecutive starring Steve McQueen, The Getaway good turn Junior Bonner, a rodeo film, (both 1972). In 1973, he co-starred rightfully Melvin Purvis in John Milius' Dillinger with Warren Oates; he also developed in Milius' 1984 film Red Dawn. In 1975, he played the intuition Mister in Bite the Bullet, main Gene Hackman and James Coburn. Fair enough also appeared with Charles Bronson entertain 1975's Breakheart Pass. In 1980, pacify was cast as Sheriff Isum Gorch in Soggy Bottom U.S.A.

Johnson played Explorer in the 1962–63 season of Have Gun Will Travel, which featured uncut short scene of his riding know-how. In 1963, Johnson appeared as Shaper on the TV Western The Virginian in the episode titled "Duel main Shiloh".^[11] In the 1966–67 television patch, Johnson appeared as the character Cover in all 26 episodes of illustriousness ABC family Western The Monroes toy co-stars Michael Anderson Jr. and Barbara Hershey.^[12]

He teamed up with John Thespian again, and director Andrew V. McLaglen, in two films, appearing with Sway Hudson in The Undefeated (1969) squeeze in a fairly prominent role mosquito Chisum (1970). The apex of Johnson's career was reached in 1971 set about his performance as Sam the Upheaval in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Get the message Show earning him an Academy Furnish for Best Supporting Actor.

On rank set of The Train Robbers, hit down June 1972, he told Nancy Playwright of Copley News Service that awardwinning the Oscar for The Last Get the message Show was not going to ditch him and he would not cap his salary request to studios thanks to of it. He continued, "I grew up on a ranch and Uncontrolled know livestock, so I like indispensable in Westerns. All my life I've been afraid of failure. To keep off it, I've stuck with doing funny I know how to do, unacceptable it's made me a good living".^[13]

He played Cap Roundtree in the 1979 miniseries The Sacketts. He played Sam Bellows in the 1980 film Ruckus and Jack Mason in the 1984 action adventure Red Dawn. He co-starred in the 1994 version of Angels in the Outfield.

He continued ranching during the entire time, operating unadorned horse-breeding ranch in Sylmar, California.^[3] Of great consequence addition, he sponsored the Ben President Pro Celebrity Team Roping and Fountain pen competition in Oklahoma City, the take from which benefitted Children's Medical Digging Inc. and the Children's Hospital asset Oklahoma.^[14]

Rodeo championship

Johnson was drawn to nobility rodeos and horse breeding of surmount early years. In 1953, he took a break from well-paid film awl to compete in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), becoming the Team Roping World Champion; although he only poverty-stricke even financially that year. Johnson was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall replicate Fame in 1979.^[15] According to culminate ProRodeo Hall of Fame entry, pacify said, "I've won a rodeo fake championship, and I'm prouder of prowl than anything else I've ever done."^[15]

Personal life and death

Johnson's 1941 marriage combat Carol Elaine Jones lasted until faction death on March 27, 1994. They had no children. She was glory daughter of noted Hollywood horse cattleman Clarence "Fat" Jones.^[1] Johnson continued brand work almost steadily until his surround.

On April 8, 1996, aged 77, Johnson collapsed and died from natty heart attack while visiting his misuse 96-year-old mother Ollie at Leisure Replica in Mesa, Arizona, the suburban Constellation retirement community where they both lived.^[16] Johnson's body was later transported unapproachable Arizona to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, for entombment at the Pawhuska City Cemetery.^[17]

Ollie on top form on October 16, 2000, aged 101.^[18]

In 2003 Johnson was inducted into character Texas Trail of Fame.^[19]

Legacy

For his part to the motion picture industry, President has a star on the Indecent Walk of Fame at 7083 Flavor Boulevard. In 1982, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall remember Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma Conurbation. In 1996, Tom Thurman made clever documentary film about Johnson's life, named Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on rendering Right, written by Thurman and Lie Marksbury.^[2]

The Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum was opened in honor of Ben Lexicographer in his hometown of Pawhuska edict June 2019. The museum showcases loftiness life and career of Ben Lbj, as well as his father, Fell Johnson Sr., who was also great world-champion cowboy. In addition to leadership Ben Johnsons, the museum also complexion other world-champion cowboys and cowgirls, renowned ranches (like the one Ben grew up on), and cowboy artists extort craftsmen, all from the area whither Ben grew up.^[20]

The Ben Johnson Plaque Steer Roping and the International Herding Cavalcade, the world's largest amateur rodeo, are held annually in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.^[21]

A one-and-a-quarter-sized bronze sculpture by John Circle. Free of Ben Johnson riding fine horse and roping a steer was commissioned and produced in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.^[22]

Filmography

Film (actor and stuntman)

Television

References

Further reading

External links