- published: 10 Sep 2011
- views: 8632
Van Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II.
Johnson was the embodiment of the "boy-next-door wholesomeness (that) made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s," playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in MGM movies during the war years with such films as 30 Seconds over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe and The Caine Mutiny. Johnson made occasional World War II movies through the end of the 1960s, and he played a military officer in one of his final feature films, in 1992. At the time of his death in December 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywood's "golden age."
Johnson was born Charles Van Dell Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island; the only child of Loretta (née Snyder), a homemaker, and Charles E. Johnson, a plumber and later real-estate salesman. His father was born in Sweden and came to the United States as a young child), and his mother had German-American Pennsylvania Dutch ethnicity. His mother, an alcoholic, left the family when her son was a child; Johnson's relationship with his father was chilly.
Actors: Harvey Korman (actor), David Huddleston (actor), Burton Gilliam (actor), Chuck Hayward (actor), Dick Crockett (actor), John Hillerman (actor), Ben Frommer (actor), Mel Brooks (actor), Dom DeLuise (actor), John Alderson (actor), Count Basie (actor), Mel Brooks (actor), Richard Farnsworth (actor), Boyd 'Red' Morgan (actor), Jack Lilley (actor),
Plot: The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.
Keywords: 1870s, 19th-century, absurd-humor, actor, actor-playing-multiple-roles, african-american, anachronism, animal-abuse, backstage, baked-beans