Ben Johnson

It's definitely worth a look for any Ben Johnson fan, FarmerSteve. My only beef with it was that there were way too many long clips from his films (most of which I have!) and not enough (for me, anyway!) interviews with Ben himself.

I was reading a new bio of Warren Oates by Susan Compo. He worked with Ben several times. It said "Ben Johnson was the only guy that Warren didn't want to know he got high". Ben is quoted quite a bit in the book.

In the acknowledgments Campo says, "Kathryn Jones, Ben Johnson's biographer, spurred me on".

I didn't know there was a Ben bio, so I started hunting. I didn't find one. There isn't one yet.

One thing I found in 1999 said Walker was working on the book.

Walker posted this at IMDB in July of 2007

Hi, I'm a professional writer in Texas who has been working on a biography of Ben Johnson for several years. I have a contract from a university press that plans to publish it as part of a series about Hollywood legends. I'm looking for people from the film, rodeo, and ranching worlds and anyone else who worked with Ben or knew him when he lived in Oklahoma, California or Arizona. Have already interviewed his family, friends (Dobe Carey, etc.) and visited the Motion Picture Academy Library, USC Doheny Library, Cowboy Hall of Fame, and many others for info and photos. Please respond ASAP.

Thanks for your help.

Kathryn Jones


This is from an interview with Campo from July of this year,

Greg: You mentioned that Ben Johnson is the subject of his own biography?
Susan: Yes, it's being written by Kathryn Jones and it's still in the works. She should be done with it, I hope, this year so it should be out soon and we would like to go on the road and do some readings together when it's out. I can't wait, it should definitely be fun.


I don't see any sign of it coming out this year but hopefully it will be out some time in the not to distant future. I want to read it.

I hope that the book is released on him. He is one of my favorites as you see why I use one of his characters for my signon.

Ben is one of my all time favorite, genuine, natural actors. I used to go to see any movie that I knew he was in. I recall being more interested in Hang 'em High because he, Bruce Dern and L. Q. Jones were in it, not Clint Eastwood.
There is a magnificent novel by Claire Huffaker called The Cowboys and the Cossacks that takes a Texas cattle drive crew into Russia that was Ben's dream. He optioned the novel but could never get funding to make it. I've read it seven or eight times over the years and can only picture Ben in the lead role.
I can always recognize Ben riding a horse, even in the background, with his distinctive "elbows out" posture.
He participated in a Peckinpah documentary and commented on the wine vat scene with him, Oates and a couple of real Mexican ladies in The Wild Bunch. He said Sam gave him and Warren a fifth of booze in the morning and told them he's be filming that scene in the afternoon. He ended the story by saying that his wife wouldn't allow him back in Mexico unescorted.

We deal in lead, friend.

Ethan thanks for the info I didn't know about the problem with John Ford. Ben was always a favorite of mine. He and the Duke seemed to be so comfortable with each other in a scene it is very easy to believe that they would be good friends offscreen as well.

I haven't gotten a hold of this yet but there is a Ben Johnson bio out,

The Nicest Fella - The Life of Ben Johnson: The world champion rodeo cowboy who became an Oscar-winning movie star by Richard D. Jensen. It was published 01/19/2010.

The ISBN is 9781440196782.

I liked Ben since I was a child in the 50's and saw Mighty Joe Young on tv. He just always seemed likable in most of the roles he played. Cut to about '82, in Memphis, at a western film festival he and Dobie attended. Met him as he was coming into the large room it was held and of course I was nervous but managed to tell him how much I enjoyed his work with Duke. Always remember what he said and the way he said it! "Son, I held John Wayne's horse for 20 years." LOL. Later my wife and I got him cornered for some pictures and more talk and I can't recall much of what he said, but I do remember him saying, talking about some of the directors of the day, " I don't work for no dopers." Can't you just here him saying that? What a guy..sure miss him.

Quote from may2

I haven't gotten a hold of this yet but there is a Ben Johnson bio out,

The Nicest Fella - The Life of Ben Johnson: The world champion rodeo cowboy who became an Oscar-winning movie star by Richard D. Jensen. It was published 01/19/2010.

The ISBN is 9781440196782.

The book is a little over 500 pages, and is available at Amazon.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention,may2!

Thanks for the updates. I just ordered a copy through Amazon and will let you know my opinion, whether you want to hear it or not.

We deal in lead, friend.

Ethan that is a great picture. Where is it from?

As threatened, I said I'd review "The Nicest Fella" - the Life of Ben Johnson.
It was disappointing in that it was mainly a glorified entry on IMDB. It listed every one of his movies and tv appearances in order and who was in it with him. The few anecdotal stories were all from other familiar sources Although the author met Ben himself, he didn't interview any of Johnson's contemporaries - probably because most have passed. He does mention one time in a restaurant when Ben's presence caused a stir. Their waitress asked if he were famous and Ben said "Naw, I just hold John Wayne's horse a lot".
There are a few family stills and about a 175 page filmography which repeats most everything gone over already.
Nice try, but I can't recommend it.

We deal in lead, friend.

Thanks for the review, Gorch, now I can feel slightly better about the fact that I wasn't all over this when it was published.

Hi, everyone, I just joined! I LOVE John Wayne, John Ford, westerns (well, all movies but that definitely includes westerns), Anthony Mann and... etc. My two most favorite western stars after the Duke are William S. Hart and Ben Johnson. In fact, I love Ben Johnson so much I made a webpage for him and I hope you all visit. It's at http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com. I plan to hang out at the Pals of the Saddle forum for Ben but also looking forward to contributing to the other threads here too.

Howdy, Paula. Great Ben Johnson page....he's one of my favorites too. He wasn't just playing a cowboy, he was the real deal.

Hi, Maverick and everyone. Great to be here! It was a pleasure reading over the entire discussion on Ben. Yes, he sure was the real deal.

I'd like to stick up a bit for the Richard Jensen bio. Yes, a lot of it is taken from previously published articles and interviews, and other books (like Harry Carey Jr.'s Company of Heroes) and a great big chunk of the bio is a reprint of Ben's IMDB listing. It's not a work of great scholarship. But... I like having the IMDB listing in hardcopy like that; it's convenient for checking on things while watching movies. Also, the section on Ben's Oklahoma roots, and his family, especially his rodeo champion and ranch manager father Ben Sr., is fascinating reading. I haven't seen a detailed description of Ben's childhood and early youth like that anywhere else, plus I love the family photos. And Jensen has a pithy way of summing up a movie or an event quickly, and describing a person's faults (like Sam Peckinpah's) while also acknowledging his talents and good qualities. The section on Ben's years as a stuntman has been helpful to me for identifying some of Ben's stuntwork so I could screencap it for my website. The bio is in serious need of a good line editor though. Typos abound.

As an initial biography of Ben, Jensen's book is a decent enough start. There is another bio out there waiting to be written, probably by an academic or historian who also would have a readable writing style, and I hope it's published while I'm still around to read it.

Screencap, anyone? From my current project, One-Eyed Jacks. It's sad that the last movie filmed in Vistavision is represented so poorly on DVD, but a fellow at Home Theater Forum looked at all *19* DVD versions and determined that the (now out of print) one from Front Row Entertainment was the best. Which isn't saying much. But that's the one I am using for screencaps.

Quote from Paula

Screencap, anyone? From my current project, One-Eyed Jacks. It's sad that the last movie filmed in Vistavision is represented so poorly on DVD, but a fellow at Home Theater Forum looked at all *19* DVD versions and determined that the (now out of print) one from Front Row Entertainment was the best. Which isn't saying much. But that's the one I am using for screencaps.

Is that a widescreen DVD? All the versions of One-Eyed Jacks I've seen have all been lousy Pan & Scan garbage copies.

Hi! Yes, indeed, my DVD of One-Eyed Jacks is widescreen. That is to say, it's non-anamorphic widescreen, i.e., not enhanced for widescreen televisions. It actually looks... not entirely awful on my television. The one you want is from Front Row Features. If it doesn't have this cover, it's not the one you want.

Here is a link to the Home Theater Forum thread where Richard reported on his comparison of all the versions out there:

http://www.hometheaterforum.co…vd-of-one-eyed-jacks-1961

I'm almost done with my screencapping of Ben's scenes and I may even have them posted to my website today.