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  • VAN JOHNSON


    Information from IMDb


    Date of Birth
    25 August 1916,
    Newport, Rhode Island, USA


    Date of Death
    12 December 2008,
    Nyack, New York, USA (natural causes)


    Birth Name
    Charles Van Dell Johnson


    Nickname
    King of Dinner Theater
    The Voiceless Sinatra


    Height
    6' 1" (1.85 m)


    Spouse
    Evie Wynn Johnson (25 January 1947 - 3 May 1968) (divorced) 1 child


    Trade Mark
    Always wears red socks


    Trivia
    He had skin cancer surgery in 1963.


    He made his Broadway debut in 1936 in "New Faces of 1936," (an annual revue that had also introduced Imogene Coca and Henry Fonda in 1934). Van would appear in a total of 7 Broadway shows to date, including the original cast production of "Pal Joey" in 1940-1941 and last appearing in "La Cage aux Folles" in 1987.


    He was Gene Kelly's understudy in the Broadway production of "Pal Joey".


    He was driving to a special screening of Keeper of the Flame (1942) when he was involved in the road accident that left him with a metal plate in his forehead.


    He first received top billing in 1944 with Two Girls and a Sailor (1944).


    After Van Heflin turned down the role of Elliot Ness on "The Untouchables" (1959) it was offered to Johnson. He turned it down as well.


    His wife, Eve, was first married to Keenan Wynn. She married Johnson on the very day of her divorce from Wynn, only four hours after that divorce was finalized. Johnson had spent more a month recuperating from his near-fatal car accident at the Wynn's home (Keenan was his best friend) during his recovery and word got back to Louis B. Mayer that sparks had flown. The film mogul saw this relationship as a way to dispel rumors circulating about Johnson's sexuality. Despite Mayer's earlier attempts at matchmaking (he'd arranged dates with Gloria DeHaven, June Allyson and even Sonja Henie without making a love connection) only Evie Wynn appealed to him. Although they were genuinely in love, Mayer cemented the deal by providing unusual career concessions for Keenan: a better contract, no standard 12-week layoffs, and better roles... all areas that would benefit her and her children. He later left her for her male tennis instructor according to her son, Ned Wynn.


    The scars from the injury received in a car crash described in his biography are very evident in The Caine Mutiny (1954).


    Daughter Schuyler V. Johnson born January 6, 1948.


    His father's name was Charles Johnson, a realtor. His mother's first name was Loretta.


    Stepfather of Ned Wynn and Tracy Keenan Wynn.


    His mother, Loretta Neumann was an alcoholic who abandoned him as a child. In November 1954, she resurfaced and sued him for nine hundred dollars monthly support. He fought back, saying she did not help raise him so, although he was willing to give her money, she was not entitled to court-ordered support. It was eventually settled out of court and he agreed to pay her four hundred dollars a month.


    His mother had been a dietitian at MGM.


    His mother was born in 1893.


    It was Rosalind Russell who helped him overcome his fear of live audiences after goading him into performing in nightclubs. He made his Las Vegas debut in the 1950s.


    While on the nightclub act tour in 1963, he was forced to stop after having to undergo operations for skin cancer on his left thigh. A second operation to remove a lymph gland was successful in curbing the disease.


    Was once considered for the lead role in the TV show "The Untouchables" (1959) but turned it down. Robert Stack became a TV star as a result.


    Lucille Ball was a good friend to him for decades. Van guest-starred on her classic TV show on one of her "trip to Hollywood" episodes where they dueted on the song "How About You?" Ball later insisted he take a prime role in her film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) with Henry Fonda.


    Was stagestruck himself and was often found with an autograph book in his hand.


    His bobbysoxer popularity was such that he was nicknamed "The Voicelss Sinatra.".


    His mother, Loretta Neumann Johnson, was born February 5, 1893. She died January 1978 in Palo Alto, CA.


    Van is referenced in the song "Prehistoric Man" from the musical On the Town (1949).


    Referenced in the second episode of "American Horror Story" (2011). Jessica Lange's character says that her husband looked like Van Johnson.



    Mini Biography
    He was the well-mannered nice guy on screen you wanted your daughter to marry. This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossipmonger Hedda Hopper dubbed the "Bobby-Soxer Blitz" era. Van Johnson's musical timing proved just as adroit as his career timing for he was able to court WWII stardom as a regimented MGM symbol of the war effort with an impressive parade of earnest soldiers. He may have been a second tier musical star behind the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but his easy smile, wholesome, boy-next-door appeal and strawberry-blond good looks earned him a solid shot at box-office stardom while the big boys (i.e., MGM stars) were off to war. When they returned, Johnson amiably relinquished his "golden boy" pedestal, but his popularity did not wane. In retrospect, his dramatic talent seemed overly scrutinized...for he was very capable. Besides, he worked another three decades on stage, screen and TV...and always as a star.


    Born Charles Van Johnson on August 25, 1916, in Newport, Rhode Island, he was of Swedish (not Irish, as most fans thought) stock. He endured a lonely and unhappy childhood as the sole offspring of an extremely aloof father (who was both a plumber and real estate agent by trade) and an absentee mother (she abandoned the family when he was three, the victim of alcoholism). A paternal grandmother helped in raising the young lad. Happier times were spent drifting into the fantasy world of movies, and he developed an ardent passion to entertain. Taking singing, dancing and violin lessons during his high school years, he disregarded his father's wish to become a lawyer and instead left home following graduation to try his luck in New York.


    Early experiences included chorus lines in revues, at hotels and in various small shows around town. A couple of minor breaks occurred with his 40-week stint in the "New Faces of 1936" revue (making his Broadway debut) and in a vaudeville club act (based around star Mary Martin) called "Eight Young Men of Manhattan" that played the Rainbow Room. He served as understudy to the three male leads of Rodgers and Hart's popular musical "Too Many Girls" in October of 1939 and eventually replaced one of them (actor Richard Kollmar left the show to marry reporter Dorothy Kilgallen.) He also formed a lifelong and career-igniting friendship with one of the other leads, Desi Arnaz. Johnson made an inauspicious film debut with Arnaz in Too Many Girls (1940) when the musical was eventually lensed in Hollywood, but he was cast in a scant chorus boy part.


    Following a stint on Broadway in "Pal Joey" in 1940, Warner Bros. signed Van to a six-month contract. He went on to co-star with Faye Emerson in Human Sabotage (1942), but they dropped him quickly feeling that his acting chops were lacking. It was Arnaz's wife Lucille Ball, who had recently signed with MGM, who introduced Van to Billy Grady, MGM's casting head, and instigated a successful screen test. With the studio's top male talent off to war, Van served as an earnest substitute donning fatigues in such stalwart movies as Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942) and The Human Comedy (1943). Van also replaced actor/war pacifist Lew Ayres in the "Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie" film series after Ayres was unceremoniously dumped by the studio for his unpopular beliefs.


    Stardom came, and at quite a price, for Van when he was cast yet again as a wholesome serviceman in A Guy Named Joe (1943). During the early part of filming, he was severely injured in a near-fatal car crash (he had a metal plate inserted in his skull, which instantly gave him a 4-F disqualification status for war service). Endangered of being replaced on the film, the two stars of the picture, Spencer Tracy (who became another lifelong friend) and Irene Dunne, insisted that the studio work around his convalescence or they would quit the film. The unusually kind gesture made Van a star following the film's popular release and resulting publicity.


    Van's career soared during the war years. His boyish charm and fair, attractive features made him the resident heartthrob and he rode on a crest of popularity not only in musicals (Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Easy to Wed (1946)), but in airy comedies (Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)) and, of course, more war stories (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)). When the big stars such as Clark Gable, James Stewart and Robert Taylor returned to reclaim post-war stardom, Van willingly resigned himself to second dramatic leads, but he remained a high profile musical star opposite the likes of June Allyson, Esther Williams and Judy Garland. He continued to demonstrate his dramatic skills in such well-regarded films as Command Decision (1948), The World and His Wife (1948), Battleground (1949), Brigadoon (1954) and The Caine Mutiny (1954).


    MGM's "golden age" phased out by the mid-1950s and, with it, Van's strong film career took a sharp decline. The studio released him after he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). While he continued to freelance and show strength in other pictures such as the English-made The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr; Miracle in the Rain (1956) opposite Jane Wyman, Beyond the River (1956) with Joseph Cotten, 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) co-starring Vera Miles, Kelly and Me (1957) partnered with a dog, and Beyond This Place (1959), the bloom was falling off the rose.


    In the late 50s and early 1960s Van again capitalized on his musical talents by reinventing himself as a nightclub performer and musical stage star. He made a wonderful Harold Hill in several productions of "The Music Man" and graced a number of musical and light comedy vehicles on the regional and dinner theater circuits, including "Damn Yankees," "Guys and Dolls," "Bells Are Ringing," "On a Clear Day...," "Forty Carats," "Bye Bye Birdie," "There's a Girl in My Soup" and "I Do! I Do!"


    He never delved heavily into TV until the 1970s and then appeared on a number of shows, earning an Emmy nomination for his participation in the mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976). In later years he grew larger in girth but still continued to work. He earned respectable reviews after replacing Gene Barry as Georges in the smash gay musical "La Cage Aux Folles" in 1985. His last musical role was as Cap' Andy in "Show Boat" in 1991, and his last several movies were primarily filmed overseas in Italy and Australia.


    Van was married only once but it was constantly dissected under a microscope by the tabloids as well as the public. The marriage ended quite bitterly. Typically in the closet as a high-ranking actor of the 1940s, he was extremely close friends to MGM actor Keenan Wynn and his wife. However, Van wound up marrying Wynn's ex-wife, one-time stage actress Eve Abbott, right after the Wynns divorced (within four hours) in 1947. To an unsuspecting public, this seemed quite heartless of Van and Van's popularity suffered in its aftermath. In the meantime the tabloids continued to throw out innuendos that it was a studio-arranged "marriage". Whatever the intention, Van and Eve did have daughter Schuyler in 1948, and were a popular Hollywood couple before separating in 1962, after fifteen years of marriage. The marriage lingered on for another six acrimonious years before the final divorce decree.


    Van never married again and in later years Eve "spilled the beans" in a very bitter account of their marriage, which she admitted she went along with but maintained that it was an MGM-staged sham set up by Louis B. Mayer. Sadly, Van was estranged from his daughter Schuyler at the time of his death at age 92 at a senior living facility in Nyack, New York. In declining health, the popular actor had been residing there for several years.
    IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh


    Personal Quotes
    [on Audrey Hepburn] She's a lady. When she participates in the Academy Awards, she makes all those starlets look like tramps. Thank you for your class, Audrey, you're quite a lady. If anyone said anything derogatory about her, I'd push them in the river.


    [MGM] was one big happy family and a little kingdom. Everything was provided for us, from singing lessons to barbells. All we had to do was inhale, exhale and be charming. I used to dread leaving the studio to go out into the real world, because to me the studio was the real world."


    I am the luckiest guy in the world. All my dreams came true. I was in a wonderful business, and I met great people all over the world.


    By war's end, I'd been in every branch of the service, all at MGM. -- VJ, commenting on the vast number of soldiers he played on film during WWII.


    I never turned down anybody for an autograph. I think it's up to the fans; it's up to the public. No amount of photoplay magazines or layouts puts you over the public unless the public buys you.


    [on Joan Crawford, and the book, 'Mommie Dearest']: Some people said that Joan was better off being dead when Mommie Dearest came out, because it would have broken her heart, and this way she was spared all that pain. I'm not one of those people. I totally disagree. They didn't know Joan. I wish the book had never happened. But if it had happened when Joan was still alive, and not too sick, I know her well enough to know she would have fought back, in her way. She had a quiet strength, but she was strong, and she was determined. Nothing wishy-washy about her. I think if she could have, Joan would have protected her life and her body of work against that viper she had taken to her bosom.


    Filmography


    1992 Three Days to a Kill...Comm. Howard
    1992 Clowning Around...Mr. Ranthow
    1990 Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One...Gen. McCailland
    1984-1990 Murder, She Wrote (TV series)
    Daniel Hannigan / Daniel O'Brien / Elliot Robinson
    – Hannigan's Wake (1990) … Daniel Hannigan
    – Menace, Anyone? (1986) … Elliot Robinson
    – Hit, Run and Homicide (1984) … Daniel O'Brien
    1990 Escape from Paradise...Old Narrator
    1989 Killer Crocodile...Judge
    1988 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series)– Killer Takes All (1988) … Art Bellasco
    1988 Taxi Killer...Capt.
    1986 Laggiù nella giungla
    1985 The Purple Rose of Cairo...Larry
    1984 The President of Love (TV movie)...P. Lazlo Plum
    1984 Glitter (TV series)– Pilot (1984) … Mark Hughes
    1983 Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)– Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1983) … Gerry T. Armstrong
    1983 Fantasy Island (TV series)– Revenge of the Forgotten/Charo (1983) … Charles Woodruff
    1983 The Forgotten Story (TV series)...Perry
    1982 Assassinio al cimitero etrusco...Mulligan - Joan's father
    1978-1982 The Love Boat (TV series)
    Victor Moncrief / Bert Wilder
    – Musical, The/My Ex-Mom/The Show Must Go On/The Pest/My Aunt, the Worrier: Part 1 (1982) … Victor Moncrief
    – Musical, The/My Ex-Mom/The Show Must Go On/The Pest/My Aunt, the Worrier: Part 2 (1982) … Victor Moncrief
    – Man of the Cloth/Her Own Two Feet/Tony's Family (1978) … Bert Wilder
    1982 One Day at a Time (TV series)– Grandma's Nest Egg (1982) … Gus Webster
    1981 Aloha Paradise (TV series)– Alex and Annie/Blue Honeymoon/Another Thing (1981)
    1980 The Kidnapping of the President...Vice President Ethan Richards
    1979 Da Corleone a Brooklyn..Lieutenant Sturges
    1979 Concorde Affaire '79...Captain Scott
    1978 Getting Married (TV movie)...Phil Lawrence
    1978 Black Beauty (TV mini-series)...Horace Tompkins
    1978 Superdome (TV movie)...Chip Green
    1977 Quincy M.E. (TV series)
    – Snake Eyes: Part 1 (1977) … Al Ringerman
    – Snake Eyes: Part 2 (1977) … Al Ringerman
    1976 Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II (TV series)
    – Chapter V (1976) … Marsh Goodwin
    – Chapter I (1976) … Marsh Goodwin
    1976 Rich Man, Poor Man (TV mini-series)
    – Part VIII: Chapters 11 and 12 (1976) … Marsh Goodwin
    – Part VII: Chapter 10 (1976) … Marsh Goodwin
    – Part VII: Chapter 9 (1976) … Marsh Goodwin
    1974 McMillan & Wife (TV series)– Downshift to Danger (1974) … Harry Jerome
    1974 The Girl on the Late, Late Show (TV movie)...Johnny Leverett
    1974 McCloud (TV series)– This Must Be the Alamo (1974) … Dan Kiley
    1973 Wheeler and Murdoch (TV movie)...Buddy Shore
    1972 Maude (TV series)– Flashback (1972) … Henry
    1972 Man in the Middle (TV movie)
    1972 Call Her Mom (TV movie)...President Hardgrove
    1971 Love, American Style (TV series)
    Don (segment 'Love and the House Bachelor')
    – Love and the Particular Girl/Love and the Fountain of Youth/
    Love and the House Bachelor/Love and the Waitress (1971) … Don (segment 'Love and the House Bachelor')
    1971 L'occhio del ragno...Prof. Orson Krüger
    1970-1971 The Doris Day Show (TV series)
    – The Albatross (1971) … Charlie Webb
    – Cousin Charlie (1970) … Charlie Webb
    1971 Company of Killers (TV movie)...Sam Cahill
    1971 The Virginian (TV series)– The Angus Killer (1971) … Alonzo
    1971 Nanny and the Professor (TV series)– Separate Rooms (1971) … Uncle Bob Everett
    1968-1970 The Red Skelton Show (TV series)
    Harry Haynes / Movie Director
    – Hiring the Secretary (1970) … Harry Haynes
    – Guess Whose Dinner Is Coming to Freddie? (1968) … Movie Director
    1970 San Francisco International Airport (TV series)– San Francisco International (1970) … Lester Scott
    1968-1970 The Name of the Game (TV series)
    Jack Newell / Sullivan
    – The Brass Ring (1970) … Jack Newell
    – High on a Rainbow (1968) … Sullivan
    1969 Texas...President James Garfield
    1969 La battaglia d'Inghilterra...Air Marshal George Taylor
    1968 Yours, Mine and Ours...Warrant Officer Darrel Harrison
    1968 Where Angels Go Trouble Follows!...Father Chase: The 'In' Group
    1967 The Danny Thomas Hour (TV series)– Is Charlie Coming? (1967) … Charlie Snow
    1967 Divorce American Style...Al Yearling
    1966 The Doomsday Flight (TV movie)...Capt. Anderson
    1966 Batman (TV series)
    – Barbecued Batman? (1966) … The Minstrel
    – The Minstrel's Shakedown (1966) … The Minstrel
    1965 Ben Casey (TV series)– A Man, a Maid, and a Marionette (1965) … Frank Dawson
    1964 American in Paris (TV movie)...James Devlin
    1963 Wives and Lovers...Bill Austin
    1960 The DuPont Show with June Allyson (TV series)– The Women Who (1960) … Joe Robertson
    1960 The Ann Sothern Show (TV series)– Loving Arms (1960) … Terry Tyler
    1960 The Enemy General...Allan Lemaire
    1960 General Electric Theater (TV series)– At Your Service (1960) … Jimmy Devlin
    1959 Subway in the Sky...Maj. Baxter Grant
    1959 Beyond This Place...Paul Mathry
    1959 Zane Grey Theater (TV series)– Deadfall (1959) … Frank Gilette
    1959 The Last Blitzkrieg...Sgt. Hans Von Kroner/Sgt. Leonard Richardson
    1957 The Pied Piper of Hamelin (TV movie)...Pied Piper / Truson
    1957 Action of the Tiger...Carson
    1957 Kelly and Me...Len Carmody
    1957 Slander...Scott Ethan Martin
    1956 23 Paces to Baker Street...Phillip Hannon
    1956 Miracle in the Rain...Pvt. Arthur 'Art' Hugenon
    1956 Beyond the River...Donald Martin/Eric Bell
    1955 The End of the Affair...Maurice Bendrix
    1954 The Last Time I Saw Paris...Charles Wills
    1954 Brigadoon...Jeff Douglas
    1954 The Caine Mutiny...Lt. Steve Maryk
    1954 Men of the Fighting Lady...Lt. (jg) Howard Thayer
    1954 Siege at Red River...Capt. James S. Simmons/Jim Farraday
    1953 Easy to Love...Ray Lloyd
    1953 Remains to Be Seen...Waldo Williams
    1953 Confidentially Connie...Joe Bedloe
    1952 Plymouth Adventure...John Alden
    1952 Target for Scandal...Joseph T. Gresham
    1952 When in Rome...Father John X. Halligan
    1952 Invitation...Daniel I. 'Dan' Pierce
    1952 The Greatest Show on Earth...Spectator (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
    1951 Too Young to Kiss...Eric Wainwright
    1951 It's a Big Country...Rev. Adam Burch
    1951 Go for Broke!...Lt. Michael Grayson
    1951 Three Guys Named Mike...Michael Lawrence
    1951 Grounds for Marriage...Dr. Lincoln I. Bartlett
    1950 Duchess of Idaho...Dick Layne
    1950 The Big Hangover...David Muldon
    1949 Battleground...Holley
    1949 In the Good Old Summertime...Andrew Delby Larkin
    1949 Scene of the Crime...Mike Conovan
    1949 Mother Knows Best...Professor Richard Michaels
    1948 Command Decision...Tech. Sgt. Immanuel T. Evans
    1948 The World and His Wife...'Spike' McManus
    1948 The Bride Goes Wild...Greg Rawlings
    1947 The Romance of Rosy Ridge...Henry Carson
    1947 High Barbaree...Alec Brooke
    1946 Till the Clouds Roll By...Bandleader in Elite Club
    1946 No Leave, No Love...Sgt. Michael Hanlon
    1946 Easy to Wed...William Stevens 'Bill' Chandler
    1945 Week-End at the Waldorf...Captain James Hollis
    1945 Thrill of a Romance...Maj. Thomas Milvaine
    1945 Between Two Women...Dr. Randall 'Red' Adams
    1944 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo...Ted Lawson
    1944 3 Men in White..Dr. Randall 'Red' Ames
    1944 The White Cliffs of Dover...Sam Bennett
    1944 Two Girls and a Sailor...John Dyckman Brown III
    1943 A Guy Named Joe...Ted Randall
    1943 Madame Curie...Reporter
    1943 Pilot #5...Everett Arnold
    1943 Crazy to Kill...Dr. Randall 'Red' Adams
    1943 The Human Comedy...Marcus Macauley
    1942 Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant...Dr. Randall 'Red' Adams
    1942 Somewhere I'll Find You...Lieutenant Wade Hall (uncredited)
    1942 The War Against Mrs. Hadley...Michael Fitzpatrick
    1942 For the Common Defense! (short)...Agent Pritchard
    1942 Human Sabotage...Bert Bell
    1942 Personalities (short) (uncredited)
    1940 Too Many Girls...Chorus Boy (uncredited)

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 3 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Here is one fo two photos I have with Van Johnson in them. Here he is as a German PoW in: The Last Blitzkrieg--a movie ive never seen. Based on the looks fo the BADLY put together """German"""" uniforms--ill almost bet that the movie was not up to standard.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..

  • Always liked Van Johnson. He did some great roles and was in some other really good war movies, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe, Battleground, and Go For Broke. Notice those scars on his forehead? They were from a near fatal car accident he had during the filming of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. I read that they held up filming while he recovered.

  • Always liked Van Johnson. He did some great roles and was in some other really good war movies, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe, Battleground, and Go For Broke. Notice those scars on his forehead? They were from a near fatal car accident he had during the filming of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. I read that they held up filming while he recovered.



    Same here and, I also have a great still of him in Battleground along with Marshall Thompson and Denice Darcel. I got that still along with an Actors print of him and the cast of B/ground from his daughter Janet. I know they are here somewhere? not sure where?

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..

  • No problem and apparently the scars showed in that movie



    Ill have to rewatch that movie too--been awhile.


    Oh and, before I forget--Johnsons "Tunic" is West German--you can tell by the cheap ""polyester--looking"" material used--as well as the French Cuffs--are not original to the tunic. Lots of other stuff on their various tunics are schlecht too. The SS and rank tabs are horrible.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..

  • PS, I think its funny that Kerwin Matthews is wearing on his tunic--a 3-place all Imperial Ribbon bar for Oldenburg. He wouldnt have been old enough for WWI, and his ribbon bar doesnt have the WWII ribbon for the EKII--which would be where the Oldenburg ribbon is placed. At least van Johnson's ribbon bar has the 1939 EKII ribbon on it and in the correct place.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..