Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He had a prolific career in film, television, theatre and radio, which spanned over 50 years, from 1940 to 1992. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II, known for his upbeat and "all-American" screen persona, often playing young military servicemen, or in musicals.
Originally a Broadway dancer, Johnson achieved his breakthrough playing a rookie bomber pilot in A Guy Named Joe (1943). Throughout the war years, he became a popular Hollywood star, as the embodiment of the "boy-next-door wholesomeness" playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor, or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in such films as The Human Comedy (also 1943) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). After World War II, he continued to play similar heartthrob and military characters, equal parts in serious dramas like The Caine Mutiny (1954), and in light musicals like Brigadoon (1954).
After the end of his contract with MGM, he transitioned largely into television, though he continued to make regular film appearances in featured and supporting parts, earning an Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. He continued to maintain a regular presence in musical theatre, most notably as Professor Harold Hill The Music Man on the West End, and Georges in La Cage aux Folles on Broadway, before retiring from acting in the early 1990s. At the time of his death in 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of the Golden Age of Hollywood.Aljean, Harmetz (August 12, 2008). "Van Johnson, Film Actor, Is Dead at 92" The New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
Early life Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the only child of Loretta (née Snyder) and Charles E. Johnson, a plumber and later a real-estate salesman. His father was born in Sweden and came to the United States as a child, and his mother had Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother was allegedly an alcoholic who left the family when he was a child, and he was not close to his father.Davis 2001, p. 7.
Career
Johnson performed at social clubs in Newport while in high school. He moved to New York City after graduation in 1935 and joined the off-Broadway revue Entre Nous.
Broadway Johnson toured New England in a theater troupe as a substitute dancer, but his acting career began in earnest in the Broadway revue New Faces of 1936. He returned to the chorus after that and worked in summer resorts near New York City.Davis 2001, p. 27. In 1939, director and playwright George Abbott cast him in Rodgers and Hart's Too Many Girls in the role of a college boy and as understudy for all three male leads. He had an uncredited role in the film adaptation of Too Many Girls, which costarred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, then Abbott hired him as a chorus boy and Gene Kelly's understudy in Pal Joey.Davis 2001, p. 26.
Warner Bros. Johnson was about to move back to New York when Lucille Ball took him to Chasen's Restaurant, where she introduced him to MGM casting director Billy Grady who was sitting at the next table. This led to screen tests by Hollywood studios. His test at Columbia Pictures was unsuccessful, but Warner Brothers put him on contract at $300 a week. He was cast as a cub reporter opposite Faye Emerson in the 1942 film Murder in the Big House. His eyebrows and hair were dyed black for the role.Davis 2001, pp. 41–45. Johnson's all-American good looks and easy demeanor were ill-suited to the gritty movies that Warner made at the time, and the studio dropped him at the expiration of his six-month contract.
MGM Johnson was soon signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio provided him with classes in acting, speech, and diction.Davis 2001, pp. 46–47, 56. He then had an uncredited part as a soldier in Somewhere I'll Find You (1942). He attracted attention in a small part in The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942), and this encouraged MGM to cast him in their long-running series Dr. Kildare. These films had starred Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie; Ayres' career was hurt due to being a conscientious objector, so the series focused on Dr. Gillespie mentoring new doctors. Johnson played Dr. Randall Adams in Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942).
MGM then cast Johnson as Mickey Rooney's soldier brother in The Human Comedy (1943), a huge hit. He returned as Randall Adams in Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943) and was in uniform again for Pilot No. 5 (1943). He had a small role as a reporter in Madame Curie (1943).Davis 2001, pp. 76–77.
A Guy Named Joe and stardom Johnson's big break was in A Guy Named Joe starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne, in which he played a young pilot, who acquires a deceased pilot as his guardian angel. During the film's production in 1943, Johnson was involved in a serious car accident that left him with a metal plate in his forehead and a number of scars on his face that plastic surgery could not completely correct or conceal. He recovered at the home of Keenan Wynn before returning to acting. He wore heavy makeup to hide the scars for the rest of his career. MGM wanted to replace him in A Guy Named Joe, but Tracy insisted that he be allowed to finish the picture, despite his long absence. The film was a great hit, earning a profit of over one million dollars and launching Johnson as a star.Davis 2001, pp. 63, 67.
Johnson's injuries from the car accident exempted him from service in World War II. Many other actors were serving in the armed forces, so the accident greatly benefited Johnson's career. He later said, "There were five of us. There was Jimmy Craig, Bob Young, Bobby Walker, Peter Lawford, and myself. All tested for the same part all the time." Johnson was very busy, often playing soldiers; he joked of this period, "I remember... finishing one Thursday morning with June Allyson and starting a new one Thursday afternoon with Esther Williams. I didn't know which branch of the service I was in!"
MGM built up Johnson's image as the all-American boy in war dramas and musicals. His first top-billed role in an "A" picture was the musical Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) which was a big success; it was his first film with June Allyson. He had a smaller part in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), then reprised his role as Dr. Adams in 3 Men in White (1944).
Post-war career peak Johnson played Ted Lawson in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) which told the story of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942. He played Dr. Adams one last time in Between Two Women (1945). He starred in Thrill of a Romance (1945), a musical with Esther Williams, and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), a musical remake of Grand Hotel with Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, and Ginger Rogers. In 1945, he tied with Bing Crosby as the top box office stars.
He was reunited with Williams in Easy to Wed (1946), a musical remake of Libeled Lady.Davis, Ronald L. Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy p. 237 citing "Ruth Rowland, "Van, the Man," Movieland 14 (August 1956)" He supported Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in State of the Union (1948), and he supported Clark Gable and Pidgeon in the war drama Command Decision (1948).
MGM under Dore Schary 20th Century Fox borrowed Johnson to make the comedy Mother Is a Freshman (1948) with Loretta Young. Back at MGM, he was given a role in the film noir Scene of the Crime (1949). In 1949, he starred with Judy Garland in In the Good Old Summertime, which also marked the first film appearance of Liza Minnelli as Garland's and Johnson's young daughter. He next worked in Battleground (1949), a movie about the Battle of the Bulge produced by MGM's new studio head Dore Schary.
Johnson made the comedy The Big Hangover (1950), then was reunited with Williams in Duchess of Idaho (1951). He appeared in the romantic comedy Three Guys Named Mike (1951). He played an officer leading Japanese-American troops of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe in the Schary-produced film Go for Broke! (1951). He had a small part in It's a Big Country (1951) and was reunited with Allyson for Too Young to Kiss (1951). MGM lent him to Columbia for The Caine Mutiny (1954) in the role of Stephen Maryk. He refused to allow concealment of his facial scars when being made up as Maryk, believing that they enhanced the character's authenticity. Herman Wouk describes Maryk as having "ugly but not unpleasant features" in the novel. One commentator noted years later that "Humphrey Bogart and Jose Ferrer chomp up all the scenery in this maritime courtroom drama, but it's Johnson's character, the painfully ambivalent, not-too-bright Lieutenant Steve Maryk, who binds the whole movie together." Time magazine commented that Johnson "was a better actor than Hollywood usually allowed him to be."
Johnson next teamed with Gene Kelly as the sardonic second lead of Brigadoon (1954). He had the lead in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), his last film for MGM. He had a five-year contract with Columbia to make one film a year.
Unlike some other stars of that era, Johnson did not resent the restrictions of the studio system. In 1985, he said that his years at MGM were "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."
Freelancer During the 1950s, Johnson continued to appear in films and also appeared frequently in television guest appearances. He appeared as the celebrity mystery guest on What's My Line? airing on November 22, 1953, but was not questioned by the panel due to advance notice of his appearance. He then appeared again on the May 22, 1955, airing and was guessed by Fred Allen. He was in The End of the Affair (1955) at Columbia then made The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) at Fox. He received favorable critical notices for the 1956 dramatic film Miracle in the Rain, co-starring Jane Wyman, in which he played a good-hearted young soldier preparing to go to war, and in the mystery 23 Paces to Baker Street, in which he played a blind playwright residing in London. He returned to MGM for Slander (1956) and Action of the Tiger (1957).
Johnson appeared as the title character of the highly rated "spectacular," The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a musical version of Robert Browning's poem, set to the music of Edvard Grieg. Featuring Claude Rains in his only singing and dancing role, it aired on November 26, 1957, as part of NBC's week of Thanksgiving specials. The program was so successful it spawned a record album and was repeated in 1958. Syndicated to many local stations, it was rerun annually for many years in the tradition of other holiday specials.
On February 19, 1959, Johnson appeared in the episode "Deadfall" of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre in the role of Frank Gilette, a former outlaw falsely charged with bank robbery. He is framed by Hugh Perry, a corrupt prosecutor played by Harry Townes, and Deputy Stover, portrayed by Bing Russell. Convicted of the robbery, Gilette is captured by outlaws while on his way to prison, and the sheriff, Roy Lamont, portrayed by Grant Withers, is killed.
In 1959, Johnson turned down an opportunity to star as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, which went on to become a successful television series with Robert Stack as Ness.