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Van Johnson was a baby-faced, redheaded, rather hammy film actor of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He is perhaps best remembered as the executive officer who seized command from Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) in The Caine Mutiny. He also starred in Battleground with Ricardo Montalban, and Frank Capra`s State of the Union.
His parents divorced when Johnson was a toddler, and his father was given custody due to the mother`s alcoholism. Young Johnson was dancing in theatrical musicals while still attending high school, and made his Broadway debut as a chorus boy in 1936. He was still in the chorus for the 1939 Broadway production of Richard Rodgers` Too Many Girls, and he made his film debut dancing the same role when the play was filmed with Lucille Ball. For many years, Johnson was an extremely close friend of actor Keenan Wynn and Wynn`s wife, Eve. They had met when all three were struggling actors in New York in the late 1930s, and after Johnson and Wynn both signed with MGM and moved to Hollywood, the bachelor Johnson reportedly spent as much time at the Wynns` home as at his own residence. In 1943, the Wynns were passengers in Johnson`s car when it was broadsided by another vehicle which ran a red light. Johnson was seriously injured, and had a metal plate installed in his head. He then recuperated for several months at the Wynns` home. The accident may have been a lucky break for Johnson, as it left him unsuitable for military duty during World War II. While many of his contemporaries were at war, Johnson rose to prominence playing military men in features like A Guy Named Joe with Spencer Tracy, Two Girls and a Sailor with June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo with Robert Walker. In 1947, the Wynns were divorced, and Johnson married the former Eve Wynn on the same day her divorce was finalized. They were separated in 1961 when, according to Johnson`s stepson Ned Wynn, Johnson had an affair with a chorus boy during a stage production of The Music Man. In 1999, just a few years before her death, Eve Wynn Johnson told a reporter that her marriage to Johnson had been arranged at MGM`s request, as the studio "needed their `big star` to be married to quell rumors about his sexual preferences," and she was the only woman he would agree to marry. Biography Credit: www.nndb.com/people/654/000031561/ |
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BiographyFriends and FamilyTracy Keenan Wynn [Step Father] :: Ned Wynn [Step Father] :: Schuyler Johnson [Father]Trivia and QuotesQuotes I’ve been there and done it all. (About 1943 car accident) “[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. “[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.” Keep the calls coming, ... You might be saving your own home, your own car, your own property tomorrow if you do it for your neighbor today. I don`t think it`s what many people are putting it out to be. I see Africa as a market that is the next market to be tapped, I can`t help but feel we are being used as a pawn in the political game, and I`m not going to take it, We were looking to do something to make a difference ... She [Masekela] said she`d be happy to do it. I thought we were doing a regular SBA loan. I did not know it come under the terrorism program. [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.
Trivia Daughter Schuyler born January, 1948.
The scars from the injury received in a car crash described in his biography are very evident in The Caine Mutiny (1954).
His wife, Eve, was first married to Keenan Wynn. She married Johnson on the very day of her divorce from Wynn. 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 flew. 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.
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.
He first received top billing in 1944 with Two Girls and a Sailor (1944).
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 was Gene Kelly`s understudy in the Broadway production of "Pal Joey".
He made his Broadway debut in 1936 in "New Faces of 1936," (a hit show that also introduced Imogene Coca). Van would appear in a total of 7 Broadway shows to date, including the original cast production of "Pal Joey" in 1940-41 and last appearing in "La Cage aux Folles" in 1987.
He had skin cancer surgery in 1963.
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