Short Biography

Ben "Son" Johnson Jr. (13 June 1918 – 8 April 1996) was an Academy Award-winning American motion picture actor who was mainly cast in Westerns. He was also a rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and rancher. Johnson was born in Foraker, Oklahoma, on the Osage Indian Reservation, of Cherokee and Irish ancestry, to Ben Sr. and Ollie Susan (Workmon) Johnson.[4] Ben Johnson Sr. was a rancher in Osage County and also a rodeo champion. As a young man, Ben Johnson Jr. was a ranch hand, would travel with his father on the rodeo circuit, and become a star before becoming involved in the movies. He was the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association`s Steer Roping World Champion in 1953. After winning the title, he discovered that, after travel and expenses, he broke even for the year. Johnson married Carol Elaine Jones in 1941, and they were married for 53 years until her death on March 27, 1994. The couple had no children. Carol Jones was the daughter of noted Hollywood horse wrangler Clarence "Fat" Jones (not the daughter of Western star Buck Jones, as many sources erroneously have it; Buck Jones`s only child was married to actor Noah Beery Jr..)

Johnson continued to work almost steadily until his death from a heart attack at the age of 77 in 1996 at his home in Mesa, Arizona.

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