Charles "Van" Johnson (born August 25, 1916) is an American film and television actor and dancer.

Biography

Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island; the son of Loretta (née Snyder), a homemaker, and Charles E. Johnson, a plumber and later real-estate salesman. His father was a US immigrant from Sweden, and his mother has German-American Pennsylvania Dutch ethnicity.

Career

His acting career began in earnest in 1936 in the Broadway revue New Faces of 1936. In 1939, he landed a part in Rodgers and Hart's Too Many Girls in the role of a college boy (after being Gene Kelly's understudy in Pal Joey). RKO then signed him to a short-term contract to star in the film adaptation of the play which became Johnson's film debut. MGM picked up his contract from RKO soon after and cast him in several bit parts.

In 1942, while en route to a preview screening for Keeper of the Flame, he was involved in a car crash that left him with a metal plate in his forehead. This exempted him from service in World War II. After this incident, MGM built up his image as the "all-American boy" by co-starring him in films with June Allyson and Esther Williams, among others. He also had serious roles in films such as A Guy Named Joe, Week-End at the Waldorf, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Battleground. Johnson appeared on I Love Lucy.

Johnson left MGM for Columbia Pictures to co-star in The Caine Mutiny (1954) to much acclaim. (His scar from the car crash is very visible in this film.) He also enjoyed one of his most memorable leading roles in the 1954 musical Brigadoon, with Gene Kelly. In 1955, Johnson made a memorable appearance on I Love Lucy.

Since 1960, his film career has been minimal. Johnson guest-starred on television shows such as Batman, Here's Lucy and The Love Boat and in the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man. In 1985, he enjoyed something of a comeback. He toured with the hit Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles and appeared in a supporting role in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Van Johnson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6600 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

Johnson married Eve Lynn Abbott on January 25 1947, the day her divorce from actor Keenan Wynn was finalized. In 1999, Eve told a reporter that their marriage had been arranged by MGM because the studio "needed their star to be married to quell rumors about his sexual preferences".http://www.nndb.com/people/654/000031561/ In his 2005 biography of Louis B. Mayer, Lion of Hollywood, Scott Eyman quotes her as saying, "In retrospect I can see he (Mayer) was arranging my marriage to Van just as Universal did for Rock Hudson. That was a farce. Ours was a real marriage. I was in love with Van, but I wouldn't have married him if I'd known he was a homosexual." According to stepson Ned Wynn, the Johnsons separated in 1961 over an alleged affair by Eve with a young man, and divorced in 1968. Eve Lynn Abbott Wynn Johnson died in 2004 at the age of 90.

He is estranged from their daughter, Schuyler, born in 1948. She stated to the The Globe that he was a cold and detached father for most of her life.

Johnson underwent treatment for skin cancer in 1963. He leads a quiet life in retirement in New York.

Filmography

The handprints of Van Johnson in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Features

• Too Many Girls (1940)
• Murder in the Big House (1942)
• The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)
• Somewhere I'll Find You (1942)
• Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942)
• The Human Comedy (1943)
• Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
• Pilot #5 (1943)
• Madame Curie (1943)
• A Guy Named Joe (1943)
• Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
• The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
• Three Men in White (1944)
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
• Between Two Women (1945)
• Thrill of a Romance (1945)
• Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
• Ziegfeld Follies (1946) (scenes deleted)
• Easy to Wed (1946)
• No Leave, No Love (1946)
• Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
• High Barbaree (1947)
• The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947)
• The Bride Goes Wild (1948)
• State of the Union (1948)
• Command Decision (1948)
• Mother Is a Freshman (1949)
• Scene of the Crime (1949)
• In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
• Battleground (1949)
• The Big Hangover (1950)
• Duchess of Idaho (1950)
• Grounds for Marriage (1951)
• Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
• Go for Broke! (1951)
• It's a Big Country (1951)
• Too Young to Kiss (1951)
• Invitation (1952)
• When in Rome (1952)
• Washington Story (1952)
• Plymouth Adventure (1952)
• Confidentially Connie (1953)
• Remains to Be Seen (1953)
• Easy to Love (1953)
• Siege at Red River (1954)
• Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
• The Caine Mutiny (1954)
• Brigadoon (1954)
• The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
• The End of the Affair (1955)
• The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
• Miracle in the Rain (1956)
• 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
• Slander (1956)
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin-TV film (1957)
• Kelly and Me (1957)
• Action of the Tiger (1957)
• The Last Blitzkrieg (1959)
• Beyond This Place (1959)
• Subway in the Sky (1959)
• The Enemy General (1960)
• Wives and Lovers (1963)
• Divorce American Style (1967)
• Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)
• Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
• Eagles Over London (1969)
• The Price of Power (1969)
• Eye of the Spider (1971)
• Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
• From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979)
• The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
• Murder in an Etruscan Cemetery (1982)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
• Down There in the Jungle (1986)
• Taxi Killer (1988)
• Killer Crocodile (1989)
• Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990)
• Clowning Around (1992)

Short subjects

• Personalities (1942)
• For the Common Defense! (1942)
• American Creed (1946)
• Some of the Best (1949)

References

External links

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