Ben Johnson (actor)

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Ben Johnson Jr. (13 June 1918 – 8 April 1996) was an American motion picture actor, mainly in Westerns. He was also a rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and rancher.

Born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, of Osage and Irish ancestry to Ben Sr. and Ollie (Workman) Johnson. 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 won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's Team Roping Championship for steer roping in 1953.

Johnson married Carol Elaine Jones in 1941, and was married for 53-years until her death on 27 March 1994. The couple had no children.

After getting a taste for Hollywood by doing some stunt work in the 1939 movie The Fighting Gringo, in the early 1940's he found work in Hollywood wrangling horse for a studio, he would also start doing stunt work involving horses. His steady stunt work began on the controversial Howard Hughes film The Outlaw. Hughes cast Jane Russell in the lead, and had numerous camera shots of her ample cleavage, this would get the attention of the Hollywood censors. The film was shot in 1941 but would take five years to get to selected theaters. Johnson made his first appearance in front of the camera in Naughty Nineties, an Abbott and Costello's movie made in 1945. He got a bigger role in the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, as the co-star 'Gregg O'Hara', opposite Terry Moore.

With his work as a stunt man he would catch the eye of director John Ford. Ford would hire Johnson for stunt work for the 1948 movie Fort Apache, and then the following year in the 3 Godfathers, then put him in front of the camera in several films, also starring three with John Wayne, including three in a row: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Wagon Master (1950), and Rio Grande (1950).

Johnson played in a supporting role in the classic 1953 movie Shane, starring Alan Ladd. In 1964 he worked with Ford again in Cheyenne Autumn. He also appeared in four Sam Peckinpah directed films; Major Dundee (1965; with Charlton Heston), The Wild Bunch (1969; with William Holden & Robert Ryan), and two back-to-back Steve McQueen movies, The Getaway and the rodeo film Junior Bonner (both 1972).

He teamed up John Wayne again, and director Andrew McLaglen, in two films; appearing with Rock Hudson in The Undefeated (1969), and he had a fairly prominent role in the 1970 John Wayne movie Chisum.

In between the four Peckinpah films Johnson would win an Academy Award for his performance as 'Sam The Lion' in the classic The Last Picture Show, the Larry McMurtry (novel & screenplay) story made into a film and directed by Peter Bogdanovich (also co-writer screenplay), that co-starred Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, and in her film debut Cybill Shepherd.

Johnson would continue to work almost steadily until his sudden death in 1996 at his home is Mesa, Arizona. He would also continue ranching during the entire time. In addition he sponsored the Ben Johnson Pro Celebrity Team Roping and Penning competition, held in Oklahoma City, the proceeds of which would be donated to both the Children's Medical Research Inc., and to the Children's Hospital of Oklahoma.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ben Johnson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Blvd. In 1982, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

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