Former film idol Van Johnson, a R.I. native, dies at 92
3:48 PM Fri, Dec 12, 2008 | Permalink
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NEW YORK -- Van Johnson, a Rhode Island native whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92. With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and others during his two decades under contract to MGM. 
AP file photoIn this Feb. 9, 1963, actor Van Johnson, right, poses with actress Janet Leigh during the filming of "Wives and Lovers." He proved to be a versatile actor, equally at home with comedies ("The Bride Goes Wild," "Too Young to Kiss"), war movies ("Go for Broke," "Command Decision"), musicals ("Thrill of a Romance," "Brigadoon") and dramas ("State of the Union," "Madame Curie"). During the height of his popularity, Johnson was cast most often as the all-American boy. He played a real-life flier who lost a leg in a crash after the bombing of Japan in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." He was a writer in love with a wealthy American girl (Taylor) in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." He appeared as a post-Civil War farmer in "The Romance of Rosy Ridge." More recently, he had a small role in 1985 as a movie actor in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo." He was born Charles Van Dell Johnson on Aug. 25, 1916, in Newport, R.I., where his father was a real estate salesman. Three years old when his mother left the family, he was raised in a boardinghouse by his father, Charles, a thrifty Swedish immigrant unmoved by his son's infatuation with film or his dance lessons, according to Ronald L. Davis, author of "Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy." From his earliest years he was fascinated by the touring companies that played in Newport theaters. Van Johnson kept the books for his father's plumbing business for a year after graduating high school in 1934. The next year he moved to New York, appeared in an off-Broadway revue and made his Broadway debut in the chorus of "New Faces of 1936." Johnson's tour of casting offices landed him nothing but chorus jobs. He went to Hollywood for a bit in the movie of "Too Many Girls," then was signed to a Warner Bros. contract. "First the zenith, then the nadir," Johnson recalled. "Warner Bros. dropped me after 'Murder in the Big House.'" The discouraged young actor was about to return to New York when Lucille Ball, whom he knew on "Too Many Girls," invited him to dinner at Chasen's restaurant. "Lucille tried to cheer me up, but I just couldn't seem to laugh," he said in a 1963 interview. "Suddenly she said to me, 'There's Billy Grady over there; he's MGM's casting director. I'm going to introduce you, and at least you're going to act like you're the star I think you will be." -- Associated Press, with Bloomberg reports Read the full Associated Press obituary and sign a guestbook. 
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