how old was van johnson when he died

As Johnson entered middle age, his features grew heavy but he still managed to find offbeat roles in films including "The Bottom of the Bottle," an unabashed melodrama in which he played an alcoholic, and "23 Paces to Baker Street" as a blind detective. sales. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. "It always brought a smile to his face. Mr. Johnson was on his way back to New York when Lucille Ball, whom he knew from his years of bouncing around the East Coast, took him to the MGM casting director Billy Grady. recent years several biographers have reported that Johnson had a daughter, Schuyler Van Johnson, by another woman, according to TCM.com. He traveled everywhere with a paint box and with his embroidery, a hobby he chose for himself. Johnson, 92, died around 11 a.m. of natural causes at the Tappan Zee Manor in Nyack, New York, where he had lived for seven years, said Wendy Bleiweiss. Evie Wynn’s obituary in The London independent in 2004, went into far greater detail about her relationship with Johnson: “Many of his fans were alienated when he married Evie the day after her divorce from Wynn, while those who were aware of Johnson’s sexual ambivalence wondered how genuine the marriage could be. Johnson shocked MGM and dismayed his fans in 1947 when he stole the wife of his best friend, the MGM character actor Keenan Wynn. Johnson made his Broadway debut in 1936 in "New Faces of 1936" before legendary director-playwright George Abbott hired him as a chorus member and understudy to the three male leads in Rodgers and Hart's "Too Many Girls" in 1939. His death, at the Tappan Zee Manor assisted-living facility, was announced by a spokesman, Daniel Demello. The two did not have children and divorced in 1968, according to TCM.com. he replaced Gene Barry in the Broadway production of “That was the way of the studio,” he said. He maintained a “Everything was provided for us, from singing lessons to barbells. At studio premieres and parties he wore his trademark red socks with his tuxedo. heterosexual public image, marrying Evie Wynn in January He made one mistake in turning down the Eliot Ness role in “The Untouchables,” a television series that became a hit. The red-haired, freckle-faced actor's youthful charm earned him a huge teen following in his heyday. 5” (1943); the soldier who died in William Saroyan’s “Human Comedy” (1943); and the sailor who had his choice of Ms. Allyson or Gloria DeHaven in “Two Girls and a Sailor.”. He was the pilot who survived in “Pilot No. In his 12 years at the studio Mr. Johnson acted and mostly starred in nearly 50 movies. A successful screen test for Warner Brothers brought him a $300-a-week contract and the leading role of a cub reporter opposite Faye Emerson in “Murder in the Big House” (1942). and dinner theater productions. Johnson, a Hollywood star during the 1940s and 1950s who performed alongside Humphrey Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny," died … "When he saw them, he'd smile and wave to them," she said. After graduating from high school in 1935, Mr. Johnson moved to New York, where he took a job touring New England as a substitute dancer. He first set foot on a Broadway stage in the successful revue “New Faces” in May 1936. Van Johnson, one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywood’s golden age, an actor whose affable charm and boyish good looks helped make him a star during World War II, died on Friday in Nyack, N.Y. At 69 he went back to New York and Broadway to replace Gene Barry as Georges in “La Cage aux Folles,” playing the role for a year. (CNN)-- Van Johnson, whose boyish looks and earnest manner made him a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in an assisted-care facility, a friend told CNN. 1947 just hours after she divorced actor Keenan Wynn, a Johnson retained much of his youthful energy as he grew older, and became a frequent interview subject on the old days of Hollywood and his lengthy career, TCM.com said. "When he saw them, he'd smile and wave to them," she said. He was 92. But Mr. Johnson could never live down the strawberry-blond, freckled, boyish image that attracted hordes of bobby-soxers during the war years. adding that the star became particularly Hollywood heartthrob Van Johnson died on Friday in Nyack, NY. Johnson, a mainstay of MGM musicals and comedies of the and freckles, he had all-American good looks and was Union, Brigadoon, The Last Time I Saw Paris, and “I’m supposed to be at home enjoying them, but I still love to tour.”. Ned Wynn writes that his mother told him that Johnson had left her ‘for a man – a boy, really. He also had a small part in Woody Allen’s 1985 film “The Purple Rose of Cairo.”. In 1987, Johnson was praised for his work in the Broadway production of "La Cage aux Folles." In the photo above, Johnson and Evie Wynn with Liz Taylor and Conrad Hilton at their wedding in Beverly Hills in 1950. (CNN) -- Van Johnson, whose boyish looks and earnest manner made him a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in an assisted-care facility, a friend told CNN. Mr. Johnson said he was not even upset when the studio chief Louis B. Mayer learned that he was living with a young actress and insisted that he move out. After working on Broadway as an understudy to Desi Arnaz and Eddie Bracken in George Abbott’s musical “Too Many Girls” and taking a small role in Abbott’s “Pal Joey,” Hollywood called. “Van was devastated,” Mr. Wynn wrote in a memoir, “We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills.” “He had wanted to show his father that now, after years of a gray, loveless, miserly life, he was a star, he could afford steak. Those were his words," she said. But that didn't stop him from acting in war films. He became known as the "voiceless Sinatra," despite a singing voice that landed him roles alongside June Allyson and Judy Garland in "Two Girls and a Sailor" and "In the Good Old Summertime," according to TCM.com. Ronald L. Davis in Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy, Other big roles included "A Guy Named Joe," "Brigadoon" and "The Caine Mutiny. Instead, he passed the time by painting, needlepoint and crocheting, she said. The red-haired, freckle-faced actor's youthful charm earned him a huge teen following in his heyday. In Woody Allen's 1985 comedy, "The Purple Rose of Cairo," Johnson played one of the actors trapped inside the film screen in a parody of sorts of films from the 1930s. Mr. Johnson did not remarry.”, “In January 1947, Johnson married Eve Wynn, the former wife of his close friend, actor Keenan Wynn. Other big roles included "A Guy Named Joe," "Brigadoon" and "The Caine Mutiny. Instead, he became America’s war film hero, starring in films including “A Guy Named Joe” and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.”. Johnson was ineligible to serve in World War Two because doctors had put a metal plate in his head after he was injured in a serious car accident. The mainstream media makes no mention of the fact that he was a closeted gay man. Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men. All we had to do was inhale, exhale and be charming. Bleiweiss said Johnson was estranged from his daughter and stepchildren for most of his life, but children brightened his day. The Music Man in London; and several regional And the old bastard had beaten him down one more time.”. Johnson was gay or bisexual. Johnson had a daughter, Schuyler Van Johnson, by another woman, according to TCM.com. He seems like he can do some acting,' " Bleiweiss said. in a senior center in Nyack, N.Y., of causes related His film debut followed in 1940 with a role in the chorus of "Too Many Girls.". '”, “In January 1947 Evie and Wynn were finally divorced, and the following day she and Johnson were wed. Van Johnson starred with Lana Turner in “Weekend at the Waldorf” in 1945. MGM dropped Mr. Johnson in 1954, after he appeared as a drunken novelist opposite Elizabeth Taylor in “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Babylon Revisited,” and in the film version of the Broadway musical fantasy “Brigadoon,” as one of a pair of American tourists (Gene Kelly played the other) visiting an enchanted Scottish village. "She saw this redhead kid and said, 'Let's give him a break. He was 16 years old when he left Rhode Island for New York City so he could forge a career in acting, Bleiweiss said. Irene Dunne and Spencer Tracy. His films included of Newport, R.I., was a chorus boy on Broadway before I used to dread leaving the studio to go out into the real world, because to me the studio was the real world.”. Instead, he passed the time by painting, needlepoint and crocheting, she said. Though he didn't cook, he loved watching cooking shows and reruns of "The Golden Girls," she said. Gay actor Van Bleiweiss said she met Johnson when he moved into the home, where she was a case manager at the time. After Hollywood’s big male stars came back from the war, he dropped off the list. The numbers of screaming teenage girls who swooned for Mr. Johnson were second only to those who threw themselves at Frank Sinatra. By 1945 Mr. Johnson was second to Bing Crosby on the list of the Top 10 box office stars chosen yearly by the nation’s theater owners. She was briefly reconciled with Johnson and travelled with him to London in 1961 when he starred on stage in The Music Man, but the couple finally parted when Johnson began an affair with a member of the show’s cast. "It always brought a smile to his face. Van Johnson, Closeted Hollywood Heartthrob, Dies at 92 December 15, 2008 by Andy Towle Hollywood heartthrob Van Johnson died on Friday in Nyack, NY. He was 92. He seems like he can do some acting,' " Bleiweiss said. Get out of the damned spotlight while you can still be remembered for your earlier glories, not as some old relic.”. “His tolerance of unpleasantness was minuscule,” Mr. Wynn wrote. Van Johnson and Judy Garland in "In the Good Old Summertime," one of many musicals in his lengthy career. (CNN) -- Van Johnson, whose boyish looks and earnest manner made him a Hollywood heartthrob in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in an assisted-care facility, a friend told CNN. "He was one of the all-time old actors.". But that didn't stop him from acting in war films. (The marriage, which produced a daughter, Schuyler, ended in divorce in 1968.) If you live in the Los Angeles area, you may be wondering why the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre will devote the evening of Feb. 26 to screen two movies as a tribute to someone called He became known as the "voiceless Sinatra," despite a singing voice that landed him roles alongside June Allyson and Judy Garland in "Two Girls and a Sailor" and "In the Good Old Summertime," according to TCM.com. “It was one big happy family and a little kingdom,” he said of his years at MGM in a 1985 interview. The writer Arthur Laurents states in his memoirs, ‘A sunny male star caught performing in public urinals once too often was ordered by his studio to get married. service because of severe injuries sustained in a car Waldorf, In the Good Old Summertime, State of the Mr. Johnson had had supporting roles in movies like “The War Against Mrs. Hadley” (1942) and “Madame Curie” (1943), but “A Guy Named Joe” gave him two things: a lot of publicity and a steel plate in his head, which kept him from being drafted at a time when major stars like Robert Taylor, James Stewart and Clark Gable were joining the armed services. The actor’s screen image was all laughter and sunshine. Spencer Tracy had given him two pieces of advice, he said: to take up painting as a hobby and never read reviews.

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