Van Johnson, Golden Age star who was one of the top box-office draws of the 1940s, dead at 92

If you peruse the photo above, which was taken in 1943 in advance of the 20th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M) the next year, you will see what the studio advertised as "more stars than there are in the heavens." Among those surrounding studio head Louis B. Mayer — who is front and center, of course — are Lucille Ball, Lionel Barrymore, Greer Garson, Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly, Hedy Lamarr, William Powell, James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Spencer Tracy, to name just a few.

65 years later, only a handful of actors who were under contract to the studio during that decade of the Golden Age are still alive — Gloria DeHaven, Kathryn Grayson, Marsha Hunt, Margaret O'Brien, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, and Esther Williams come to mind — and today that number shrunk to even fewer with the passing of one of the last greats, Van Johnson. 

Johnson, who died of natural causes at an assisted-living facility in New York, was 92. Though his skin grew wrinkled, his hair turned gray, and he lived to a ripe old age, he will forever be remembered as the red-head with freckles who played the all-American boy in numerous movies that captured the American imagination during and after World War II. According to Quigley's annual poll of motion picture exhibitors, he was the second and third biggest box-office draw in the nation in 1945 and 1946, respectively.

Johnson was never a great beauty or extraordinary actor — when he appeared in his first film in 1940, it was as an uncredited chorus boy — but something about his demeanor made him instantly likable, which is why M-G-M took a gamble and signed him to a contract in 1942.

His earliest roles at the studio were bit parts, but audiences took notice and the studio began grooming him for stardom. Then, in March of 1943, he was driving to a screening on the lot when another vehicle ran a red light and crashed into Johnson's convertible, overturning it and causing him injuries that were so significant that he spent the next three months in a hospital bed. Odd as it might sound, it may have been the best thing that ever happened to him.

When Johnson was released from the hospital and returned to work, he had acquired two new things: (1) legions of fans who had been following his drama in the fan magazines, and (2) F-4 status that would keep him out of WWII and making movies while many of his fellow contractees were overseas.

For the next three years, M-G-M capitalized on both, casting Johnson in numerous dramas as the boy-next-door opposite girl-next-door types like June Allyson in "Three Girls and a Sailor" (1944) and Esther Williams in "Thrill of a Romance" (1945) and/or as one of "the boys" fighting "over there" in films like "A Guy Named Joe" (1943) or "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944). After the war ended, there were still a few other great films — "State of the Union" (1948), "Command Decision" (1948), "Battleground" (1949, best picture nomination), "The Caine Mutiny" (1954, best picture nomination), "Brigadoon" (1954), "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (1954), and "The End of the Affair" (1955) — but as he grew older and acting styles changed (following Brando's arrival on the scene), Johnson's star began to wane.

By the 1960s, he was no longer under contract to a movie studio, and made his living with sporadic appearances on episodes of various television shows. During the 1970s and 1980s, until his retirement, he found most of his work on the stage.

This evening, I reminisced about Johnson with someone who first met him on the M-G-M lot in 1942 when they both were in their twenties, fellow acting legend Mickey Rooney, who is now 88 and starring in a production of "Cinderella" in London. "I lost a good friend," Rooney said, "and the industry has lost a great gentleman and a talented man."

Johnson and Rooney appeared together as brothers in the wartime drama "The Human Comedy" (1943), which received five Oscar nominations, including one for best picture, and Rooney was quick to emphasize that Johnson was not just the boy-next-door that many labeled him. "I think it went beyond that," he says, noting that Johnson was a "great singer, dancer, actor — he had it all, but no ego."

---

Photo: Van Johnson (center-middle) poses for a photo with fellow M-G-M contractees and studio head Louis B. Mayer in 1943. Credit: LIFE Magazine.

Comments

[RBBrittain]

Two curious things I saw in the picture. First of all, I can't believe the crude Oscar mockup on the right; you'd think the studio Cedric Gibbons still worked for at the time could make a better mock Oscar than that. (Of course, today's Academy would likely sue ANY studio that used a mock Oscar in a publicity shot; but 1943 was a far different time, especially since this was MGM.)

But more importantly, notice the dramatically different treatment of two famous Hollywood couples in this picture. Lucille Ball is sitting on the front row, but Desi Arnaz is standing in back--even though they were married in 1940; guess somebody at MGM didn't like Lucy marrying a Latino. Yet Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy are much closer--Hepburn is sitting right next to Louis B. Mayer; Tracy is right behind him--even though they took great pains to hide their affair, which began in 1942. (I wouldn't be surprised if Kate was seated next to Mayer to deflect attention from Tracy being so close to her.)