Van Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II.
Johnson was the embodiment of the "boy-next-door wholesomeness (that) made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s," playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in MGM movies during the war years with such films as 30 Seconds over Tokyo, A Guy Named Joe and The Caine Mutiny. Johnson made occasional World War II movies through the end of the 1960s, and he played a military officer in one of his final feature films, in 1992. At the time of his death in December 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywood's "golden age."
Read more about Van Johnson: Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Legacy, Selected Filmography, Stage Wrk
Famous quotes containing the words van and/or johnson:
“Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;
And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;
And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living, there is no place like home.”
—Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)
“Throw the children into the river; civilization has given us too
many.
It is better to die than to grow up and find that you are colored.
Pluck the stars out of the heavens. The stars mark our destiny. The
stars marked my destiny.
I am tired of civilization.”
—Fenton Johnson (1886–1958)