Richard Johnson (actor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Richard Johnson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | July 30, 1927 Upminster, England |
Richard Johnson (born July 30, 1927) is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Johnson was born in Upminster, England, the son of Frances Louisa Olive (née Tweed) and Keith Holcombe Johnson.[1] Johnson's most famous wife was Kim Novak, his second wife, with whom he appeared in the 1965 film, The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders; they had no children. By his first marriage, to Sheila Sweet, he has two children, games designer Jervis Johnson (b. 1969) and actress Sorel Johnson. He has another child, his third, by his third wife, Mary Louise Norlund.
[edit] Career
Johnson trained at RADA and made his first professional appearances on stage with John Gielgud's company. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy, and made his film debut in 1951. His biggest successes as a film actor came with The Haunting (1963), as Bulldog Drummond in 1966's Deadlier Than the Male, opposite Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier in Khartoum (1966) and 1969's Some Girls Do. Johnson was director Terence Young's choice for the role of James Bond but he turned the producers down as he didn't favour a lengthy contract.[2] He also appeared in several Italian films, including Lucio Fulci's cult classic, Zombi 2 and Sergio Martino's L'Isola degli uomini pesce (aka Island of Mutations). At the same time, he was a stage actor, appearing in the title role in Tony Richardson's production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre in 1958.
In 1957, he played Iachimo, opposite Peggy Ashcroft's Imogen, in Peter Hall's Cymbeline. During the 1970s he starred with the Royal Shakespeare Company and played Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and the title role in Cymbeline (1982), both BBC productions. He has continued to appear on film and television, twice in Midsomer Murders and often in historical dramas, as well as acting on stage in the West End and lecturing on Shakespeare. In 2007, aged 80, he appeared on the radio comedy Bleak Expectations.
[edit] References
- ^ Richard Johnson Biography (1927-)
- ^ Cinema Retro magazine issue #10
[edit] External links
- Richard Johnson (actor) at the Internet Movie Database
- Blog entry with links about the Gielgud production of And Then There Were None, in which Richard Johnson played Justice Wargrave
