Was actor van johnson gay
Actor Van Johnson, who died in 2007, was one of Hollywood's perfect films idols. In the 1940s, the charming screen icon was box office gold, and remained a popular presence on TV in shows like Murder, She Wrote (which starred his good friend Angela Lansbury).
However, Johnson's stardom was nearly curtailed due to a serious car accident. It happend when he and close friends player Keenan Wynne and his wife Evie (Abbott) were en route to a movie screening.
Johnson suffered a fractured skull, had bone fragments that pierced his brain, and was left with a scar on his forehead and a long metal plate on the left side of his head.
While his scar was strategically hidden in his movies by the make-up department, it is visibble in the 1954 court-martial drama The Caine Mutiny.
Other Hidden Aspects of His Life
Beyond the attentive camoflauge of his physical scars, Van Johnson, who was gay, and the Hollywood publicity machine worked overtime to conceal his true sexuality.
For example, a portion of the New York Times obituary of the actor read as follows:
“Mr. Johnson shocked MGM and dismayed his fans in 1947 when he stole the wife of h
Unpacking Van Johnson
Almost everything about the real Van Johnson (Charles Van Dell Johnson, 1911-2008) is more interesting than his movie career.
I’ve long wanted to give Van Johnson a nod here because he was a native Rhode Islander — and there are so few of us! Never a superlative actor, he was always supremely likeable in pictures, but it’s that home state accent that especially grabs me. His Small Rhody origins, and the fact that he played John Alden in the soporific pseudo-classic Plymouth Adventure (1952) got me curious as to whether I was related to him, perhaps with some Colonial ancestors in common. But no, he was the son of a Swedish immigrant father and a Pennsylvania Dutch mother. And all you have to accomplish is look at any picture of him to move “Of course!” The matinee idol sandy hair, the robust physique, the sun-spawned explosion of freckles, the good-natured grin. Did he ever play a Swede, I wonder? How curious, if he didn’t.
Johnson’s journey into motion pictures occurred on a path which many women took, but few men. After being in shows at social clubs as a teenager, he broke into show business as a chor
On August 25, Van Johnson would have been 103 years old. There are few people from classic Hollywood that I love more than Van. Last year for his birthday, I wrote about why I fell for him, but it feels like I still didn't even scratch the surface of what it is about Van that makes me swoon over him as much as I accomplish. Because of this, I reflection it'd be fun to disseminate some of the facts and stories that contribute to what makes Van so special.
A is for A Guy Named Joe
A Guy Named Joe is one of the most important films of Van's career. When he was cast as the juvenile pilot who wins over Irene Dunne with the ghostly guidance of Spencer Tracy, it was clearly a good step towards making Van the sensitive, quixotic leading man he became. All of that was put in jeopardy, though, when two weeks into production, Van, his top friends Keenan and Evie Wynn, and two others were struck in Van's convertible by a car running a red bright. While everyone else was relatively fine, Van was thrown from the car, almost scalped, and, thanks to a severed artery in his neck, lost a huge amount of blood while waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance.
Everyone thought that even if he survived
On screen he was cute, with red hair and freckles, usually playing the part of the boy next door, or the soldier who lived down the street. During the 1940s he was a Hollywood heart throb besieged by legions of screaming bobby-soxers. Off screen, he always wore his mark red socks.
On screen he personified the wholesome, cheerful boy next door, always smiling and eager. Off screen he was a gay man living a lie perpetrated by MGM, who insisted he receive married in command to quell rumors of his sexual orientation.
Van Johnson(1916-2008) was the last of the big screen stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood when he died at age 92. He could dance and vocalize and enjoyed a solid career as a movie actor, earning praise for his roles in both musicals and dramas. Photo at top of send is with co-star Esther Williams.
His marriage and eventual divorce, however, garnered as much press as his career as a Hollywood luminary. MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayerbribed Evie Wynn into marrying Johnson in 1947. Johnson had been caught engaging in gay sex acts in common urinals, so MGM needed to safeguard its investment by having Johnson unite. Keenan Wynn was Van Johnson’s top friend, and when