Van Johnson

Charles Van Dell Johnson (August 25, 1916 – December 12, 2008) was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He had a prolific career in film, television, theatre and radio, which spanned over 50 years, from 1940 to 1992. He was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II, known for his upbeat and "all-American" screen persona, often playing young military servicemen, or in musicals. Originally a Broadway dancer, Johnson achieved his breakthrough playing a rookie bomber pilot in A Guy Named Joe (1943). Throughout the war years, he became a popular Hollywood star, as the embodiment of the "boy-next-door wholesomeness" playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor, or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in such films as The Human Comedy (also 1943) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). After World War II, he continued to play similar heartthrob and military characters, equal parts in serious dramas like The Caine Mutiny (1954), and in light musicals like Brigadoon (1954). After the end of his contract with MGM, he transitioned largely into television, though he continued to make regular film appearances in featured and supporting parts, earning an Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. He continued to maintain a regular presence in musical theatre, most notably as Professor Harold Hill The Music Man on the West End, and Georges in La Cage aux Folles on Broadway, before retiring from acting in the early 1990s. At the time of his death in 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of the Golden Age of Hollywood.