by wallyg

Don Johnson

Early life and education

Johnson was born in Flat Creek, Missouri, in 1949. His father was a farmer while his mother was a beautician. At the age of 6, he moved from Missouri to Wichita, Kansas. A 1967 graduate of South High School in Wichita, he was involved in the high school theater program. As a senior, he played the lead role of Tony in "West Side Story". His bio noted that he had previously appeared in "Burnt Cork and Melody" and "The Hullabaloo." He also attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

In the late 1960s, Johnson was in a band called psychedelic rock Horses. Also in the band were future members of the band Kingfish, which featured Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. The band put out one self-titled record on the White Whale label in 1969, later re-issued on the Gear Fab label label in 2004 and then on the Rev-Ola in 2005.

Johnson, as several noteworthy news sources have mentioned over the years, was kept out of the military due to a high lottery number. He never had to serve, and in fact in a 1970 newspaprer artcile, claimed he would not have done so even if called due to his beliefs at the time.

Johnson is quoted in a 1970 newspaper article, mentioning his draft-exempt status and his dislike for war:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hr00AAAAIBAJ&sjid=UIcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1034, 3970530 & dq = don-johnson & hl = en

Acting

Early years

Johnson studied drama at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. His first major role was in the 1969 Los Angeles stage production of Fortune and Men's Eyes in which he played Smitty, the lead role. This exposure led to the quickly forgotten film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970). He continued to work on stage, film and television without breaking out into stardom. His notable films from this period were Zachariah (1971), The Harrad Experiment (1973), Lollipop and Roses (1974), and A Boy and His Dog (1975).

Miami Vice

After years of struggling to establish himself as a TV actor (in such fare as Revenge of the Stepford Wives) and a string of failed pilots which were never followed by series of actual TV, in September 1984, Johnson's fortunes changed when he landed a starring role as Sonny Crockett in the cop series, Miami Vice. In this role, Johnson played at undercover police detective. He typically wore thousand dollar Versace and Hugo Boss suits over pastel cotton t-shirts, drove a Ferrari 365 GTS / 4 Daytona (really a replica kit on a 1981 Corvette chassis), followed by a Ferrari Testa Rossa and lived on a 42-foot ( 13 m) yacht with his pet alligator Elvis. Miami Vice was noted for its revolutionary use of music, cinematography, and imagery as well as a more glitzy take on the police drama genre.

miniseries In between seasons, Don Johnson gained further renown through several TV, such as the 1985 TV remake of The Long, Hot Summer.

Nash Bridges

Johnson later starred in the 1996-2001 drama Nash Bridges with Cheech Marin, Jaime P. Gomez and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. Johnson played the title role of Nash Bridges, a detective for the San Francisco Police Department. In Nash Bridges Johnson was again paired with a flashy convertible car, this time an electric yellow 1971 Plymouth Barracuda.

2000s

In the fall of 2005, he briefly starred in The WB courtroom television drama show Just Legal as a jaded lawyer with a very young and idealistic protege / partner (Jay Baruchel), the show was canceled in October 2005 after just three episodes aired. In January 2007, Johnson began a run in the London West End production of Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit.

Don Johnson thus has a role in the Norwegian comedy Lange Flate Ballr 2 ("Long Flat Balls II"), directed by Harald Zwart Johnson's friend. Johnson did the movie as a favor to Zwart. The movie premiere was launched March 14, 2008 in Norway, with Johnson making an appearance at the. He next appeared in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy with Jon Heder, When in Rome with Danny De Vito, Anjelica Huston and Kirsten Bell, and machete with Robert De Niro and Steven Seagal.

Johnson & Jon Heder co-hosted WWE's Monday Night RAW on January 18th, 2010.

Music

Johnson released two albums of pop music in the 1980s one, in 1986 and the other in 1989. His single "Heartbeat", the title track from his first album, reached # 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Johnson is also a good friend of Willie Nelson. Previously, Johnson worked with Gregg Allman and Dickie Betts of the Allman Brothers, co-writing the songs "Blind Love" and "Can not Take It with You" with Dickie Betts, which appeared on their 1979 album, Enlightened Rogues.

Releases

1986: Heart Beat album

1987: Heartbeat – Full Length Video VHS

1989: Let It Roll album

1988: Till I Loved You "(duet with Barbra Streisand and title track from her album Till I Loved You

1989: A better place (Un lugar mejor), (duet with Latin singer Yuri), 4 tracks single

1997: The Essential album

Personal life

Relationships and family

Johnson with Griffith about 1990th

Johnson has had four different wives in five marriages, three of which were short. Johnson had a major supporting role in The Harrad Experiment (released 1973), whose female lead was Tippi Hedren. He met Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith around the first half of 1972, she was at uncredited extra. He was aged 22 and she 14 when they began what became a four-year affair, that included marrying, in 1976, for less than a year. Melanie and Don reconciled and conceived a child close to the start of 1989, announced plans wedding in mid-February, and were married a second time, from that year until 1996th They had a daughter, Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989).

He lived with Patti D'Arbanville from 1981 to 1985th The couple had a son, Jesse Wayne Johnson (born on December 7, 1982).

He had a relationship with Barbra Streisand, lasting into at least September 1988. Streisand and Johnson were supposedly secretly engaged at one point.He created a single with her called "Till I Loved You", released that year. Johnson had a relationship with Jeanne Anderson in 1996.

On April 29, 1999, he married San Francisco socialite and former preschool teacher Kelley Phleger. He had a daughter and Phleger, Atherton Grace Johnson (born on December 28, 1999), and two sons, Jasper Breckinridge Johnson (born on June 6, 2002) and Deacon Johnson (born on April 29, 2006)

Legal problems

In 2001, a 36-year-old woman accused of intoxicated Johnson of squeezing and bruising her wrist and lewdly propositioning her outside a restroom at San Francisco restaurant Mas Sake, and claimed while still firmly squeezing her wrist he began drunkenly singing "Heart Beat". The woman's friends made their way across the restaurant to confront Johnson as he continued to sing but said when he saw them he let go of her and quickly fled out the back door. Johnson said he was considering buying an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle to state his side of the story, but later decided to post the notices on his website. Due to insufficient evidence, no charges were filed.

In November 2002, German customs officers at the Swiss-German border performed a routine search of Johnson's car. Bank statements evidencing U.S. billion in transactions were found in the trunk of his car. He was accompanied in his black Mercedes-Benz by three men: an investment adviser, a personal assistant, and a third of unknown identity. Initially it was thought Johnson was involved in money-laundering, but he was cleared of Wrongdoing. Upon receiving word of the incident, German tabloids began exploiting and perpetuating the story, at times pointing at the irony (as perceived by them) Don Johnson has frequently portrayed police officers in his acting that works. Johnson explained the incident by saying "I was meeting with some American businessmen in Zurich for financing, for a film fund that I was putting together for my company. They gave me some bank statements and some resumes and some other documents, some things to prove that they could perform as investors. "[citation needed] The police found and copied these documents, and the money laundering story grew somehow out of this.

In May 2008, Johnson came within hours of losing his Woody Creek, Colorado home to foreclosure, he paid off his debts .5 million dollars less than 24 hours before a scheduled auction of the property.

Reception

Awards and recognitions

Year

Result

Award

Category

TV / Film

1974

Winner

The Saturn Award

Best Actor

A Boy and His Dog

1985

Nominated

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Miami Vice

1986

Winner

Golden Globe Awards

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama

1 987

Nominated

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama

1988

Won

APBA Offshore World Cup

Superboat class

–

1996

Awarded

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

–

In popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2009)

The Finnish music group Don Johnson Big Band is named after him.

In the comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes that was first published on May 4, 1986, when Calvin and Hobbes are getting ready to go to a dinner with Calvin's parents, Hobbes asks, "Think I should shave?", To which Calvin replies " No, go for the Don Johnson fuzzy look. "

The Don Johnson is a Miami Vice themed drink made from vodka, gin, curaao, and orange juice.

Filmography

Year

Film

Role

Notes

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