Van Johnson has died from natural causes at the age of 92. A popular actor in the 1940's and 1950's Johnson had a contract with MGM. His good looks often had him cast as the all American boy.
Johnson was nicknamed ""the non-singing Sinatra." His friend Lucille Ball helped him get a screen test and contract with MGM after a short stint as a contract player with Warner Brothers.
"Lucille tried to cheer me up, but I just couldn't seem to laugh," he said in a 1963 interview. "Suddenly she said to me, `There's Billy Grady over there; he's MGM's casting director. I'm going to introduce you, and at least you're going to act like you're the star I think you will be.'"
Johnson only married once to Eve Wynn. The union lasted for 13 years ending in an ugly divorce. the
Associated Press quotes Johnson about the end of the marriage that produced one daughter, Schuyler.
"She wiped me out in the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history," Johnson told reporters.
His big break in the movie "A Guy Named Joe" almost never happened. On April 1, 1943 Johnson was hit head-on by another car in his DeSota convertible.
"They tell me I was almost decapitated, but I never lost consciousness," he remembered. "I spent four months in the hospital after they sewed the top of my head back on. I still have a disc of bone in my forehead five inches long."
The movie waited until Johnson recovered. He then starred in three to four films a year including "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Two Girls and a Sailor," "Weekend at the Waldorf." "High Barbaree," "Mother Is a Freshman," "No Leave No Love" and "Three Guys Named Mike."
By the 1950's Johnson was a fading star and roles were hard to come by. He did star in the movie "Wives and Lovers" with Janet Lee in 1963.
In the 1960's Johnson returned to the stage playing in summer theaters at $7,500 a week starring in "Damn Yankee." For two years he appeared in London starring in "The Music Man."
Van Johnson died in Nyack, New York. He had been living at Tappan Zee Manor, an assister living center.
