Richard Johnson (actor)
| Richard Johnson | |
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Richard Johnson, c. 2008
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| Born |
30 July 1927 Upminster, Essex, England, UK |
| Died | 5 June 2015 (aged 87) Chelsea, London, England, UK |
| Years active | 1950–2014 |
| Spouse(s) | Sheila Sweet (1957-1962; 2 children; divorced) Kim Novak (1965–1966; divorced) Marie-Louise Norlund (1982-1989; 1 child; divorced) Lynne Gurney (2004-2015; his death) |
| Partner(s) | Françoise Pascal (1 son) |
Richard Keith Johnson (30 July 1927 – 5 June 2015) was a British actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and also had TV roles and a distinguished stage career.
Johnson was born in Upminster, Essex, the son of Frances Louisa Olive (née Tweed) and Keith Holcombe Johnson. Johnson went to Felsted School, then trained at RADA and made his first professional appearances on stage in Manchester with John Gielgud's company in a production of Hamlet in 1944.
He served in the Royal Navy from 1945 to 1948, and made his film debut in 1959, when he appeared in a major co-star role in the MGM film Never So Few, starring Frank Sinatra and Gina Lollobrigida. He was subsequently contracted by MGM to appear in one film per year over six years. His biggest successes as a film actor came with The Haunting (1963) also featuring Claire Bloom and Julie Harris, Khartoum (1966) with Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier, and the spy film Danger Route (1967). Johnson was director Terence Young's preferred choice for the role of James Bond in the first film in the series, but Johnson turned the role down. A few years later, Bulldog Drummond was reimagined as a 007-type hero in Deadlier Than the Male (1967) and its sequel Some Girls Do (1969).
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