Arte Johnson Wiki, Bio, Age, Wife, Kids, Cause of Death, Net Worth, Family, Obituary, Funeral, Nationality, Ethnicity and Height
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Arte Johnson Biography – Arte Johnson Wiki
Arte Johnson born Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson, was an American comic actor and writer.
Johnson spent most of his young years in Chicago. He entered Austin High School at age 12 and the University of Illinois at 16, where he graduated with a major in radio journalism.
After college, Johnson migrated to New York, where he wrote for a calendar company, and then served a stint in the Army. Back in New York, he landed a publicity job at Viking Press (he worked with John Steinbeck getting out the 1952 novel East of Eden) but was disenchanted with the publishing world.
During a walk during his lunch hour at Viking, he came upon an audition across the street from Carnegie Hall. He talked his way in, charmed songwriter Jule Styne and landed a part as a 65-year-old Frenchman in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
He followed that by replacing Roddy McDowall as bespectacled Army inductee Ben in Broadway’s No Time for Sergeants, then did a “Hamlet on skates” routine with Bea Arthur in the off-Broadway hit Shoestring Revue. His knack for improv comedy also landed him nightclub gigs, and he exchanged material with Jonathan Winters.
Johnson moved to Los Angeles in 1955 as a singer and appeared on such shows as It’s Always Jan, Make Room for Daddy, Sally, The Twilight Zone, The Red Skelton Hour, The Andy Griffith Show and McHale’s Navy and in the films Miracle in the Rain (1956), The Subterraneans (1960), The Third Day (1965) — as a neurotic killer — and The President’s Analyst (1967).
His versatile vocal creations led to work in scores of commercials over the years. When his career hit a rough patch, he toiled as a salesman at the men’s clothing store Carroll & Co. in Beverly Hills.
When his career hit a rough patch, he toiled as a salesman at the men’s clothing store Carroll & Co. in Beverly Hills. In a 2005 interview with Bill Dana for Emerson College’s American Comedy Archives, he remembered when stand-up comic Mort Sahl, whom he had known from New York, walked in.
“Mort said, ‘Ah, what are you buying?’ And I had to look at him and honestly say, ‘Mort, I ain’t buyin,’ I’m sellin.'” That was a very, very, very major hit. And it hurt, it really hurt.
“[Store owner and close friend Dick Carroll] kept telling people who came in, ‘Why is this guy working in a clothing store? He should be doing movies, television.’ And suddenly, one day, somebody called and he said to me, ‘They’re looking for you at MGM. And I went over and they offered me a role.”
Producer George Schlatter was impressed with his humorous characterizations and impersonations and asked Johnson to try out for Laugh-In, which debuted in September 1968.
“I worked off the top of my head most of the time,” he told Dana. “I did a lot of ad lib. And it wasn’t that I was writing for myself, because the writers would present a program and a setup for me, and they would give me four or five examples. Then, in my own head, I would conjure five or six different things.”
In the 1970s for NBC, Johnson headlined his own special, Verry Interesting; starred in the telefilm Call Holme, a comedy mystery that utilized his propensity for disguises and accents; and served as master of ceremonies for the quiz show Knockout.
Later, he played a magazine photographer on Aaron Spelling’s Glitter and Yakov Smirnoff’s father on NBC’s Night Court, used his vocal talents for audiobooks by Dave Barry and others and returned to Broadway to play several characters in a revival of Candide for Harold Prince.
Arte Johnson Age
He was born on January 20, 1929 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, United States as Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson. He died on July 3, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. He was 90.
Arte Johnson Wife
He was married to his wife Gisela Johnson since August 15, 1968 to the time of his death.
Arte Johnson Family
He was the son of Abraham Lincoln and Edythe Mackenzie (Golden) Johnson. His father was an attorney. He had a brother Coslough Johnson.
His brother, Coslough Johnson, was a comedy writer who worked on The Monkees, Laugh-In and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and on several cartoons.
Arte Johnson Death
Johnson died on July 3, 2019 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of heart failure following a three-year battle with bladder and prostate cancer.
Arte Johnson Cause of Death
Arte Johnson’s cause of death was heart failure.
Arte Johnson Health
He was a non-Hodgkins lymphoma survivor, having been diagnosed and successfully treated in 1997. He died on July 3, 2019, after being ill for three years with bladder and prostate cancer.
Arte Johnson Height
He stood at a height of 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m).
Arte Johnson Net Worth
This information is being updated.
