|
|
"My laptop was completely ruined when my office flooded. Even the hard disk was wrecked; but I didn't lose a single document."
 | Don johnson News - 4-March-2000 |  |
The Dutch Don Johnson Fan Club
Don Johnson was born as Donnie Wayne Johnson on December 15 1949, as the eldest son of Wayne and Nell Johnson. He has one younger sister, Linda and two younger brothers, Greg and KC, and a half sister called Deanne. Don is the only actor in the family; both his grandfathers were preachers.
Don’s first taste of the limelight came when he was just five, singing solos in the church.
Quote: “ I’d sing and people would pinch my cheek, say ‘aren’t you wonderful’ and give me a quarter. I am sure I was bitten by the bug then, because of the affection and the money.”
After Don was born the family lived for five years in Flatt Creek near Galena, Missouri USA, while Wayne worked on Don’s grandmothers farm.
Then they moved to Wichita, Kansas where Don’s father got a job with an aircraft company. When Don was 12 years old his parents got divorced and his father moved back to Missouri taking Don with him. Don’s father married again with a woman called Darlene.
Don lived with his father for a few years and then went back to Wichita to finish high school and graduated in the Class of 1967.Because he needed credits to graduate he took drama classes and got the lead role of Tony in West Side Story. Karin Slater, his drama teacher, recalled: “ Without him we probably couldn’t have done West Side Story. Don was extremely talented -a natural on stage- with a beautiful tenor voice.”
When he finished high school, Don won a scholarship to the theater department of the University of Kansas.Two years later he won a grant for ACT (San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater) and moved to San Francisco.
In December 1968 Sal Mineo came to SF and saw Don in the play “Your Own Thing” co-produced by the ACT. He asked Don to read for the role of Smitty in Fortune and Men’s Eyes. Don got the part and was on stage eight shows a week, for eight months: the reviews were great. Producer Martin Poll had seen him perform on stage and decided Don was perfect for the lead role in de MGM movie ‘The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart’. His movie carrier really got started then.
He starred in a lot of films after that: Zachariah, The Harrad Experiment, A Boy and His Dog, and TV movies like ‘Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill’. “ Written and directed by Joel Schumacher, this is one of the best movies ever made for television…Johnson is attractive and impressive.” The critic for the Washington Post said about it.
Don also received the Golden Scroll Award of merit, naming him as Best Actor of the Year by the Academy of Science Fiction and Horror Films for his role in A Boy and His Dog.
Despite these great reviews, Don wasn’t considered a very successful actor till he landed the role of Sonny Crockett in the TV hit series Miami Vice.
In his personal life Don had also ups and downs. Being married twice when he was very young, both the marriages were annulled, Don met Melanie Griffith when he was starring in ‘The Harrad Experiment’ with her mother Tippi Hedren. Melanie was 14 years old at the time and Don 22.The two of them started to go to Hollywood premieres and parties together, they were more or less an item for the next five years. In 1975 Don’s mother Nell died of cancer, until her death she worked as a beautician in Wichita.
Melanie and Don lived together for a while and eventually got married in January 1976. The marriage didn’t last very long, and they divorced that same year.
A few years later Don met Patti D’Arbanville, in the famous Mr. Chow’s Chinese Restaurant, and Patti moved in with Don the same night. They both were major party people, drinking and using drugs. That changed when Patti found out that she was pregnant. Jesse Wayne Johnson, was born on December 7, 1982. A little while after Jesse was born Don decided since he had a son now, he didn’t want to drink and use drugs anymore, and he started to join AA meetings and got into shape again by running four miles a day.
In between films, waiting for the phone to ring, Don found out about a TV show in development called ‘Dade County Fast Lane’. He called his agent who got him a copy of the script. Although the writer, Anthony Yerkovich was very enthusiastic, when Don read a few scenes with him, the studio couldn’t make up their mind whether or not Don was the right person for the role of Sonny Crockett.
Don decided not to wait any longer and to take the leading role in a film called Cease Fire, which was shot in Florida. When the shooting was finished, there still was no word from NBC. So Don went on a fishing trip with his friend Dicky Betts. Then the studio called him to shore and asked him to read with several different actors who were after the part of Ricardo Tubbs, Crockett’s partner. When Don was asked to read together with Philip Michael Thomas the chemistry was instant. The decision was made that they would become the duo that made Miami Vice famous.
Because Miami Vice was unique, a TV series that used music, light and colors in a way that was never shown on the small screen before, it became a huge hit. Don was nominated for an Emmy, and received a Golden Globe award for the role of the undercover Vice cop James "Sonny" Crockett. The show ran from 9/16/84 until 7/26/89.
Patti and Don split up after being together for almost five years, and for a while Don was seen with Barbra Streisand, with whom he recorded the song ‘Till I Loved You’.
Don met Melanie again when she got a small part in the episode ‘By Hooker by Crook’, directed by Don himself, in 1987. Melanie had been married to and divorced from actor Steven Bauer, and the two of them had a son, Alexander, born in 1985. Melanie and Don started seeing each other again and eventually re-married in 1989. Soon after that their daughter Dakota was born. During that time a dream came true,and Don made two Albums: ‘Heartbeat’ in 1986 and ‘Let it Roll’ in 1988.
After Miami Vice ended, Don starred in a number of films, for instance: Dead Bang, Hot Spot, Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man and Guilty as Sin.
Melanie and Don costarred in Paradise, and Born Yesterday, taking the children with them on location. It was a happy life, and although the films Don made were no big hits in the box-office, the critics praised his acting.
Don has also his own production company. In 1993 he was the Executive Producer of the acclaimed movie ‘In the Company of Darkness’, starring Jeff Fahey. David Anspaugh, who also directed an episode of Miami Vice, directed this Movie of the Week. Don also hosted and produced the Horatio Alger Awards.
In 1994 Don lost his battle against alcoholism, and eventually checked himself into the Betty Ford Center. “Some people fall of the wagon, I fell of a building” Don said on the Arsenio Hall Show. But his marriage with Melanie was beyond saving and when Melanie met Antonio Banderas she filed for divorce.
The next year Don worked as an executive producer of the ABC series ‘The Marshall’, starring Jeff Fahey and signed a contract with CBS about a new TV series called ‘Off Duty’, which later became ‘Nash Bridges’: developed, designed and executive-produced by Don.
Besides spending time with his kids and making music, Don also likes to play golf. When he was filming the golf movie ‘Tin Cup’ with Kevin Costner, Don met Cheech Marin who played the role of caddy. Don enjoyed working with Cheech and offered him the part of Joe Dominguez. CBS put the series in the same time slot as Miami Vice once was, 10 P.M. on Friday night. And although ‘Nash’ wasn’t an instant megahit in March 1996 when it first aired, ratings still keep growing.
During a summer break Don accepted the role of Ben Dunmore in the twisty-turvy, blackly comic thriller ‘Goodbye Lover’, tagline:” No one's ever been so good at being so bad”. After that, things in Don’s personal life went not bad at all! In the summer of 1997 at a party for Mayor Brown he met Kelley Phleger, a nursery school teacher and San Francisco socialite.
Kelley and Don fell in love and got engaged in the next spring. Almost a year later they got married, on April 29 1999, in the Pacific Heights mansion of Ann and Gordon Getty. Soon after the wedding Don and Kelley happily announced that they are expecting their first baby.
The fifth season of Nash Bridges started in September 1999 and with
Yasmine Bleeth, who joined the cast as Internal Affairs Officer Caitlin Cross and Stone Cold Steve Austin in a recurring guest role, the ratings for Nash are getting better and better.
The couples first child, daughter Atherton Grace, was born on December 28, 1999 and on February 7, 2000 Don’s classy, upscale Vietnamese restaurant Ana Mandara in Ghirardelli Square, San Franciso opened is doors.
Who said that Don Johnson wasn’t on top anymore?
| Page: 1
Page: 1
|
|
|
|
|
