Arte Johnson

Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American actor and comedian who was best known for his work as a regular on television's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

Arte Johnson
Johnson at the premiere of Seems Like Old Times in December 1980
Born	Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (1929-01-20)January 20, 1929 Benton Harbor, Michigan, U.S.
Died	July 3, 2019(2019-07-03) (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Illinois (B.A., 1949)
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	1954–2006
Spouses	Texie Waterman (divorced) Gisela Johnson ​ (m. 1968)​

Biography

Early life

Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the son of Abraham Lincoln and Edythe Mackenzie (Goldberg/Golden) Johnson. His father was an attorney. Johnson graduated from Austin High School and received a bachelor's degree in radio journalism from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949, where he worked at the campus radio station and the University of Illinois Theater Guild with his brother Coslough "Cos" Johnson.

Following brief military service in Korea (he was discharged due to a duodenal ulcer he had suffered since childhood), he sought employment in Chicago advertising agencies but was unsuccessful and left for New York City to work for Viking Press. In early 1954, Johnson performed in several New York nightclubs, including Le Ruban Bleu and the Village Vanguard. His first job in show business came when he impulsively stepped into an audition line and was cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Johnson appeared in Ben Bagley's The Shoestring Revue, which opened off-Broadway on February 28, 1955, at the President Theater in New York.

Early television and film roles

Johnson appeared three times in the 1955–1956 CBS sitcom It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige and Merry Anders. In 1956 a young Arte Johnson appeared in season 3, episode 22, of Make Room for Daddy in an episode called "Who Can Figure Kids", where he sang and danced. In 1958 he joined the cast of the short-lived NBC sitcom Sally. On that program he played Bascomb Bleacher, Jr., the son of a co-owner of a department store, portrayed by Gale Gordon. He played Ariel Lavalerra in the 1960 film The Subterraneans, an adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel of the same name. In 1960 and 1961, he appeared in three episodes of Jackie Cooper's military sitcom/drama series Hennesey, also on CBS. In Alfred Hitchcock Presents he played Mr. Bates in the episode "A Secret Life" (1962). He was cast in an episode of Frank Aletter's sitcom Bringing Up Buddy. He also appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "The Whole Truth" (1961).

Before his big breakthrough in Laugh-In, Johnson was cast for a guest role as Corporal Coogan in the anthology series GE True ("The Handmade Private," 1962). He played a bumbling navy cameraman on an episode of McHale's Navy in the first season and The Andy Griffith Show as a hotel clerk in the episode "Andy and Barney in the Big City" (also 1962). He was a member of the regular cast of the 1962–1963 situation comedy Don't Call Me Charlie!, portraying Corporal Lefkowitz. Johnson appeared in a comedic role as Charlie, a boom-microphone operator who demonstrates to Jack Benny how to tell a joke properly, on The Jack Benny Program that aired on October 2, 1964. The joke performed in the sketch was the "ugly baby" story, later associated with Flip Wilson. He made a guest appearance on ABC's sitcom, Bewitched as Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) Cousin Edgar in the final episode of the first season, airing on June 2, 1965. Also in 1965, Johnson played a rare dramatic supporting role in the film The Third Day as Lester Aldrich, who turns out to be the downtrodden husband of the sleazy nymphomaniac Holly.

Johnson appeared in one of the final episodes of ABC's The Donna Reed Show in 1966. He was cast in the satirical James Coburn film The President's Analyst (1967), in which he gave a comically chilling performance as a federal agent with a blindly obedient "orders are orders" mentality. He appeared in the Season 3 episode of Lost in Space titled "Princess of Space" (1968). Johnson also starred in an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery titled "The Flip-Side of Satan" (1971).

Laugh-In

Johnson is best known for his work on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973, on which he played many characters, including "Wolfgang," a cigarette-smoking German soldier oblivious to the fact that World War II was long over, as he skulked while hidden behind a potted plant. He would then invariably comment on a preceding gag with the catchphrase "Very interesting ...," which Johnson claimed was inspired by a Nazi character who spoke the line during an interrogation scene in the film Desperate Journey (1942). Often toward the show's close, he (as the German) would offer words of affection to "Lucy and Gary" (Lucille Ball and her second husband Gary Morton). The Lucy Show and later Here's Lucy on CBS were in direct competition with NBC's Laugh-In on Monday night. Johnson reprised the role briefly on Sesame Street in the early 1970s, and while voicing the Nazi-inspired character Virman Vundabar on an episode of Justice League Unlimited.

Johnson as "Tyrone F. Horneigh" approaching Lucille Ball in a sketch on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1971)

His other prominent Laugh-In character was "Tyrone F. Horneigh" (pronounced "horn-eye," a "clean" variant of the vulgar term "horny"), the white-haired, trench coat-wearing "dirty old man" who repeatedly sought to seduce "Gladys Ormphby," (Ruth Buzzi's brown-clad "spinster" character) on a park bench. Tyrone would enter the scene, muttering a song (usually "In the Merry, Merry Month of May"), and, spying Gladys on the bench, would sit next to her. He would ask her a question, and regardless of the answer, turn it into a double entendre. She would then start hitting him with her purse and he would fall off the bench, sometimes with a plea for help.

To boost ratings in the third season, Tyrone successfully courted Gladys which led to an on-air wedding on the March 16, 1970, episode during the spring ratings sweep. Tiny Tim played best man, with Carol Channing as the bridesmaid, and Henry Gibson officiating. Alas, both bride-to-be and groom-to-be walk out of the church just before the wedding vows are spoken.

Years after Laugh-In ended, the two characters were the subject of an animated Saturday-morning children's show, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits, with Tyrone as a helpful, muttering "superhero."

Johnson and his brother Coslough earned Emmy Awards while working on Laugh-In.

Later work

Johnson guest-starred in two episodes of The Partridge Family ("My Heart Belongs to a Two Car Garage" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls... and Tolls... and Tolls") and the situation comedy A Touch of Grace (1973). He appeared in the first season of the Detroit-produced children's show Hot Fudge (1974) and, for one week, as a celebrity guest panelist on the game show Match Game. From 1976 to 1980, Johnson was a regular celebrity guest judge on The Gong Show.

In 1976, Johnson voiced the animated cartoon character Misterjaw, a blue, German-accented shark, in The Pink Panther Show. He also voiced the character "Rhubarb" on The Houndcats and appeared as a guest on Canadian TV show Celebrity Cooks (1976) with host Bruno Gerussi. Johnson appeared on an episode of the NBC daytime version of Wheel of Fortune in September 1977 as a substitute letter-turner, both to fill in for an injured Susan Stafford, and to promote his short-lived NBC game show Knockout, which aired through early 1978. Instead of being introduced by the show's announcer, he would start the show with a small monologue, then the announcer would introduce the day's contestants. He was cast as Renfield, the comic sidekick of George Hamilton's Dracula in the film Love at First Bite (1979) and appeared in the all-star television disaster film Condominium (1980). He voiced "Weerd" in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985), and played a disgruntled employee denied severance pay in an episode of Airwolf. He also voiced several other characters: Dr. Ludwig Von Strangebuck and Count Ray on two episodes of DuckTales; Devil Smurf on The Smurfs; Top Cat and Lou on Yo Yogi!; and Newt on Animaniacs. Johnson guest-starred in the Murder, She Wrote episode "No Laughing Murder" (1987). He also appeared in an episode of Night Court (1990). From 1991 to 1992, Johnson appeared in multiple episodes of General Hospital as Finian O'Toole. He played the old laboratory head of a team of scientists working on a serum of youth in Second Chance (1996).

Johnson performed more than 80 audiobook readings, including Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan (2006) and Carl Hiaasen's Bad Monkey. He appeared in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Ties That Bind" (2005) as the voice of Virman Vundabar, which was his final acting role before his retirement in 2006.

Personal life

Johnson lived in Southern California with his wife, Gisela. He was previously married to choreographer Texie Waterman. He was a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor, having been diagnosed and successfully treated in 1997. Johnson died on July 3, 2019, after being ill for three years with bladder and prostate cancer. He was 90. His ashes were scattered off Hawaii. Gisela Johnson survives him.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Best Foot Forward	Chuck	Television film
1956	Miracle in the Rain	Monty
1959	The Wild and the Innocent	Barker	Uncredited
1960	The Subterraneans	Arial Lavalerra
1965	The Third Day	Lester Aldrich
1965	That Funny Feeling	Paul
1967	The President's Analyst	Sullivan
1968	P.J.	Jackie
1971	Arnold's Closet Revue		Television film
1973	The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas	Professor Werner von Bear	Voice, television film
1974	Twice in a Lifetime	Ron Talley	Television film
1977	Charge of the Model T's	Doc Bailey
1977	Once Upon a Brothers Grimm	Selfish and Mean	Television film
1977	Bunco		Television film
1978	Bud and Lou	Eddie Sherman	Television film
1979	Love At First Bite	Renfield
1980	Condominium	Introduction	Television film
1980	The Love Tapes	Harlan Devane	Television film
1980	A Snow White Christmas	Brawny	Voice, television film
1983	Making of a Male Model	Marty Sampson
1984	Cannonball Run II	Pilot
1985	What Comes Around	Malone
1985	Alice in Wonderland	The Dormouse
1985	Star Fairies	Dragon Head #2	Voice, television film
1987	Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers	Farquard, Skull Ghost	Voice, television film
1988	A Night at the Magic Castle	Harry Houdini
1989	Tax Season	Mr. Goldberg
1990	Evil Spirits	Lester Potts
1992	Evil Toons	Mr. Hinchlow
1992	Munchie	Professor Cruikshank
1995	Captiva Island	Witherspoon, Ernie
1998	The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Grumpy Old Man	Final film role

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Max Liebman Spectaculars	Chuck Green	Episode: "Best Foot Forward"
1955–1956	It's Always Jan	Stanley Schreiber	4 episodes
1956	The Danny Thomas Show	Bob Martin	Episode: "Who Can Figure Kids?"
1958	Sally	Bascomb Bleacher Jr.	7 episodes
1959	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Wally	Episode: "Ivy League"
1960	The Red Skelton Show	Joe, Census Taker	2 episodes
1960–1961	Hennesey	Seaman Seymour Shatz	3 episodes
1961	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mr. Bates, the Private Investigator	Season 6 Episode 33: "A Secret Life"
1961	The Twilight Zone	Irv	Episode: "The Whole Truth"
1961	Westinghouse Playhouse	Clerk	Episode: "Nan Suits Dan"
1961	Frontier Circus	Charles Gippner	Episode: "Journey from Hannibal"
1961	87th Precinct	Hotel Clerk	Episode: "The Very Hard Sell"
1962	The Bob Newhart Show	Himself	1 episode
1962	Dr. Kildare	Bud Fowler	Episode: "The Glory Hunter"
1962	The Andy Griffith Show	Hotel Clerk	Episode: "Andy and Barney in the Big City"
1962	GE True	Corporal Coogan	Episode: "The Handmade Private"
1962–1963	Don't Call Me Charlie!	Corporal Lefkowitz	18 episodes
1963	McHale's Navy	Sweeney	Episode: "Camera, Action, Panic"
1964	The Greatest Show on Earth	Mario	Episode: "Man in a Hole"
1964	Destry	Lester	Episode: "Deputy for a Day"
1964	The Jack Benny Program	Charlie	Episode: "The Lucille Ball Show"
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Beatnik, Chip Broadwater	2 episodes
1964	Many Happy Returns	Virgil Slamm	Episode: "Krockmeyer on Avon"
1965	Broadside	Charlie	Episode: "The Stowawaves"
1965	The Cara Williams Show	Fenwick Jr.	Episode: "Fletcher Succeeds in Business Without Really Trying"
1965	Bewitched	Cousin Edgar	Episode: "Cousin Edgar"
1966	The Dick Van Dyke Show	Bill Schermerhorn	Episode: "I Do Not Choose to Run"
1966	The Donna Reed Show	Crandall	Episode: "Is There a Small Hotel?"
1966	The Pruitts of Southampton	Ahmed	Episode: "Phyllis Entertains Royalty"
1966–1967	The Super 6	Super Scuba	Voice
1967–1971	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In	Himself	93 episodes
1968	The Joey Bishop Show	Himself	2 episodes
1968	Lost in Space	Fedor	Episode: "Princess of Space"
1968	The Legend of Robin Hood	Much	1 episode
1968–1980	Hollywood Squares	Himself	99 episodes
1969	I Dream of Jeannie	Himself	Episode: "The Biggest Star in Hollywood"
1969	The Pink Panther Show	Misterjaw	Voice
1969	Love, American Style	Harvey	Episode: "Love and the Living Doll"
1969–1970	The Andy Williams Show	Himself	4 episodes
1969–1977	Storybook Squares	Wolfgang the Nazi, Beethoven	46 episodes
1970	Sesame Street	German Soldier (Wolfgang)	1 episode
1970–1972	The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour	Himself	4 episodes
1970–1972	The David Frost Show	Himself	5 episodes
1970–1974	The Dean Martin Show	Himself	4 episodes
1971	Night Gallery	J.J. Wilson	Episode: "Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay/With Apologies to Mr. Hyde/The Flip-Side of Satan"
1971–1976	The Mike Douglas Show	Himself	11 episodes
1972	The Houndcats	Rhubarb	13 episodes
1972–1973	The Partridge Family	Morris Tinkler, Nicholas Minsky Pushkin	2 episodes
1972–1975	Celebrity Bowling	Himself	4 episodes
1973	The Bob Hope Show	Himself	1 episode
1973	A Touch of Grace	Charlie	Episode: "The Lodge"
1974	Here's Lucy	Sir Osbird Beechman Place	Episode: "Lucy Is a Bird-Sitter"
1974	Salty	Chuck	Episode: "Scape Goat"
1974–1976	Dinah!	Himself	8 episodes
1974–1978	Match Game	Himself	15 episodes
1975	Get Christie Love!	Morton Perkins	Episode: "Murder on High C"
1975	The Rookies	Justin	Episode: "S.W.A.T."
1975–1976	Tattletales	Himself	10 episodes
1975–1977	The Bobby Vinton Show	Himself	12 episodes
1975–1979	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson	Himself	6 episodes
1976	The Merv Griffin Show	Himself	1 episode
1976	Celebrity Sweepstakes	Himself	4 episodes
1976	Jigsaw John	Daltry Thomas	Episode: "Too Much, Too Soon"
1977	Baggy Pants and the Nitwits	Tyrone	13 episodes
1977–1987	The Love Boat	Various characters	8 episodes
1978	Kojak	Billy Butler	Episode: "Photo Must Credit Joe Paxton"
1978–1981	Fantasy Island	Ned Plummer, Fred Catlett, Professor Dwayne Clebe, Edgar Breen	4 episodes
1979	The Dukes of Hazzard	Irving	Episode: "Double Sting"
1980–1981	CBS Library	Various voices	2 episodes
1981	Password Plus	Himself	5 episodes
1982	The Magical World of Disney	Theodore Oglivie	Episode: "Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang"
1983	Fame	Cliff Armbruster	Episode: "Star Quality"
1983	Pac-Man	Additional Voices	Episode: "Here's Super-Pac!/Hey, Hey, Hey... It's P.J."
1983	The Dukes	Additional voices	7 episodes
1983	Hotel	Eddie	Episode: "The Offer"
1983–1988	The Smurfs	Devil Smurf, Avalon Custodian, additional voices	13 episodes
1984	Trapper John, M.D.	Dr. Augustus Bunche	Episode: "Play Your Hunch"
1984–1985	Glitter	Clive Richlin	14 episodes
1985	Airwolf	Larry Mason	Episode: "Severance Pay"
1985	The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo	Weerd	Voice, 13 episodes
1985	The A-Team	Sydney, Uncle Buckle-Up	Episode: "Uncle Buckle-Up"
1986	Foofur	Additional voices	3 episodes
1986–1988	The Flintstone Kids	Additional voices	34 episodes
1986	The New Mike Hammer	Oscar	Episode: "Murder in the Cards"
1987	Murder, She Wrote	Phil Rinker	Episode: "No Laughing Murder"
1987	DuckTales	Count Ray, Dr. Ludwig von Strangeduck	Voice, 2 episodes
1987–1988	Snorks	Additional Voices	2 episodes
1988	The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley	Additional Voices	13 episodes
1988–1989	Fantastic Max	Additional Voices	3 episodes
1989	The Further Adventures of SuperTed	Hummingbird	Episode: "Dot's Entertainment"
1990	Night Court	Gregor Korolenko	Episode: "The Glasnost Menagerie"
1990	Adam-12	Preacher	Episode: "Kid Kop"
1990–1992	Tom & Jerry Kids	Unknown voices	2 episodes
1991	Pros and Cons	Landers	Episode: "It's the Pictures That Got Small"
1991	Yo Yogi!	Lou	Voice, 9 episodes
1991–1992	General Hospital	Finian O'Toole	Recurring
1992	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures	Albert Einstein	Episode: "A Stand Up Guy"
1993	Droopy, Master Detective	Shadowman	Voice, episode: "Shadowman and the Blue Pigeon"
1993	Parker Lewis Can't Lose	Hotel Desk Clerk	Episode: "A Night to Remember"
1993	Café Americain	Pascal	Episode: "Every Picture Tells a Story... Don't It?"
1994	SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron	Pop Perkins	Voice, episode: "A Bright and Shiny Future"
1994–1997	Animaniacs	Newt, Delivery Guy	Voice, 3 episodes
1996	Mad About You	Arte Johnson	Episode: "Dream Weaver"
1997	Adventures from the Book of Virtues	John's Please	Voice, episode: "Respect"
1998	The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries	Tommy Tettrazinne	Voice, episode: "Casino Evil/Happy Bathday to You"
2005	Justice League Unlimited	Virman Vundabar	Voice, episode: "The Ties That Bind"

External links

• Arte Johnson at IMDb
• Arte Johnson at the Internet Broadway Database