What did Ben Johnson die of

Ben Johnson, 77, a champion rodeo performer whose convincing portrayal of a straight-talking westerner led to roles in hundreds of pictures and to the 1971 Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in "The Last Picture Show," died April 8 at a hospital in Mesa, Ariz., after a heart attack.

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What happened to Ben Johnson the cowboy?
How long was Ben Johnson married?
How old is Ben Johnson?
Was Ben Johnson a good horseman?

Mr. Johnson won his Oscar for his portrayal of Sam the Lion, the owner of the pool hall and the movie theater in "The Last Picture Show," Larry McMurtry's study of life in a small Texas town during the 1950s.

The rite-of-passage movie, which made a star of Cybill Shepherd (who later married the film's director, Peter Bogdanovich), saw Mr. Johnson beat fellow cast member Jeff Bridges for his Oscar and fellow cast member Cloris Leachman beat co-star Ellen Burstyn for best supporting actress.

"That changed my life," Mr. Johnson said of his award-winning role. "Everybody thought I knew something after I won that old Oscar. All of them wanted to give me a new job and more money."

He arrived in Hollywood with a truckload of horses for Howard Hughes. He was working on an Oklahoma ranch in 1939 when Hughes bought the horses for his western, "The Outlaw," a film best remembered for introducing actress Jane Russell.

After driving the horses, in a truck, to Hollywood, he found work as the film's horse wrangler. He gradually moved up the ladder from working with horses to acting on horses and, finally, to just acting.

He was a double and stuntman in cowboy films when he was discovered by legendary director John Ford, who cast him as a member of the U.S. Cavalry in some of the most acclaimed westerns ever made. The pictures, made in the late 1940s and 1950s, all starred John Wayne and included "Fort Apache," "Three Godfathers," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande."

Mr. Johnson, who usually shown as a consummate horseman with a distinctive Oklahoma drawl, was given the starring role of Travis Blue in "The Wagon Master," a 1950 Ford picture.

Years later, it was an aged Ford who persuaded Mr. Johnson to take the role in "The Last Picture Show." Mr. Johnson objected to the film's language and nudity and showed little regard for those he called "hippies." Bogdanovich, who had written extensively about Ford, got the veteran director to persuade the aging cowboy actor to take the part, assuring him that it was a brilliant part and a great movie. Mr. Johnson agreed to the part, but only as a "personal favor" to Ford.

He later recalled to a reporter, "I rewrote my part and I won the English Academy Award, the American Academy Award {for best supporting actor}, a Golden Globe Award and the New York Film Critics Award, and I didn't have to say one dirty word."

All told, Mr. Johnson appeared in more than 300 films, many of them easily forgotten and others among the most unforgetable action films made in his era. In the 1950s, those included "Shane," a 1953 George Stevens picture, in which his character was beaten up by the title character portrayed by Alan Ladd.

In the 1960s, he appeared in another Ford offering, "Cheyenne Autumn," and a Marlon Brando-directed film, "One-Eyed Jacks." He also appeared in two Sam Peckinpah classics, "Major Dundee" and "The Wild Bunch." In 1970, he appeared in another John Wayne western, "Chisum." He made "The Last Picture Show" the next year.

After that, he played an easygoing police chief in Steven Spielberg's "The Sugarland Express." He also appeared in two John Milius movies, portraying Melvin Purvis in "Dillinger" in 1973 and a victim of communists invading the United States in "Red Dawn" in 1984. In more recent years, he appeared in the 1990 movie "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and in the 1993 made-for-television feature "Bonanza: The Return." He also played a role, obviously based on singing cowboy-turned-baseball club owner Gene Autry, in the 1994 Disney film "Angels in the Outfield."

In March, Mr. Johnson had completed filming for "The Evening Star" a sequel to the 1983 tear-jerker "Terms of Endearment." Both pictures star Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine. Mr. Johnson is featured in both films.

Mr. Johnson was a native of Pawhuska, Okla., saying he was of Irish and Cherokee stock. He actually worked as cowboy, winning a World Champion Cowboy title in 1953.

His wife of 54 years, Carol, died in 1994. In addition to his mother, survivors include a sister. CAPTION: BEN JOHNSON

Ben Johnson, rugged Western actor of about 300 films who won an Academy Award as the movie theater owner in “The Last Picture Show,” died Monday He was 75.

The actor died of a heart attack in a Mesa, Ariz., hospital after collapsing during a visit to his mother at a suburban Phoenix retirement home where they both lived.

The highlight of Johnson’s career was his Oscar-winning role as cowboy and town tycoon Sam in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film about the interwoven lives in a small Texas town.

The first time he saw the script for “The Last Picture Show,” Johnson candidly told an Arizona reporter last year, he rejected it.

“It was the worst thing I ever read,” he said. “Every other word that I had [as the character Sam] was a dirty word, so I turned it down.”

But his old friend and mentor, director John Ford, asked him to do Bogdanovich’s film as a personal favor, and Johnson relented.

“I rewrote my part,” he proudly recalled, “and I won the English Academy Award, the American Academy Award [for best supporting actor], a Golden Globe Award and the New York Film Critics award, and I didn’t have to say one dirty word.”

Johnson was a durable hard-riding fixture in predominantly Western films for more than three decades. He was also a genuine rodeo champion whom Bogdanovich proudly referred to as “the real thing.”

Born in Pawhuska, Okla., Johnson worked on a ranch for his rodeo champion father. He often joked that he got to Hollywood “in a carload of horses"--escorting stock bought by Howard Hughes for his 1943 film “The Outlaw,” which introduced voluptuous actress Jane Russell.

Offered $175 a week rather than his cowboy pay of $40 a month, Johnson stayed on as wrangler for Hughes’ movie company. He soon became a stuntman and double in “oaters.”

Johnson attracted Ford’s attention in 1948 when he saved the lives of several people in an accident on the set of the 1948 film “Fort Apache.” Ford put him under contract, cast him in “Three Godfathers” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” and then starred him in the 1949 “Mighty Joe Young” about a gorilla and the 1950 “Wagonmaster,” in which Johnson joined a Mormon wagon train heading for Utah.

Johnson left Hollywood in 1952 to pursue a dream from his youth.

“I took one year out of the picture business to go into rodeo and see what I could do,” he said last year. “My dad was a world’s champion three or four times, so I wanted to be. Fortunately, I won the world’s championship in team roping (1953), but at the end of the year I didn’t have $3. All I had was a wore-out automobile and a mad wife.”

The cowboy returned to Hollywood. Over the years, Johnson appeared in six films with John Wayne and, after Wayne’s death, picked up some of the television commercials Wayne had begun for Great Western Savings.

Johnson also acted with tough-guy stars Alan Ladd in “Shane,” Marlon Brando in “One-Eyed Jacks,” Charlton Heston in “Major Dundee,” Clint Eastwood in “Hang ‘Em High,” Charles Bronson in “Breakheart Pass” and Steve McQueen in “Junior Bonner.” He made eight films with his friend and fellow character actor, Harry Carey Jr.

Johnson later worked in several Western television shows, including last year’s movie “Bonanza: Under Attack,” the 1982 television movie of Louis L’Amour’s “The Shadow Riders,” the 1979 miniseries “The Sacketts,” and his television movie debut in the 1973 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “The Red Pony.”

Recognized as a Western icon, Johnson walked easily through a Gene Autry-like role as an elderly cowboy actor turned major league baseball team owner in the 1994 Disney film “Angels in the Outfield.”

When the crusty Johnson received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame three years ago, he remarked: “I don’t know why in the hell you all waited so long to give me the star. You waited till I got so old I couldn’t hardly enjoy it.”

Johnson for many years sponsored pro-celebrity team roping rodeos to benefit children’s charities, primarily in Arizona.

In 1990, he was honored at the Ben Johnson Celebrity Rodeo at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.

His wife of 54 years, Carol, died early last year.

What happened to Ben Johnson the cowboy?

Oscar winner Ben Johnson, a champion rodeo performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns in his five-decade movie career, died Monday at age 77. Johnson apparently died of a heart attack while visiting his mother at Leisure World, a retirement community where he also lived.

How long was Ben Johnson married?

She was born Oct. 20, 1920, in Sherman Oaks, Calif. She and Ben Johnson had been married for 56 years.

How old is Ben Johnson?

77 years (1918–1996)Ben Johnson / Age at deathnull

Was Ben Johnson a good horseman?

He was one of the all-time great horsemen in the business. To see him glide into the saddle in those films was poetry in motion. When complimented on his riding skills, Ben modestly replied, “I wasn't a good actor, so I had to be able to do something.”