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Don Johnson

Don JohnsonAKA Donald Wayne Johnson

Born: 15-Dec-1949
Birthplace: Flat Creek, MO

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Musician

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Miami Vice, Nash Bridges

With his gravelly voice, dashing good looks, perpetual stubble and a wardrobe of assorted pastels, Don Johnson came to fame as Sonny Crockett on the '80s drug-war drama Miami Vice with Philip Michael Thomas. From 1996-2001 he starred in Nash Bridges, a slick cop drama co-starring Cheech Marin and set in San Francisco. He later played a lawyer on Just Legal, a quickly-cancelled comedy-drama that aired on the WB in 2005.

Johnson was born on his maternal grandparents' farm outside Flat Creek, Missouri. By the age of twelve he was a troublemaker, incarcerated for a year at the Lake Afton Boys Ranch for stealing a car. By the end of his high school years, he was more interested in acting than acting up, and starred in his school's production of West Side Story. After an audacious performance at a summer acting workhouse hosted by the University of Kansas, he was given a scholarship to study drama there. Always smooth with the ladies, Johnson reportedly lived with a female professor while studying at KU, then left college when he signed with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. In his first major stage role, he played the cute young boy raped in prison in Sal Mineo's production of Fortune and Men's Eyes.

In his first movie, he played the title role in the 1970 sexcapade The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, and he subsequently starred in such strange films as Zachariah, a musical western based on Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha with Country Joe McDonald and Dick Van Patten, and The Harrad Experiment with Tippi Hedren, where Johnson played a lothario student at an anything-goes college, complete with nude yoga classes and mixed-gender roommate assignments. He also starred in Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog, one of the best science-fiction movies ever made, despite its absurd-sounding plot -- Johnson played a post-apocalyptic rapist accompanied by a telepathic mutt much brighter than he.

After A Boy and His Dog, Johnson's movie career faded, and he was relegated to TV movies and guest roles on Barnaby Jones and The Streets of San Francisco. He was cast as the sensitive young soldier drawn to prostitute Kim Basinger in a short-lived TV series based on From Here to Eternity, and starred in pilots for six TV series, all of which went unsold, before Miami Vice hit the airwaves in 1984. Suddenly a sex symbol, Johnson declared himself a pop singer, hitting the charts with "Heartbeat" and a duet with Barbra Streisand, "Till I Loved You". He attempted to revive his movie career, and made such adequate entertainment as Dead Bang with Penelope Ann Miller and The Hot Spot with Virginia Madsen, but in recent years only his role as Kevin Costner's adversary in the golf comedy Tin Cup has connected with an audience.

Johnson was married and divorced twice before his first marriage to Hedrin's daughter, Melanie Griffith. Johnson and Griffith started dating when he was 22 and she was 14, and were eventually married and divorced twice. During the run of Nash Bridges, two female workers on the program accused Johnson of sexual assault. Both complaints led to undisclosed settlements. His wife since 1999 has been Kelley Phleger, an heiress to a sliver of the Getty oil fortune who previously dated San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In 2003, a car driven by Johnson with three companions was stopped at the Swiss-German border when customs agents discovered a suitcase in the car stuffed with $8-billion worth of financial documents -- share certificates, bonds and credit notes. Johnson said the documents belonged to potential investors in a movie project, and with no evidence to suggest otherwise Johnson and his associates continued on their way.

Father: Wayne Johnson (aircraft worker)
Mother: Nell Johnson (beauty salon worker, d. 1975 cancer)
Mother: Darlene Johnson (stepmother, m. Wayne Johnson)
Sister: Linda Johnson ("Jamie Skylar", singer)
Brother: Greg Johnson
Brother: Casey Johnson
Sister: Deanne (half-sister)
Girlfriend: Pamela Des Barres (groupie, together late 1960s)
Wife: Melanie Griffith (dated 1972-76, m. 1976, div. 1978, m. 21-Jun-1989, div. 1996, one daughter)
Daughter: Dakota Johnson (actress, b. 4-Oct-1989)
Son: Alexander Bauer (stepson, b. Aug-1985 to Griffith and Steven Bauer, adopted by Johnson)
Girlfriend: Tanya Tucker (singer, dated 1978-81)
Girlfriend: Patti D'Arbanville (actress, dated 1981-85, one son)
Son: Jesse Wayne Johnson (actor-musician, b. 7-Dec-1982)
Girlfriend: Barbra Streisand (diva, dated late 1980s)
Girlfriend: Kari Whitman (model-interior designer, b. 21-Jun-1964, dated 1995)
Girlfriend: Jeanne Anderson (actress, dated and briefly engaged 1995-96)
Girlfriend: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (actress, b. 10-Oct-1978, dated mid1990s)
Wife: Kelley Phleger (heir to Getty oil fortune, ex-fiance of Gavin Newsom, b. circa 1969, m. 29-Apr-1999, one daughter, two sons)
Daughter: Atherton Grace Johnson (b. 28-Dec-1999)
Son: Jasper Breckenridge Johnson (b. 6-Jun-2002)
Son: Deacon Johnson (b. 29-Apr-2006)

    High School: Wichita South High School, Wichita, KS (1967)
    University: University of Kansas (dropped out)

    Planet Hollywood
    Alcoholics Anonymous 1983
    Caribou Club
    Funeral: Andy Warhol (1987)
    Betty Ford Center 1994
    unknown detox facility 2001
    Liposuction
    Bankruptcy Denver, CO (14-Apr-2004)
    Assault according to sexual assault lawsuit filed 11-Jul-2001
    Battery according to sexual assault lawsuit filed 11-Jul-2001
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 7080 Hollywood Blvd (television)
    Risk Factors: Alcoholism

    TELEVISION
    Just Legal Grant Cooper (2005-06)
    Nash Bridges Nash Bridges (1996-2001)
    Miami Vice Det. Sonny Crockett (1984-89)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Vault (7-Jun-2019)
    Dragged Across Concrete (3-Sep-2018)
    Book Club (17-May-2018)
    Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2-Sep-2017)
    Vengeance: A Love Story (16-Mar-2017)
    The Other Woman (1-Apr-2014)
    Cold in July (18-Jan-2014)
    Django Unchained (25-Dec-2012)
    Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011) · Miles Deep
    Machete (1-Sep-2010) · Von
    When in Rome (29-Jan-2010)
    Word of Honor (6-Dec-2003)
    Goodbye Lover (16-Apr-1999)
    Tin Cup (16-Aug-1996)
    In Pursuit of Honor (18-Mar-1995)
    Guilty as Sin (4-Jun-1993)
    Born Yesterday (26-Mar-1993)
    Paradise (12-Sep-1991) · Ben Reed
    Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (23-Aug-1991)
    The Hot Spot (8-Sep-1990) · Harry Madox
    Dead Bang (24-Mar-1989)
    Sweet Hearts Dance (23-Sep-1988)
    G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) [VOICE]
    Cease Fire (18-Oct-1985)
    The Long Hot Summer (6-Oct-1985)
    Melanie (12-Feb-1982)
    Revenge of the Stepford Wives (12-Oct-1980)
    Beulah Land (7-Oct-1980)
    Soggy Bottom, USA (1980)
    The Rebels (14-May-1979)
    First, You Cry (8-Nov-1978)
    Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (23-Oct-1978)
    The City (12-Jan-1977)
    Return to Macon County (3-Sep-1975)
    A Boy and His Dog (Mar-1975)
    The Harrad Experiment (6-Sep-1973)
    Zachariah (24-Jan-1971)
    The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (26-May-1970)


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