Ben Johnson — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Won 1971 Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for "The Last Picture Show"
Won the 1953 Rodeo Cowboys Association's (RCA) Team Roping World Championship
Inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979
Worked as a stuntman and horse wrangler, launching his film career

Biography

Francis Benjamin Johnson Jr. (1918–1996) was an American actor, stuntman, and professional rodeo cowboy. The son of an Oklahoma rancher and rodeo champion, Johnson followed in his father's footsteps, working as a ranch hand and becoming a world-champion rodeo cowboy.

Johnson parlayed his equestrian skills into a film career, initially arriving in Hollywood to deliver horses for a film. He began as a horse wrangler and stuntman, with Howard Hughes hiring him for the 1943 film The Outlaw.