DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television for My Sweet Charlie (1970)
Shared with Ralph Ferrin (assistant director) (plaque)
Ernest Lamont Johnson Jr.[1] (September 30, 1922 – October 24, 2010) was an American actor and film director who appeared in and directed many television shows and movies. He won two Emmy Awards.
When he was 16,[2] Johnson began his career in radio, eventually playing the role of Tarzan in a popular syndicated series in 1951.[4] He also worked as a newscaster and a disc jockey.[2] Johnson was also one of several actors to play Archie Goodwin in The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, opposite Sydney Greenstreet on NBC Radio. He then turned to films and television, first as an actor, then as a director.
Directing
Johnson's directing debut came in 1948 with the play Yes Is For a Very Young Man in New York.[5] His television directing debut was on an episode of NBC Matinee Theater.[3]
Johnson also directed productions of the operasThe Man in the Moon (1959), Iphigénie en Tauride (1962), and Orfeo (1990), and he directed an installment of the series Felicity plus the TV movie The Man Next Door (1996).
Johnson won five Directors Guild of America Awards, winning in the category Movies for Television and Mini-Series for Lincoln (1988) and for That Certain Summer (1972). He also won DGA Awards for Most Outstanding TV Director (1972) and for Television — My Sweet Charlie (1970) and "Oscar Underwood Story": Profiles in Courage (1964). Additionally, he was nominated for DGA Awards for Movies for Television and Mini-Series for Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985), Fear on Trial (1975) and The Execution of Private Slovik (1974). Another DGA Award nomination was for Dramatic Series for Birdbath (1971).[7]
Personal life
Johnson married actress Toni Merrill in Paris in 1945.[1] They had three children: Jeremy, Carolyn, and Christopher Anthony.[2]
Death
Johnson died of heart failure in Monterey, California, October 24, 2010.[1]
