Ben Johnson (actor)

He was the World Champion Steer Roper in 1953. [[Category:Best Actor Oscar Nominee+Laughton, Charles]]. He went on to become a favourite of Sam Peckinpah before winning an Academy Award for his performance as Sam The Lion in The Last Picture Show.
. Born in Foraker, Shidler, Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo star before becoming involved in the movies with John Ford in such classics as She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande.
. Ben Johnson (June 13, 1918 - April 8, 1996) was an American movie actor.
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He is interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Laughton never had another chance to direct his own movies. This movie is often cited among critics as one of the best movies of the 1950s; unfortunately, it was a box-office flop. Laughton had one stint as a director, and the result was the legendary The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish.

In 1950, he took American citizenship. Lanchester appeared opposite him in several films, including Rembrandt (1936). Despite his homosexual inclinations, he had a long and resilient marriage to the British-born American actress, Elsa Lanchester, possibly because she had her own such inclinations according to contemporary gossip. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Witness for the Prosecution (1957).

In 1937 he was to have starred in an ill-fated film version of the book, I, Claudius, by Robert Graves, which was abandoned only part-way into filming. Later films included The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). His association with the director, Alexander Korda, began with The Private Life of Henry VIII (loosely based on the life of King Henry VIII of England), for which Laughton won an Academy Award. Despite not having the looks for a romantic lead, he impressed audiences with his talent and played many classical roles before making his film debut in 1932.

Born in 1899 at Scarborough, Yorkshire, Laughton at first went into the family business, not making his first stage appearance until 1926. Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 - December 15, 1962) was a British-born American stage and film actor.