Charles Chubby Johnson

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown heroes who have made a difference

Description:	One typed page including photograph; biography of Charles Randolph Johnson, film star. ABASH VALLEY WP R O F I L E SA series of tributes to hometown heroes who have made a difference.Charles Chubby Johnsonredited with nearly 100 feature films and about 300 television appearances, Terre Haute native Charles Randolph Chubby Johnson was a jack-of-all-trades. Before he became a film star at age 48, the first child of iron worker James M. and Minnie (Mosse) Johnson was a journalist, a butcher and a radio announcer. Born Aug. 13, 1902, he landed a job as a reporter for the Terre Haute Post while he was still a teenager. In the early 1920s, he embarked for California and landed an acting job with the Harvey Hart Players in Pasadena. Between tent show gigs, he learned to become a butcher, joining the Meat Cutters & Butchers Union. Discontent with his progress in show business, Johnson relocated to Las Vegas and began writing The Old Timer, a column for the weekly periodical The Fabulous Las Vegas. The newspaper job led to a Las Vegas radio show by the same name. Using his drama skills, Johnson molded a demeanor to fit his Old-Timer image: growing a beard, cultivating a gruff but homespun persona and adopting Chubby as a nickname. In 1949, Jacob Buddy Baer--heavyweight boxer turned entertainer--heard The Old Timer while appearing at a Las Vegas club. Baer and his wife, show business magazine writer May Mann, urged Johnson to bring his talents back to Hollywood. Though continuing to reside in Las Vegas, Chubby made his film debut in 1950 as the stagecoach driver in Warner Brothers Rocky Mountain starring Errol Flynn, making an impact both on and off the screen. Talkative and loud, Johnson added color and comedy to a bland character. Off camera, he kept actors and crew entertained with Old-Timer stories and fed them custom-cut steaks. For the next 18 years, Chubby was one of Hollywoods busiest character actors, specializing in westerns. In 1951 he made appearances in Fort Worth, Westward the Women, The Treasure of Lost Canyon, The Scarf and Raging Tide. The following year he earned raves as Captain Mello in Bend of the River with Jimmy Stewart, and as Ruppert in The Last of the Comanches. In succeeding years he had notable roles in Calamity Jane, Gunsmoke, The Far Country, The Rawhide Years, Tribute to a Bad Man, The Fastest Gun Alive, Drango, The True Story of Jesse James, Twilight of Honor, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and Support Your Local Sheriff, among many others. His last movie was Sam Whiskey with Burt Reynolds (1969). In the meantime, Johnson was a television regular in the series Sky King (19521954), Frontier Doctor and Temple Houston (1963). He also made repeated guest appearances in The Lone Ranger, Maverick, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bonanza, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke (as The Old Timer) and The Wild, Wild West. Beginning in the late 1960s, Chubby coached drama, produced repertory shows, bought a gold mine and became a syndicated columnist. He died in Hollywood from a leg infection on Oct. 31, 1974. He was survived by four children, two sons and two daughters.CTERRE HAUTE(812) 238-6000NATIONAL BANKAlways Close to HomeRide the Terre Haute buses FREE the first Friday of every month, compliments of Terre Haute First National Bank.FREE fareFRIDAYFilename: Johnson, Chubby profileDate Published: Nov. 1, 2001
Origin:	2001-11-18
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/552
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Johnson, Charles Randolph, 1902-1974 Actors Journalists Butchers Radio broadcasting Famous Hoosiers People

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