MovieChat Forums > The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) Discussion > In memoriam: Van Johnson, 1916-2008

In memoriam: Van Johnson, 1916-2008

posted 15 years ago by hobnob53
2 replies | jump to latest

Sad news the other day that the star of this site's film, Van Johnson, has died at the age of 92. The Bottom of the Bottle wasn't Van's best film or work, but it was one of the few good leads he got after leaving MGM in 1954. It was in the years immediately following this film that his movie career inexplicably fell away so fast that by 1960 he was virtually out of films. Lots of TV and stage work followed in the decades ahead, but only a very few, scattered movies. Why, indeed? His leading role in TBOTB is further evidence that he could handle a wide range of parts quite convincingly.

Anyway, may he rest in peace after a long and productive (and, from his obits, in many ways rather sad) life.

With Van's death, and aside from the three child actors who played his kids, only two adult stars from The Bottom of the Bottle remain: actress Nancy Gates, who played his wife, and who is currently 82; and the unfathomably uncredited Harry Morgan, the diner owner who slips Van a couple of surreptitious belts, still with us as of this date (12/15/08) at age 93.

[–] tbrittreid 15 years ago

...the unfathomably uncredited Harry Morgan....

The IMDb says that this is one of many times in the first decade or so of his career when he was billed as Henry Morgan. He changed the first name undoubtedly due to the humorist/I've Got a Secret panelist of that monicker.

Johnson will indeed be missed. I for one consider 23 Paces to Baker Street, another Fox picture of 1956, to be among his best, although the baby boomer in me loves his Pied Piper of Hamelin (made for TV, yes).

[–] hobnob53 15 years ago

Yes, Harry Morgan (for clarity's sake, I used his more familiar name) would have been billed either as 'Henry Morgan' or 'Henry (Harry) Morgan' around this time. Oddly, his actual first name really is 'Harry'. He changed it when he came to Hollywood, then changed it back later, to avoid confusion with the TV panelist...thereby creating even more confusion!

Yes, I liked 23 Paces as well. I think it and TBOTB were part of a two-picture deal Van had with Fox that year. Quite a good film.

I'd forgotten that VJ was the original choice to play Eliot Ness on the TV series The Untouchables. He later considered it a great mistake to have declined it, and I suppose it was. But it is hard to imagine him a comfortable fit in that role. It seemed to demand a stern, humorless, hard-edged type, as opposed to Van's usual affibility. It really was a role made for Robert Stack.