Johnny Crawford

Infobox actor
bgcolour =
name = John Ernest Crawford
birthdate = birth date and age|1946|3|26
location = Los Angeles, U.S.
occupation = Actor, singer, musician, band leader

John Ernest Crawford (born March 26, 1946) in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor, singer, and musician.

An original Mouseketeer in 1955, Crawford has acted on stage, in films, and on television.

First important break as a dramatic actor came with the title role in "Little Boy Lost," an NBC Lux Video Theatre live broadcast on March 15, 1956. Following that performance, Crawford worked steadily, gaining experience with many different directors and actors. Within two years, he had accumulated more than fifty credits, including 14 different roles on NBC's Matinee Theatre and three pilots for a series. The third pilot, made as an episode of Zane Grey Theater, was picked up by ABC and the first season of The Rifleman began filming in July, 1958.

He received an Emmy Award nomination at the age of 13 for his role as "Mark McCain," the son of Lucas McCain, played by Chuck Connors, on the Four Star Television series "The Rifleman", which originally aired from 1958-1963 on ABC. During this time, he had wide popularity with American teenagers and a recording career that generated five Top 40 hits, including the single "Cindy's Birthday," which peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 40 in 1962.

He plays a native American in the all indian adventure film, Indian Paint (1965), he gets mixed up with a disturbed young girl, played by Kim Darby, in The Restless Ones (1965), and he has a dramatic death scene with John Wayne in El Dorado (1966).

He served in the United States Army for two years, reaching the rank of E-5 and receiving an honorable discharge in December, 1967.While enlisted, he worked on training films as a production coordinator, assistant director, script supervisor and occasional actor.

In 1968 he played an Army corporal wanted for murder in an episode of Hawaii Five-O, "By the Numbers".

His short film, The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, won the Academy Award in 1971 for Best Live Action Short Subject.

The Naked Ape, a 1973 feature film directed by Donald Driver — based on the book — starred Crawford and Victoria Principal.

Crawford had a key role in the early career of Victoria Jackson of "Saturday Night Live" fame; after appearing together in a summer stock production of "Meet Me in St. Louis," he presented her with a one-way airline ticket to California and encouraged her to pursue a Hollywood career. This led to her early TV appearances on The Tonight Show before she was cast as a regular on "Saturday Night Live".

Since 1992, Crawford has led the California-based Johnny Crawford Orchestra, which specializes in vintage dance music. The orchestra's first album, Sweepin' the Clouds Away, was released August 5, 2008.

He reconnected with his high school sweetheart Charlotte in 1990, and they wed in 1995. [ [http://www.scottstander.com/Personalities/johnny_crawford.html Johnny Crawford ] ]

Academy Award winning film

In 1970, Crawford starred with Kristin Nelson in "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy". The film won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and was released theatrically by Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.

References

* http://www.scottstander.com/Personalities/johnny_crawford.html

External links

* [http://www.riflemansrifle.com/johnny.htm Johnny Crawford on The Rifleman]
* The Rifleman Wikipedia Page
* [http://www.crawfordmusic.com Official Site for Crawford Music]
* [http://www.MySpace.com/JohnnyCrawfordOrchestra Johnny Crawford's MySpace site ]
*imdb name|id=0186844|name=Johnny Crawford