Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo preformer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. His break came when John Ford noticed him and gave him a part in an upcoming film, and eventually a star part in Wagon Master. He left Hollywood in 1953 to return to rodeo, where he won a world roping championship, but at the end of the year he had barely cleared expenses. The movies paid better, and were less risky, so he returned to the west coast and a career that saw him in over 300 movies.
Died of a heart attack while visiting his mother in the retirement community where not only she, but he himself lived. Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994 A prize belt buckle that he won for calf roping was stolen from his car when he visited Houston in 1976; on a repeat visit a decade later he was an on-air guest on radio station KIKK when a caller returned the buckle to him. Johnson and his father, Ben Johnson, Sr., were champion steer ropers. The senior Johnson was also a cattleman and rancher who was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1961. The younger Johnson was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1982. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1982. His father, Ben Johnson, Sr., was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the Rodeo Historical Society (a support group of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum) in 1961. The Ben Johnson Memorial Award, in honor of his father, is awarded annually to prominent representatives of the western character and spirit (since 1998). Johnson, his father, and nephew have Belt-Buckle awards for team roping. Had Osage and Irish blood. He initially turned down the role of Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show when it was first offered to him by Peter Bogdanovich because he thought the script was "dirty" and he did not approve of swearing and nudity in motion pictures. Bogdanovich appealed to John Ford, who got Johnson to change his mind as a favor to him. With the permission of Bogdanovich, Johnson rewrote his part with the offensive words removed. Johnson went on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the role. Johnson got his first big break as a member of John Ford's stock company in the late 1940s. However, during the making of Rio Grande, Johnson and Ford had a brief verbal argument. All seemed well afterward, and nothing further was said of it, so Ben assumed it was completely blown over. However, Ford didn't use Johnson again in another picture for 14 years, when Ben played a small part in Cheyenne Autumn. They did manage to maintain a friendly relationship nonetheless.