Ben Johnson, 77, a champion rodeo performer whose convincing portrayal of a straight-talking westerner led to roles in hundreds of pictures and to the 1971 Academy Award for best supporting actor for his work in "The Last Picture Show," died April 8 at a hospital in Mesa, Ariz., after a heart attack.
Mr. Johnson won his Oscar for his portrayal of Sam the Lion, the owner of the pool hall and the movie theater in "The Last Picture Show," Larry McMurtry's study of life in a small Texas town during the 1950s.
The rite-of-passage movie, which made a star of Cybill Shepherd (who later married the film's director, Peter Bogdanovich), saw Mr. Johnson beat fellow cast member Jeff Bridges for his Oscar and fellow cast member Cloris Leachman beat co-star Ellen Burstyn for best supporting actress.
"That changed my life," Mr. Johnson said of his award-winning role. "Everybody thought I knew something after I won that old Oscar. All of them wanted to give me a new job and more money."
He arrived in Hollywood with a truckload of horses for Howard Hughes. He was working on an Oklahoma ranch in 1939 when Hughes bought the horses for his western, "The Outlaw," a film best remembered for introducing actress Jane Russell.
After driving the horses, in a truck, to Hollywood, he found work as the film's horse wrangler. He gradually moved up the ladder from working with horses to acting on horses and, finally, to just acting.
He was a double and stuntman in cowboy films when he was discovered by legendary director John Ford, who cast him as a member of the U.S. Cavalry in some of the most acclaimed westerns ever made. The pictures, made in the late 1940s and 1950s, all starred John Wayne and included "Fort Apache," "Three Godfathers," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande."
Mr. Johnson, who usually shown as a consummate horseman with a distinctive Oklahoma drawl, was given the starring role of Travis Blue in "The Wagon Master," a 1950 Ford picture.
Years later, it was an aged Ford who persuaded Mr. Johnson to take the role in "The Last Picture Show." Mr. Johnson objected to the film's language and nudity and showed little regard for those he called "hippies." Bogdanovich, who had written extensively about Ford, got the veteran director to persuade the aging cowboy actor to take the part, assuring him that it was a brilliant part and a great movie. Mr. Johnson agreed to the part, but only as a "personal favor" to Ford.
He later recalled to a reporter, "I rewrote my part and I won the English Academy Award, the American Academy Award {for best supporting actor}, a Golden Globe Award and the New York Film Critics Award, and I didn't have to say one dirty word."
All told, Mr. Johnson appeared in more than 300 films, many of them easily forgotten and others among the most unforgetable action films made in his era. In the 1950s, those included "Shane," a 1953 George Stevens picture, in which his character was beaten up by the title character portrayed by Alan Ladd.
In the 1960s, he appeared in another Ford offering, "Cheyenne Autumn," and a Marlon Brando-directed film, "One-Eyed Jacks." He also appeared in two Sam Peckinpah classics, "Major Dundee" and "The Wild Bunch." In 1970, he appeared in another John Wayne western, "Chisum." He made "The Last Picture Show" the next year.
After that, he played an easygoing police chief in Steven Spielberg's "The Sugarland Express." He also appeared in two John Milius movies, portraying Melvin Purvis in "Dillinger" in 1973 and a victim of communists invading the United States in "Red Dawn" in 1984. In more recent years, he appeared in the 1990 movie "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and in the 1993 made-for-television feature "Bonanza: The Return." He also played a role, obviously based on singing cowboy-turned-baseball club owner Gene Autry, in the 1994 Disney film "Angels in the Outfield."
In March, Mr. Johnson had completed filming for "The Evening Star" a sequel to the 1983 tear-jerker "Terms of Endearment." Both pictures star Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine. Mr. Johnson is featured in both films.
Mr. Johnson was a native of Pawhuska, Okla., saying he was of Irish and Cherokee stock. He actually worked as cowboy, winning a World Champion Cowboy title in 1953.
His wife of 54 years, Carol, died in 1994. In addition to his mother, survivors include a sister. CAPTION: BEN JOHNSON
