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Article: Ben Johnson, 77; Won `Picture Show' Oscar
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- April 9, 1996
CopyrightCopyright 1996 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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MESA, Ariz. Ben Johnson, a champion rodeo performer who appeared
in numerous Westerns and won a best supporting actor Oscar for "The
Last Picture Show" in 1971, died Monday of an apparent heart attack.
Mr. Johnson, 77, collapsed while visiting his mother at Leisure
World, a suburban Phoenix retirement community where both lived.
"He asked a lady to fix him some breakfast and he went into the
bathroom and that's where he collapsed," said Buster Brown, an
assistant to Mr. Johnson.
He was pronounced dead at Valley Lutheran Hospital.
Mr. Johnson arrived in Hollywood in 1939 as a horse wrangler for
Howard Hughes' "The Outlaw." He was working as a double and stuntman
in Westerns when he was ...