Ben Johnson was the World Championship Team Roper in 1953, and he won an Academy Award in 1971. And he has a hard time deciding which honor he is most proud of. 

By DARRELL ARNOLD, originally published in the August 1989 issue

Rodeo champion Ben Johnson

“Young people, today, need to have three things in their lives—honesty, reality and respect. If they’d listen to someone who is real and honest, and if they’d respect themselves, they wouldn’t get involved with drugs and have so many problems. The kids who get in trouble just didn’t get the right kind of milk at home. They didn’t get any help.”

Those are Ben Johnson’s words, and they help explain why this Oscar-winning actor and world-champion cowboy spends so much of his spare time at charity events where children are the benefactors. The Ben Johnson name is on celebrity rodeos around the country, including Houston, Fort Worth, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Reno and Los Angeles.

Ben says, “We’re getting calls every day from all over the country, where other folks want us to put on a rodeo for them. But, I’ve just about loaded my boat. I spend so much time helping get money together for other people,” he says with a grin, “that I can hardly take time to make a living for myself.”

But Ben has already managed to make a pretty good living, and he is generous with his time. He is always willing to sign an autograph, shake a hand or donate time to help other people.

The world recognizes Ben Johnson as a cowboy. Not just a movie cowboy, but as a bona-fide, real-life cowboy. He is as well known and respected at ranches and rodeos as he is in Hollywood, where he has worked for almost 50 years in the motion-picture business.

Ben was born in Foracre, Okla., on June 13, 1918. His father, Ben Johnson Sr., had a place on Bird Creek, northwest of Pawhuska. The senior Johnson was a respected rancher and champion roper, and is an honoree in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. And Pawhuska honors Ben Sr. every year with a memorial rodeo named after him.

screen capture of Western Horseman article on Ben Johnson

Ben Jr. grew up in the Pawhuska area, cowboyed on the Chapman-Bernard Ranch, and rubbed elbows with some accomplished rodeo cowboys of that time – such names as Ike Rude, Everett Shaw, Louis Brooks and Clark McIntire. Ben liked rodeoing, too, and it is likely that he would have pursued rodeo as a career had it not been for a chance encounter with people who were making a movie for Howard Hughes.

It was around 1940, and Hughes was making The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell. His crew bought a load of horses out of Oklahoma, and Johnson was asked to deliver them to the movie location near Flagstaff, Arizona.

At the time, Ben was working for $30 a month, and the $300 he was offered was more than he could pass up. After the shoot, he took the horses on to Hollywood, and that’s where he stayed.

Ben says, “They decided I rodeo a horse pretty good, so they put me in the Screen Actors’ Guild, and I went to work as a wrangler, stuntman and as a double for actors like John Wayne, Joel McRae and Jimmy Stewart.”

Then, in 1949, Ben was offered a 7-year contract with famed director John Ford. The contract was for up to $5,000 per week, and Ben signed immediately “before Ford had a chance to change his mind,” Ben explains.

Ben went right to work on such films as Wagon Master, Mighty Joe Young, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. And in Rio Grande, he and fellow actors Claude Jarman Jr. and Harry Carey Jr. did their own stunt work in a spectacular Roman-riding scene that’s still a film classic. Anyone who views that scene can easily see that Johnson is a real horseman.

Despite his movie success, Johnson still felt he had something to prove to himself, so, in 1953, he took a year off and hit the rodeo circuit. He had been rodeoing all along between movies and, in 1949, had set a calf-roping record at Pendleton, Ore., where he roped and tied in 12.5 seconds with a 60-foot score. “I really thought I was something,” says Ben.

He continues, “I got in a position where I could afford to travel, so I decided to see just what I could do.” He teamed with Buckshot Sorrells, Andy Jauregui and others in the team roping.

“That was the year everybody else had hard luck,” says Ben, modestly, “and I beat them out and won the world. I came home with a championship, and I didn’t have $3. All I had was a wore-out automobile and a mad wife. Fortunately, they let me back in the picture business, and I’ve stayed there ever since.”

Ben Johnson standing with horse

Since his movie career began, Johnson has appeared in more than 300 movies. Some of the better-known are Fort Defiance, Shane, War Drums, One-Eyed Jacks, Major Dundee, The Rare Breed, Will Penny, The Wild Bunch, The Undefeated, Chisum, Junior Bonner, The Getaway, The Train Robbers, Dillinger, The Sugarland Express, Bite the Bullet, Breakheart Pass, and The Swarm.

But despite the great number of movies, Ben Johnson was never a household name until 1971. That year, he won the Academy Award for best actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of the pool hall owner in The Last Picture Show, a movie from the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name.

“The Academy Award changed my whole life,” says Ben. “You win one of those Oscars and all at once people think you know something. You don’t know any more than you did before, but they think you do. And the studios offer you more jobs for a lot more money.”

Like other westerners, Ben would like to see Hollywood make some good western movies again, but he’s not sure they will ever be done as well as they were in the old days. “It’s hard to find young people in the business who know anything about the real West. A lot of them don’t know whether a horse roosts in a hole or a tree. Most actors can’t ride well enough to get in and out of a scene. They’re about as western as my poodle.”

And Johnson explains that cost is another factor. “When they made Heaven’s Gate, they invested $50 or $60 million in it, and it busted all those people. They called it a western, so after that anytime somebody mentioned a western, they all ran backwards.

“It’s very expensive to make an authentic western. It’s almost impossible to afford to have 1,000 head of cattle in a movie. It is just very difficult to finance, produce, direct and act out a good western.”

Johnson does own the rights to a very good western novel, The Cowboy and the Cossack, written by Clair Huffaker. He has a company interested in doing the movie, which involves cowboys and a herd of cattle in Russia, and the present atmosphere is ideal for getting the movie accomplished. Ben is hopeful he can bring this good western to the screen.

In the meantime, he spends his time doing other movies, participating in team roping at his celebrity rodeos, and relaxing at his recently completed new home outside of Phoenix, Arizona. “I keep a few head of horses in Oklahoma, and near my home,” says Ben, “on my nephew’s place. I get on one now and then.”

On a shelf in Ben’s home is a cluttered collection of awards that Ben has earned through the years, including his Academy Award, a People’s Choice Award, Golden Boot Award, New York Film Critics Award, Golden Globe Award, and more. And last December, Ben was honored at a Ben Johnson Roast at the National Finals Rodeo. But for all the public acclaim, Ben is most rewarded when he is able to help young people through charities associated with his celebrity rodeos. His big heart and generous nature have made him a favorite of everyone who has met him. Uncle Ben, as his close friends are wont to call him, is the real thing – a real American cowboy who exemplifies ideal cowboy standards.

22 Comments

  1. Terry kane Reply

    I roped with Ben at Casey Tibbs arena in ramona,ca. In the late 70s. One of my proudest moments. We talked about different bloodlines and what each brought to the roping arena. We attended casey’s wedding and Ben along with Hollywood’s cowboy’s elite, including Roy and Dale.

  2. Betty Hebert Reply

    Ben Johnson was a natural Cowboy.I bet he didnt have to act much.I enjoyed all his movies,so great.

  3. Ben was the real deal. He would bring my Mother a Coconut pie from the Landmark Cafe in Ponca City when he was in town. I have a picture of Ben and Bobby. D They been coyote hunting with grey hounds. It signed by both. We had it up by our cash register in my folks store in Ponca City, OK

    • Joanne Galbraith Reply

      I trick rode at some of the rodeo ben was at rode the best looking horses i have ever seen that drew me to him great person

  4. I have always loved Ben Johnson, because he is a real cowboy, good looking, talented man.

  5. Shelton F. Lewis Reply

    Ben Johnson was a True Blue Cowboy💘 love all his movies. And The fact that he was a ♊like myself🇨🇱♊ let’s me know we are true friends

  6. John Koscelny Reply

    My grandfather Joe Koscelny worked as a cowboy for Ben Johnson Sr. My grandfather said nothing but good things about the Johnsons. My grandfather had a pair of gal leg spurs because Ben Johnson Sr. Gave them to him because he said my “Grandfather Joe Koscelny was the Best Bronc rider he ever saw”. My grandfather handed them down to my father, as he was the cowboy of the family and then my father handed them down to me, John Koscelny because I was the horseman of the family as well. I take great pride in these spurs as they are not only unique but have a lot of history behind them.

  7. Hi my husband and I loved to watch Ben and John Wayne work together in the westerns as they are our favourite movies. We have also seen Ben in many other cowboy movies, what a wonderful actor.
    Colleen and Tony Taylor from Queensland Australia.

  8. Nona Pulse Reply

    I first saw Ben in Shane, I loved his persona and it has never changed, he has confidence in his person. The way he talks and in his walk. He has always stood tall and you have to see him! There is a humbleness you can’t fake. I have enjoyed watching him in every movie I have seen.

  9. Donna Wymer Reply

    I met him at the 1988 NFR Roast that they did for him in Las Vegas and he was so gracious and engaging to me he ask me why I was there and why I wanted a signed autograph from him I told him I was a college rodeo student and my dad was a big fan of his and that’s when I got an autograph from him and he smiled at me and said that’s so nice that you did this for your dad and I thanked him shook his hand and remember his great smiling eyes and look from him when I walked away❤️ My dad still has that signed autograph from Ben and my dad is 84 now makes me still smile when I think of that moment and even Tom Selleck was there for Ben Johnson’s Roast what a memorable moment for me!!

  10. Ronda Coddington Reply

    Ben was a special person. In the sixties, my younger brother passed away from cancer. Before his death, Ben visited with him. This was very special to us. I have always been great full for people who give unselfishly as he did .

  11. Carol Ruiz Reply

    I’ve always enjoyed watching Ben Johnson’s movies he wonderful in all his movies

  12. Cynthia Ann Brissey Reply

    My favorite saying was when Ben Johnson said, Git er done, Johnny Reb.” I believe this was in John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara movie Ft. Apache. The character Mr. Johnson was talking to was the son of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in the movie (he was also a cavalry soldier under his father’s command (Wayne) and Ben Johnson wanted this boy to prove to his father that he could ride any cayuse. I loved all those actors/characters of that era. Still do. Cynthia Brissey, Rainier, Washington (state).

  13. Robert Simora Reply

    I enjoyed every movie I ever watched with Ben Johnson from the time I was a kid. After I was grownup and I would watch the same movies again I could tell that he was a real cowboy. Not just pretending. He seemed to be a well natured man in everything thing I’ve read about him.

    • Gerald cook Reply

      My uncle Tick Cook went into business with Ben. They made BBQ sauce! They were good friends for years.

  14. David Martin Reply

    Ben was the authentic cowboy and actor par excellent.liked every movie he made.Have a framed print of Ben and Slim Pickens I picked up at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 2005 my last visit to the U.S.

    Dave Martin Herne Bay U.K.

  15. Ben Johnson is one of the many people that I would enjoy meeting, an honorable and honest individual. He’s a wonderful actor and a great human being.

  16. Darryl Kane Reply

    Is there an biography of Ben Johnson’s life
    If so does anyone know what it’s called
    To me he ranks up there with John Wayne and jimmy stewart great men made great movies

  17. I have watched Wagon Master at least a dozen times and loved Ben’s acting and horse handling. Perfect. What a gentleman. God’s handiwork.

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