J. W. Johnston (October 2, 1876 â€" July 29, 1946) was an Irish
American stage and film actor who started as a supporting actor and,
briefly, leading man in the 1910s and early 1920s, continued as a
character performer from the mid-1920s, and ended as an unbilled bit
player during the 1930s and 1940s. He was also an early member of
Cecil B. DeMille's repertory company of actors, appearing in five of
the director's features released between July and December 1914.
Although J. W. Johnston was his most frequent billing, other
appellations included J. W. Johnson, Jack W. Johnson, Jack Johnson, F.
W. Johnston, John W. Johnston, Jack Johnston, Jack W. Johnston and
Jack Johnstone.John William Michael Johnston was born in the County
Clare town of Kilkee, on 2 October 1876. John William Michael was the
middle child of three known children born to Charles Johnston (1842
â€" ?) and Jane Mary Hartney (1838 â€" ?). Johnston had two sisters,
Alicia Ellena (b. 1875 d. before 1882) and Janetta M (b. 1878 d.
1879). Little is known of Johnston's life before he goes to America.
Johnston travelled to America with his parents on the ship Britanic
arriving in New York on the 12 August 1882 when he was 5 years old.
Over the years Johnston made several trips between Ireland and
America. On August 16, 1896 John Johnston married Allice Aloysuis
Harrington and they had 4 children, Genevieve Johnston (1898â€"1898)
who died at 5 mths, then twins Edward and Charles Johnston
(1899â€"1899) both died soon after birth, and their last child Vincent
Johnston (1900â€"?). We know Allice Harrington and John Johnston were
living with their son Vincent in the Bronx, NY at the time of the 1910
Census however they divorced sometime before 1914 when Johnston
married his second wife, Onida Foster, a school teacher from
Louisiana. On the marriage certificate Johnston is 37, states his
occupation as salesman. There is a record of his World War I draft
card (1918) on which he lists Onida as his wife and his occupation as
Actor being employed by Frank Talbot Modern Pictures Co. Johnston also
states on this record that he is a US citizen by his father's
Naturalisation prior to his reaching the age of majority.Variety
mentions that his initial Broadway appearance was in Paul Potter's
stage adaptation of Ouida's popular historical romance, Under Two
Flags, starring Blanche Bates, which opened at Garden Theatre on
February 5, 1901 and closed in June. 24 years old during the show's
run, Johnston persisted as a theatre actor for another ten years and
made his first film, a Pathé Frères short entitled The Reporter in
1911. Continuing to perform in numerous other short films (virtually
all productions of the early 1910s were between one and three reels in
length), the following year he joined filmmakers' exodus to the newly
formed West Coast motion picture mecca of Hollywood. Seen in at least
eight films in 1912, he made twenty-six in 1913 and sixteen in 1914,
with six of the 1914 titles extended to feature length, including the
five DeMilles, in first of which, The Man on the Box, a comedy-drama
released in July, he had a prominent supporting role as a character
named Count Karloff. Playing the title character's best friend, Steve,
who is lynched as a cattle thief in The Virginian, the director's
first major success, was next, in September. There were two titles in
November, The Man from Home and Rose of the Rancho, and his fifth
DeMille, The Ghost Breaker, opened in December. Johnston was also the
male lead in one of the earliest movie serials, filmed in 1914 and
released in mid-January 1915, Runaway June, which spotlighted, in the
title role, Norma Phillips, whose short-lived nickname, during her
brief (1913â€"17) film career, came from the appellation of her 1914
feature, Our Mutual Girl.Forty years old in 1916, Johnston enjoyed a
brief period as a mature leading man, second-billed to such stars as
the "Sweetheart of American Movies", Mabel Taliaferro, in God's Half
Acre, and twenty-two-year-old Norma Talmadge in Fifty-Fifty, which
cast him as her wealthy husband. By the end of the 1910s, however, his
roles began to decrease in importance and he was back in fourth-,
fifth- and sixth-billed supporting parts. In his final silent feature,
1928's Driftwood, he is fourth, playing, at age 52, third male support
to leading lady Marceline Day. As talkies began, his roles declined to
unbilled bit parts, with a single billing, in twenty-third place (as
Jack W. Johnston), in the 1941 comedy-drama Buy Me That Town. There
were two more appearances for Cecil B. DeMille, in 1939's Union
Pacific and 1942's Reap the Wild Wind but, in contrast to his stature
in 1914, Johnston, now in his sixties, is barely glimpsed in fleeting
unbilled bits. The features containing the final three of those
transient glimpses, 1946's Night and Day, Lady Luck, and The Locket
were all released posthumously following his death in July.
American stage and film actor who started as a supporting actor and,
briefly, leading man in the 1910s and early 1920s, continued as a
character performer from the mid-1920s, and ended as an unbilled bit
player during the 1930s and 1940s. He was also an early member of
Cecil B. DeMille's repertory company of actors, appearing in five of
the director's features released between July and December 1914.
Although J. W. Johnston was his most frequent billing, other
appellations included J. W. Johnson, Jack W. Johnson, Jack Johnson, F.
W. Johnston, John W. Johnston, Jack Johnston, Jack W. Johnston and
Jack Johnstone.John William Michael Johnston was born in the County
Clare town of Kilkee, on 2 October 1876. John William Michael was the
middle child of three known children born to Charles Johnston (1842
â€" ?) and Jane Mary Hartney (1838 â€" ?). Johnston had two sisters,
Alicia Ellena (b. 1875 d. before 1882) and Janetta M (b. 1878 d.
1879). Little is known of Johnston's life before he goes to America.
Johnston travelled to America with his parents on the ship Britanic
arriving in New York on the 12 August 1882 when he was 5 years old.
Over the years Johnston made several trips between Ireland and
America. On August 16, 1896 John Johnston married Allice Aloysuis
Harrington and they had 4 children, Genevieve Johnston (1898â€"1898)
who died at 5 mths, then twins Edward and Charles Johnston
(1899â€"1899) both died soon after birth, and their last child Vincent
Johnston (1900â€"?). We know Allice Harrington and John Johnston were
living with their son Vincent in the Bronx, NY at the time of the 1910
Census however they divorced sometime before 1914 when Johnston
married his second wife, Onida Foster, a school teacher from
Louisiana. On the marriage certificate Johnston is 37, states his
occupation as salesman. There is a record of his World War I draft
card (1918) on which he lists Onida as his wife and his occupation as
Actor being employed by Frank Talbot Modern Pictures Co. Johnston also
states on this record that he is a US citizen by his father's
Naturalisation prior to his reaching the age of majority.Variety
mentions that his initial Broadway appearance was in Paul Potter's
stage adaptation of Ouida's popular historical romance, Under Two
Flags, starring Blanche Bates, which opened at Garden Theatre on
February 5, 1901 and closed in June. 24 years old during the show's
run, Johnston persisted as a theatre actor for another ten years and
made his first film, a Pathé Frères short entitled The Reporter in
1911. Continuing to perform in numerous other short films (virtually
all productions of the early 1910s were between one and three reels in
length), the following year he joined filmmakers' exodus to the newly
formed West Coast motion picture mecca of Hollywood. Seen in at least
eight films in 1912, he made twenty-six in 1913 and sixteen in 1914,
with six of the 1914 titles extended to feature length, including the
five DeMilles, in first of which, The Man on the Box, a comedy-drama
released in July, he had a prominent supporting role as a character
named Count Karloff. Playing the title character's best friend, Steve,
who is lynched as a cattle thief in The Virginian, the director's
first major success, was next, in September. There were two titles in
November, The Man from Home and Rose of the Rancho, and his fifth
DeMille, The Ghost Breaker, opened in December. Johnston was also the
male lead in one of the earliest movie serials, filmed in 1914 and
released in mid-January 1915, Runaway June, which spotlighted, in the
title role, Norma Phillips, whose short-lived nickname, during her
brief (1913â€"17) film career, came from the appellation of her 1914
feature, Our Mutual Girl.Forty years old in 1916, Johnston enjoyed a
brief period as a mature leading man, second-billed to such stars as
the "Sweetheart of American Movies", Mabel Taliaferro, in God's Half
Acre, and twenty-two-year-old Norma Talmadge in Fifty-Fifty, which
cast him as her wealthy husband. By the end of the 1910s, however, his
roles began to decrease in importance and he was back in fourth-,
fifth- and sixth-billed supporting parts. In his final silent feature,
1928's Driftwood, he is fourth, playing, at age 52, third male support
to leading lady Marceline Day. As talkies began, his roles declined to
unbilled bit parts, with a single billing, in twenty-third place (as
Jack W. Johnston), in the 1941 comedy-drama Buy Me That Town. There
were two more appearances for Cecil B. DeMille, in 1939's Union
Pacific and 1942's Reap the Wild Wind but, in contrast to his stature
in 1914, Johnston, now in his sixties, is barely glimpsed in fleeting
unbilled bits. The features containing the final three of those
transient glimpses, 1946's Night and Day, Lady Luck, and The Locket
were all released posthumously following his death in July.
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