Name
Johnny Crawford
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1946-03-26
Deathday
2021-04-29 (75 years old)
Place of Birth
Los Angeles, California, USA
Biography
John Ernest Crawford (March 26, 1946 – April 29, 2021) was an American actor, singer, and musician. He first performed before a national audience as a Mouseketeer. At age 12, Crawford rose to prominence playing Mark McCain in the ABC Western series, The Rifleman. Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age 13 for his work on The Rifleman, which aired from 1958 to 1963.
Disney started out with 24 original Mouseketeers. However, at the end of the first season, the studio reduced the number to 12, and Crawford was released from his contract. His first important break as an actor followed with the title role in a Lux Video Theatre production of "Little Boy Lost", a live NBC broadcast on March 15, 1956. He also appeared in the popular Western series The Lone Ranger, in 1956, in one of the few color episodes of that series. Following that performance, the young actor worked steadily with many seasoned actors and directors. Freelancing for two and one-half years, he accumulated almost 60 television credits, including featured roles in three episodes of NBC's The Loretta Young Show and an appearance as Manuel in, "I Am an American", an episode of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise. He starred as Bobby Adams in the 1958 drama "Courage of Black Beauty". By the spring of 1958, he had also performed 14 demanding roles in live teleplays for NBC's Matinee Theatre, appeared on CBS's sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve, in the Wagon Train episode "The Sally Potter Story" (in which Martin Milner also appeared) and on the syndicated series, Crossroads, Sheriff of Cochise, and Whirlybirds, and made three pilots of TV series. The third pilot, which was made as an episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, was picked up by ABC and the first season of The Rifleman began filming in July 1958.
Crawford had a brief career as a recording artist in the 1950s and 1960s. He continued to act on television and in film as an adult. Beginning in 1992, Crawford led the California-based Johnny Crawford Orchestra, a vintage dance orchestra that performed at special events.
Known For
7.082
In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the ...
7.1
Afflicted with a terminal illness John Bernard Books, the last of the legendary gunfighter...
6.8
Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsre...
6.7
Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, includi...
6.4
The story of a young man, a self-styled cowboy; His dreams of the Old West and its film he...
4.8
Hawkes, Jones and Cassidy are on their way to the biggest poker game in history. But a few...
5.7
On New Year's Eve 1928, in the New York underworld, a gambler sells his body to science, a...
7
Brady Hawkes, Billy Montana, and Jeremiah Hawkes are on a train bound for a huge gambling ...
3.663
"Genius" accidentally invents "goo" which causes living things to rapidly grow to an enorm...
- 1968 The Movie Orgy as Self (archive footage)
- 1966 El Dorado as Luke MacDonald
- 1965 Village of the Giants as Horsey
- 1976 The Great Texas Dynamite Chase as Slim
- 1989 Bloodhounds of Broadway as Musician
- 1979 When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion as Self
- 1965 The Restless Ones as David Winton
- 1970 The Resurrection of Broncho Billy as Broncho Billy
- 1965 Indian Paint as Nishko
- 1973 The Naked Ape as Lee
- 1957 Courage of Black Beauty as Bobby Adams
- 1983 The Gambler: The Adventure Continues as Masket
- 1976 The Shootist as Books' Victim in Flashback (archive footage / uncredited)
- 1999 The Thirteenth Floor as Singer
- 1958 The Space Children as Ken Brewster
- 2019 Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws
- 1974 Sonic Boom as Charlton Heston
- 1981 Macbeth as Seyton
- 1974 The inbreaker
- 1989 Crossbow: The Movie as Prince Ignatius
- 1962 One Man's Challenge as Self
- 1991 The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw as Mark McCain
- 1956 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit as Italian Boy with Groceries (uncredited)
- 1961 Mister Ed ( 1 episode )
- 1984 Murder, She Wrote ( 1 episode ) as Noah Paisley
- 1969 Hawaii Five-O ( 1 episode ) as Private Jerry Franklin
- 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club ( 103 episodes ) as Self
- 1959 Rawhide ( 1 episode ) as Aaron Bolt
- 1957 Have Gun, Will Travel ( 1 episode )
- 1956 The Count of Monte Cristo ( 1 episode )
- 1955 The Millionaire ( 1 episode ) as Wally
- 1968 Lancer ( 1 episode )
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Jerry
- 1958 The Donna Reed Show ( 1 episode ) as Victor
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 11 episodes )
- 1951 The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok ( 1 episode )
- 1958 The Rifleman ( 168 episodes ) as Mark McCain
- 1963 Mr. Novak ( 1 episode ) as JoJo Rizzo
- 1956 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Billy Prescott
- 1952 Cavalcade of America ( 1 episode ) as Billy Brandon (as a boy)
- 1956 Telephone Time ( 1 episode )
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Freddy
- 1992 Vicki! ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1965 Branded ( 1 episode ) as Deputy Sheriff Clay Holden
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Arthur Mullen
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Bobby Wright
- 1956 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Mark McCain
- 1963 Mr. Novak ( 1 episode ) as USSR - United Nations Assembly
- 1957 Wagon Train ( 1 episode ) as Jimmy Bennett
- 1988 Paradise ( 1 episode ) as McKay
- 1983 The Gambler: The Adventure Continues ( 2 episodes ) as Masket
- 1954 The Wonderful World of Disney ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Jean
- 1957 Trackdown ( 2 episodes ) as Eric Paine
- 1987 Crossbow ( 7 episodes ) as Prince Ignatius
- 1949 The Lone Ranger ( 1 episode ) as Tommy McQueen
