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Russell Johnson Filmography
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Russell D. Johnson (born November 10, 1924) is an American television and film actor.
Mister Johnson joined the Army Air Corps in World War II and served as a gunner on bombers. He had a very distinguished record and was higly decorated for his service. He became a close friend of Audie Murphy and later appeared with him in one of his films. Johnson's Hollywood career began in 1952, and his early roles were primarily in westerns and science fiction. He also appeared in a Ma and Pa Kettle vehicle. However, he is by far best known to the public as "The Professor" (a/k/a "Roy Hinckley") on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island, which was in first-run from 1964 to 1967 but has been shown in reruns essentially continuously since that time. The Professor was a genius who could build and devise ways of doing almost anything, except something which would get himself and the other castaways off of the island.
Johnson was typecast in this sort of role, and seems to have regarded his stint as The Professor as a mixed blessing. He is still instantly recognizable to the show's legions of fans, but his ability to be cast in other sorts of roles has been quite limited. Unlike fellow cast member
Tina Louise, who was equally typecast as retro-glamourous movie queen Ginger Grant, he has willingly participated in all reunion movies, cartoons, and other events related to the program.
After
Gilligan's Island he appeared in several other movies and televsion shows, perhaps most notably the miniseries Vanished, based on a novel by Fletcher Knebel (1971), uncredited in the
Robert Redford spy thriller, Three Days of the Condor (1975), and on the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara.
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