OklahomaHorses Magazine November 2023

November / December 2023 • OklahomaHorses 19 The only person to snag both an Oscar and a rodeo world championship, Johnson was a real-life cowboy and rancher. His quiet, plainspoken manner and his horsemanship parlayed him into an acting career of almost 60 years. Of Irish and Osage ancestry, Johnson was born in 1918 on the Osage reservation in Foraker, Osage County. He grew up in the Pawhuska area, where he owned property and ranched throughout his life. Johnson’s father, Ben Johnson Sr., a cattleman and rancher, was born in 1896. Cowboy movies enamored him and roped him into the lifestyle. So by the time he was 14, the elder Johnson had gone to work for the historic Miller Brothers 101 Ranch punching cattle, repairing fences, and working as a bunkhouse barber. He also broke horses for the British government. He was a ro- deoer with numerous accolades, including a world record for calf roping in 1923, a record he held for three years. He also set a steer-roping record in 1927. Johnson Sr. was foreman of the Chapman-Bar- nard Ranch, a 70,000-acre Osage County cattle spread. So Johnson Jr. was a cowboy from day one, and by age 11, he was an accomplished ranch hand. Riding into a Career Early on, Johnson wanted to be a cowboy like his father. But Johnson’s life changed when billionaire filmmaker Howard Hughes bought horses from a ranch where Johnson worked. Johnson’s horse sav- vy impressed Hughes. As a result, Hughes offered Johnson a job moving horses to northern Arizona where crews were filming a movie called The Out- law. Johnson had been earning ranch-hand wages, but Hughes offered him $175 a week to wrangle horses on the set. “It didn’t take me long to figure out this was a good deal,” Johnson said. Then Johnson moved the horses by rail to California, where he found work in movies. His first film appearance was as an uncredited 1939 stunt man in The Fighting Gringo. He continued in movies, working as a stunt double for the likes of John Wayne, James Stewart, Joel McCrea, and Gary Cooper. In 1941, Johnson wed Carol Jones, and they remained married until her death in 1994. Her fa- ther, Clarence (Fat) Jones, was North Hollywood’s top supplier of horses and wranglers for more than 50 years. Hughes connected Johnson with movie director John Ford, who liked Johnson’s horsemanship and his stunt and double abilities. Ford cast Johnson in the 1948 film Fort Apache, doing stunt and double work for Henry Fonda and portraying an Apache warrior in the early morning and a cavalry trooper in the afternoon. Joanne Dru and Ben Johnson are shown in John Ford’s 1950 movie Wagon Master, Johnson’s first starring role in a western movie. After Ford noticed Johnson’s stunt riding, he always featured Johnson riding in his films, includingWagon Master. Photo courtesy of the Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum. The 1956 movie The Searchers includes Ben Johnson (left) and Harry Carey Jr. Photo courtesy of the Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum.