Cowboy Actor Ben Johnson

Cowboy actor Ben Johnson arrived in California in the late 1930s when Howard Hughes bought some horses from an Oklahoma ranch where Ben worked. Hughes liked the way he handled horses and offered him a job hauling them to northern Arizona where they were filming The Outlaw starring Jane Russell. When the filming was finished he hauled them on to California. During the early 1940s he wrangled and did some stunt work until he caught the eye of director John Ford while doubling for Henry Fonda in Fort Apache. As they say, “the rest is history.”