Cause of death brain hemorrhage Role Actress Name Rita Johnson | Years active 1937–1957 Occupation Actress | |
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Full Name Rita Ann Johnson Died October 31, 1965, Hollywood, California, United States Education New England Conservatory of Music Spouse Edwin Hutzler (m. 1943–1946), Stanley Kahn (m. 1940–1943) Movies The Big Clock, The Major and the Minor, Here Comes Mr Jordan, Edison - the Man, Thunderhead - Son of Flicka Similar People John Farrow, Alexander Hall, Louis King, Claude Binyon, Clarence Brown | ||
Resting place Holy Cross Cemetery | ||
Rita Ann Johnson (August 13, 1913 – October 31, 1965) was an American actress.
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Early years
Johnson was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the daughter of a single mother, Lillian Johnson.
She worked as a waitress in her mother's lunchroom and sold hot dogs on the Boston-Worcester turnpike. She later attended the New England Conservatory of Music.
Career
Early in her career, Johnson was busy in radio. "By 1936 she ... was appearing in ten radio shows a week." She played the leading role in Joyce Jordan, M.D..
Johnson began acting on Broadway in 1935 and started her film career two years later. She played a murderer in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and a doomed wife in the RKO film noir They Won't Believe Me (1947).
Johnson suffered injuries (attributed to a falling hair dryer) to her head and legs September 6, 1948, requiring brain surgery, causing her film career to come to a near complete stop. A newspaper article three years afterward reported, "It took her a year to recover. Her left side was paralyzed temporarily, and for a while she couldn't walk." Her screen time in movies after that was limited due to her reduced mobility and powers of concentration. She also suffered from alcoholism from the time of her injuries until her death of a brain hemorrhage on October 31, 1965, at age 52.
Personal life
Johnson was married to businessman L. Stanley Kahn. They were granted a divorce on June 29, 1943. She married, secondly, to Edwin Hutzler from 1943 to 1946, but that marriage also ended in divorce.
