Celebrity Nooz: Don Johnson

Don Johnson (Actor) - Miami Vice

Updated: 6/12/23

Name: Don Johnson

Birth Name: Donnie Wayne Johnson

Born: December 15, 1949 in Flat Creek, Missouri, USA

Nickname: DJ, The Don

Claim To Fame: Don Johnson is an American actor, producer and singer best known for playing James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series Miami Vice, for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his work in the role.

Family Life: Johnson has had four wives in five marriages, three of which were brief. His first two marriages were annulled within a matter of days. The he was in a relationship with actress Patti D'Arbanville from 1981 to 1985, resulting in a son. His most notable marriage was to actress Melanie Griffith, whom he married twice. First in January of 1976, then divorced in July. They reunited in 1989 and conceived a daughter, actress Dakota Johnson, and were married again from that year until 1996. In 1999, he married Kelley Phleger and together they have 3 children.

Info: His mother, Nell (1933-1975), was a beautician. His father, Fredie Wayne Johnson (1930-2017), was a farmer.

He graduated from Wichita South High School, where he was involved in the high school's theater program.

In 1967, he enrolled at the University of Kansas as a theater major, but dropped out after one year.

Attend the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

In 1976, Johnson was the roommate of actor Sal Mineo at the time Mineo was murdered.

In 1986, Johnson scored his first motor sport victory, a 1,100-mile powerboat race, New Orleans to St. Louis, up the Mississippi River. Two years later, Johnson was the American Power Boat Association's 1988 World Champion of the Offshore World Cup.

Dated Pamela Des Barres, Sally Sheridan, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Uma Thurman, Kari Whitman, Jeanne Anderson and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe.

Trivia: Johnson's first major role was in the 1969 Los Angeles stage production of Fortune and Men's Eyes, in which he played the lead role of Smitty.

Johnson worked with Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers, co-writing the songs "Blind Love" and "Can't Take It with You" with Dickie Betts, which appeared on their 1979 album, Enlightened Rogues.

In 1984, after years of struggling to establish himself as a TV actor, Johnson landed a starring role as undercover police detective Sonny Crockett in the crime-drama series, Miami Vice.

The show ran from 1984 to 1990. The series made Johnson "a major international star".

The Sonny Crockett character typically wore thousand-dollar Versace and Hugo Boss suits over pastel cotton T-shirts, drove a Ferrari, wore expensive timepieces by Rolex and Ebel, and lived on an Endeavour yacht.

Johnson's work on Miami Vice earned him a Golden Globe Award, for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama, in 1986, and was nominated for the same award in 1987. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1985.

Thanks to his role in Miami Vice, Johnson became and still is an '80s icon.

"Till I Loved You" was the title track (a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100) of a studio album released on October 25, 1988 on Columbia Records. The song was a duet with then-girlfriend Barbra Streisand.

Johnson released two albums of pop music in the 1980s, Heartbeat in 1986 and Let It Roll in 1989. His single "Heartbeat" reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Co-wrote a two-hour movie with his neighbor Hunter S. Thompson. The movie was not picked up, but CBS bought and turned the story into Nash Bridges (1996).

In 1996, he has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Johnson later starred in the 1996-2001 CBS-TV police drama Nash Bridges with Cheech Marin, Kelly Hu, Annette O'Toole, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as his daughter Cassidy, and James Gammon as his father Nick. Johnson portrayed the title role, an inspector (later promoted to captain) for the San Francisco Police Department. He was again paired with a flashy convertible car, a yellow 1971 Plymouth Barracuda.

In 2021, Johnson appeared in a Nash Bridges television film, with co-star Cheech Marin, on the USA Network.

Where Are They Now: Johnson shows no signs of slowing down. He currently has 3 projects in post-production: the action film The Collective, action-thriller Rebel Ridge, and the thriller Unit 234. He also has Score, a comedic sports drama, in the works. It's always great to see him on screen. Is it too much to ask for a limited sequel series for Miami Vice?

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