I am not a fan of facial hair, even on Ben Johnson. I can go with some manly stubble but more than that... no thanks.
JackFavell, I absolutely LOVE your avatar from The Kiss Burglar and now I'm dying to see that movie. I tried to look it up on IMDB and Silent Era but couldn't find it. :( OMG, Fay Bainter! Who knew? :)
Do you have a bigger version of that photo? I'd love to get it.
Well, I'm still looking for an original vintage photo of this picture, but for now what I have seems to be a page cut from a book, or some other kind of reproduction, which someone pasted to a piece of cardboard -- thus causing ripples in the paper. But it still looks pretty nice. ;) And it is signed by Ben. :) The eBay vendor acquired it at an estate sale.
I've never seen that one as a real honest to goodness photo either. I think there's one with Dobe airbrushed out, or maybe it's just another photo from that same shoot.
No, I swear it's the one with Dobe, but without Dobe actually in it....if that makes any sense. You can see the curls on the side of his face and it's definitely more in profile. He does have the rope in the one I'm thinking of. I think they might have doctored it up.
I just went to look for it and I can't find it. I think I dreamed it up.
Oh man! I REALLY wish I got Encore Westerns... this is my favorite Ben guest appearance ever. He's just super in it, and gets to do some lovely stunts, as you can see from Paula's caps. It's a great episode.
I will be happy to make a DVD copy of "Top Hand" for anyone who wants one. JackFavell, one copy -- check! ;)
The fifth season of Bonanza will be out on DVD in February, and Ben's second ("The Deserter") and third ("Top Hand") appearances on the show were in the eighth and twelfth seasons, respectively. So alas we have some time to wait for those DVDs to come out -- but it might not be TOO long. Starting with the third season, looks like they've been releasing the seasons every six months or so.
This is a candid shot of Ben I got from ebay. Presumably taken at a film festival. Someone wrote on the back "8/95" so we know the date.
Is it just me or is that exactly the same expression from that Mighty Joe Young publicity shot from 46 years ago? Almost smiling, not quite, with a half-mischevious/half-wary look in his eyes?
Here's a picture of Ben with Dirk Blocker, Dan Blocker's son. Dirk is also an actor and he played Eastern newspaper reporter Walter Fenster in the two 90s Bonanza TV-movies Ben appeared in, Bonanza: The Return and Bonanza: Under Attack. This is a new print made from a vintage slide.
