Russell Johnson Trailers
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! TrailerThe Gilligan Manifesto TrailerSurviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History Trailer
Russell David Johnson (November 10, 1924 – January 16, 2014) was an American actor, best known for his role as Professor Roy Hinkley in Gilligan's Island. Military career
After graduating from high school, Johnson enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet. On completing his training, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He flew 44 combat missions in the Pacific Theater during World War II as a bombardier in B-25 twin-engined medium bombers.
On March 4, 1945, while flying as a navigator in a B-25 with the 100th Bombardment Squadron, 42nd Bombardment Group, 13th Air Force, his B-25 and two others were shot down during a low-level bombing and strafing run against Japanese military targets in the Philippine Islands. The B-25s encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire, and all three had to ditch in the sea off Zamboanga. Johnson broke both ankles in the landing, and his bomber's co-pilot was killed. Johnson received a Purple Heart for his injuries. He was also awarded the Air Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one campaign star, and the World War II Victory Medal.
After Japan's surrender, Johnson was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant on November 22, 1945. He joined the United States Air Force Reserve and used the G.I. Bill to pay for his acting studies at the Actors' Lab in Hollywood. While there, he met actress Kay Cousins (1923–1980), whom he married in 1949.
His early roles were primarily in Westerns such as Rancho Notorious (1952, starring Marlene Dietrich), Seminole (1953), Law and Order (1953, opposite Ronald Reagan), and Badman's Country (1958), and science fiction films such as It Came from Outer Space (1953), This Island Earth (1955), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956), and The Space Children (1958). He also appeared in a Ma and Pa Kettle vehicle, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), as well as in Roger Corman's rock-'n'-roll crime drama Rock All Night (1957). In 1955, he had a role in Many Rivers to Cross along with Alan Hale Jr., later as the Skipper from Gilligan's Island.
"The Professor" on Gilligan's Island
Johnson was best known for playing Professor Roy Hinkley (usually called the "Professor"), the very knowledgeable polymath who could build all sorts of inventions out of the most rudimentary materials available on the island. As Johnson himself pointed out, though, he could not fix the hole in the boat. In the first episode of the show, the radio announcer describes the Professor as a research scientist and well-known scoutmaster. Gilligan's Island aired from 1964-67, but has been shown in reruns continuously ever since. CLR
Most Popular Russell Johnson Trailers
Total trailers found: 51
30 April 1978
Two policemen are suspected of excessive violence and causing two deaths. The investigation brings to light, little by little, the whole truth.
01 December 1953
Jim Harvey is hired to guard a small wagon train as it makes its way west. The train is attacked by Indians and Harvey, hoping to persuade Aguila, the chief, to call off the attack due to Harvey's having saved his son's life, leaves the train to negotiate.
18 February 1978
An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft.
12 April 1955
Julia Garth, a female doctor, plans to introduce modern techniques of medicine to old Santa Fe in 1880, but is opposed by an established doctor, Rourke O'Brien.
24 September 1975
When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.
15 July 1977
The film portrays MacArthur's life from 1942, before the Battle of Bataan, to 1952, when he was removed from his Korean War command by President Truman for insubordination, and is recounted in flashback as he visits West Point.
04 February 1955
Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker star as a Kentucky backwoodsman and the woman who will NOT let anything interfere with her plans to marry him in this humorous romantic adventure through the American Frontier of 1798.
31 December 1980
When oil is discovered in a small-town, some greedy prospectors hire a gang of wild bikers to scare the townsfolk away.
02 February 1970
An experienced arson investigator takes along his young associate as they try to find an arsonist who is burning down movie sets.
01 February 1988
The "slippery" comedy is about 2 easy-living young men. They decide to make sex films. This adventurous enterprise could be a little complicated but nothing will deter them.
23 May 1952
A vicious loan shark ring has been preying on factory workers. When several workers at a tire factory suffer violence at the hands of the loan sharkers, a union leader and the factory owner try to recruit ex-con Joe Gargan to infiltrate to the gang.
01 September 1953
Sheriff Lane Dakota captures robbery-murder suspect Greiner just as the latter is wounded in an Apache ambush.
09 April 1965
From his birth in Bethlehem to his death and eventual resurrection, the life of Jesus Christ is given the all-star treatment in this epic retelling.
11 October 1974
A young woman who is battling a rare blood disease must also fight against a greedy doctor who needs a heart-transplant donor, and has her in mind.
20 May 1964
In 1883, US Cavalry lieutenant Matthew Hazard, newly graduated from West Point, is assigned to isolated Fort Delivery on the Mexican border of Arizona, where he meets commanding officer Teddy Mainwarring's wife Kitty, whom he later rescues from an Indian attack.
04 January 1976
U.S. President Harry S Truman and his commander in the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur, disagree on war strategy.
13 May 1953
Frame Johnson's attempt to settle down in Tombstone is interrupted when a mob tries to mete out some frontier justice.
16 November 2018
At the height of the Cold War, Gilligan's Island depicted seven Americans living in an analogue of a post-apocalyptic world where the survivors have to rebuild civilization.
10 April 1952
A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.
10 June 1955
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
20 March 1973
A museum heist with an unusual twist: the three thieves are all physically disabled. The men, one confined to a wheelchair, one with prosthetic hands, and one blind, plan to steal a valuable statue.
25 February 1975
A disturbed man wants his girlfriend's love and his wife's money, and will stop at nothing to get them, even murder.
20 March 1953
Lance Caldwell, a cavalry lieutenant, recounts his efforts to make peace with the Seminole Indian tribe, under an evil major.
05 June 1953
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona.
20 May 1953
In the weeks prior to the start of the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers hope to help their cause by inciting a Navajo war in the New Mexico Territory.
11 March 1974
The Story of Harry S. Truman as he begins his political career in 1929.
14 February 1975
A madman hijacks the luxury cruise liner, S.S. Queen, and threatens to blow it up unless a millionaire pays him the the contents of a safe deposit box.
24 July 1969
After committing a crime, fugitive Wally takes a young woman hostage and determines not to return to prison at any cost.
01 October 1952
Further misadventures of comic soldiers Willie and Joe, now in Japan.
01 June 1958
A glowing brain-like creature arrives on a beach near a rocket test site via a teleportation beam. The alien communicates telepathically with the children of scientists.
02 August 1958
Pat Garrett arrives in Abilene where he catches five of Butch Cassidy's gang. He calls in Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and they learn there is a half million dollar shipment of money arriving by train and Cassidy is amassing enough men to take it.
13 February 2021
A comprehensive story of Hollywood's horror and science fiction films of the 1950s, told by the people who made them.
10 February 1954
A young railroad surveyor returns to his hometown to find the man who murdered his father and brother.
01 April 1955
Ma and Pa, along with daughter Rosie, go off to Hawaii in answer to cousin Rodney's call for help running his pineapple farm while he recovers from an illness.
10 February 1957
A group of scientists travel to a remote island to study the effects of nuclear weapons tests, only to get stranded when their airplane mysteriously explodes.
31 December 1954
Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to the electric chair, taking with him Peter Manning – a bank robber and cop killer who was to die right after him.
13 February 1973
A commercial-jet captain (Chuck Connors) has ghosts on board from stones of an English abbey being shipped overseas.
12 July 1952
Special prosecutor John Conroy hopes to combat organized crime in his city and appoints his cop father Matt as chief investigator.
19 April 1996
In the not-too-distant future, the evil Dr. Forrester forces a temp named Mike into a series of experiments, where he's forced to watch cheesy movies so the mad scientist can monitor his mind.
15 May 1981
The Harlem Globetrotters' chartered plane crash lands on the atoll inhabited by the happily marooned Gilligan and fellow castaways, and they all must play basketball against a specially programmed squad of robots controlled by a mad scientist.
14 October 1978
When a decaying Russian satellite crashes on the island, the Professor uses a key component for a barometer.
25 June 1954
A young auto racer competes in a Canada-to-Mexico race in a car he designed himself. Director George Sherman's 1954 film stars Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don Taylor, Sidney Blackmer, Paul Kelly, Ilka Chase and Joseph Sawyer.
01 April 1957
Cloud Nine, the local teen hangout, has been taken over by a pair of escaped killers, who hold the local teens hostage.
03 May 1979
In the second of three additional Gilligan's Island movies following the series, the gang finds a way of getting rescued from the "uncharted desert isle" for a second time through a series of misadventures but comes back to turn it into a tropical resort for uptight mainlanders.
01 July 1983
Two young hitchhikers are picked up a speed-crazed young woman, who tears around the countryside. She leaves them to take the blame for her activities, and they find themselves sentenced to six months in prison.
14 October 2001
A campy look at the making of the 1964-67 TV series, as told by stars Bob Denver, Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson, as well as in flashbacks (actors play the castaways).
05 June 1977
A special unit of the U.S. Marshal's Service is assigned to protect a syndicate hitman who is to testify against his former bosses, who have put out a contract on his life.
05 September 1958
Ex-army sergeant Jed Givens and his gang rob an army payroll shipment led by Lt. Hemp Brown. Givens kills a civilian woman and all the soldiers, leaving Brown alive to face a military tribunal in which he is branded a coward, stripped of all insignia and drummed out of the army.
01 July 1957
A young boy is given a colt to raise as his own.
11 January 1952
A college professor begins to suspect that a student's accidental death was tied to his refusal to take part in a traditional "hazing" and was no accident.
01 January 1977
Howard is mild-mannered and slightly simple-minded, with a habit of picking up teenage hitchhikers while driving his delivery routes.
