Arthur V. Johnson

Who was Arthur V. Johnson?

Arthur V. Johnson was a pioneer actor and director of the early American silent film era.

Born in Davenport, Iowa, the son of Rev. Myron A. Johnson, Arthur Vaughen Johnson left college at 19 to join a traveling Shakespearean troupe. He later appeared on stage with Sol Smith Russell, Robert B. Mantell and Marie Wainwright. Johnson began as a film actor with the Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York in 1905 in the one-reel drama "The White Caps" directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr., and Edwin S. Porter. In 1908, he went to work for Biograph Studios, where he acted in films directed by D.W. Griffith including Resurrection in 1909 and a year later in In Old California, the first movie Griffith ever shot in Hollywood. At Biograph, Arthur Johnson performed with stars such as Mary Pickford and Florence Lawrence. Johnson was reputed to be Griffith's favorite actor.

In 1911 he accepted an offer from Lubin Studios in Philadelphia that allowed him to direct as well as act. With Lottie Briscoe, his frequent co-star at Lubin, Johnson directed and starred in The Belovéd Adventurer, a 15 episode serial by Emmett Campbell Hall. Health problems ended his career in 1915 after having performed in more than three hundred silent film shorts and having directed twenty-six.