RAFER JOHNSON

2 Dec

(18 August 1934 - 2 December 2020)

The former American athlete and actor Rafer Johnson, who has died from a stroke aged 86, was first a basketball star and subsequently an Olympian decathlon champion. He co-founded the California Special Olympics and served as President from 1983-1992. While a TV sports anchorman, he also became involved in campaigning for both John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy. He was one of the men who tackled Robert Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, and later achieved success in the California Hall of Fame. He almost entered films in 1960 when Kirk Douglas was making Spartacus during the Rome Olympics but, as an amateur sportsman, Johnson could not accept the role of Draba (which went to Woody Strode). Later on Johnson appeared in The Sins of Rachel Cade with Angie Dickinson, The Fiercest Heart with Juliet Prowse, Wild in the Country with Elvis Presley, A Global Affair with Bob Hope, None But the Brave with Frank Sinatra, The Last Grenade with Stanley Baker, Michael Winner’s The Games, Licence to Kill with Timothy Dalton as 007, and John Turteltaub’s Think Big, his last film (in 1990). He also made a couple of Tarzan pictures (not as the hero) plus some television series and a TV movie on his own life. Rafer Johnson was married to Elizabeth Thorsen and they have two children.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

RAFER JOHNSON

PAMELA TIFFIN

DAVID PROWSE