Writing about actor Don Johnson is even to me a rather odd choice for a blog which holds favorites as it’s theme. Don Johnson has never really been a favorite actor of mine, in fact until this year I am not sure I even saw anything he was in.
I was about 8 or 9 when Miami Vice premiered on NBC. At the time, there was no such thing as a DVR and we didn’t even have a VCR until a few years later. From what I remember, for most of the 80's, Friday night at my families home was Dallas night. My parents loved the show and as I got older, I joined them in what was really the only television show I remember us sitting down and watching as a family. Therefore, I never watched the show that aired opposite Dallas, not then, and not now.
Anyone who has a cat knows that they often do this push pull thing with your hand. They pull it in with their front paws, while simultaneously , pushing it away with their rear paws, leaving you scratched and often bloody. This is sort of how I feel about Don....
What I did know about Miami Vice and Don Johnson came from newspapers and magazines. Miami Vice came big for a hot minute and for a short while Johnson was everywhere. First off, Johnson was in his mid to late thirties at the time, so given my age, he was just another old, but good looking actor from television. When I did see him on television and in print, I found he seemed to give off an almost arrogant, know it all attitude I found a turn off.
Below: Taken in 1976 in Mexico, the images below appeared in the 1986 issue of Playboy.
As I grew into my teens however, when I would see him on televison and in magazines, I also found his arrogance was contrasted with an innate sexual presence that caused the sort of push/pull feeling I described above. Researching Don for the posts today, it makes total sense given his background. He was just 12, when he lost his virginity and from then on there always seemed to be a woman, especially an older one, by his side. Don already had experienced close to a quarter of a century by the time I was introduced to him in the mid-eighties, of being admired ogled and maybe sometimes exploited both women and men. Having the range of sexual experiences, both in real life and on screen, makes his arrogance, or maybe better worded, self confidence, more understandable now that I am older.
Earlier this year I saw what I think was my first Don Johnson performance in Django Unchained. Because of this, I was researching Don for a post I did earlier in the year, Django Uncovered. In that research I once again came upon Don’s images from film The Harrad Experiment and the play The Fortune and Men’s Eyes. There is something about Don’s appearance during this time that is particularly sexy, and sexual. The blonde hair, those lips, the body and a feeling the young man in the images was game for pretty much anything. Since that post, I made a point of finding and watching some of Don’s early work, the first priority being The Harrad Experiment. Don did not disappoint.
I still have little interest in watching Miami Vice or Nash Bridges, not because Don is older, but because tv cop shows usually bore me to tears. Don Johnson however, has become a favorite hunk to look back on for what he evokes in me. I think we all have a Don Johnson in our past, a guy who turned us off most times, pushing us away for one reason or another. At the same time, this same guy had the power, when the moment was right to pull us in, and pull us hard.
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