The only person to win both a world rodeo championship and an Oscar

Art · Published 3 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Ben Johnson was a master horseman who stumbled into Hollywood while delivering livestock. He became a legendary stuntman and character actor, eventually winning an Academy Award for his role in The Last Picture Show. Yet, he remained a rancher at heart, prouder of his rodeo title than his cinematic fame.

Born in 1918 on the Osage Indian Reservation, Ben Johnson grew up as the son of a champion rancher. His path to stardom began in the late 1930s when he arrived in Hollywood to deliver horses for a film production. Howard Hughes eventually hired him as a wrangler and stuntman for the 1943 movie The Outlaw, launching a career defined by his authentic equestrian skills.

His big break came through director John Ford, who signed him to a seven-year contract after Johnson saved three men from a runaway wagon during the filming of Fort Apache in 1948. Despite a successful run in Westerns, Johnson was known for his firm boundaries; he once famously told Ford to go to hell during the production of Rio Grande, leading to a decade-long professional silence between the two. He later found a kindred spirit in director Sam Peckinpah, who valued his lack of acting pretension.

The pinnacle of his acting career arrived in 1971 when he portrayed Sam the Lion in Peter Bogdanovich’s drama The Last Picture Show. The role earned him an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. Despite this acclaim, Johnson refused to raise his salary, maintaining that he preferred to stick to the work he knew best. He remained a dedicated rancher throughout his life, operating a horse-breeding facility in Sylmar, California, and accumulating significant wealth through real estate investments.

Johnson’s dual identity as a cowboy and an actor remained central to his legacy. In 1953, he took a hiatus from lucrative film work to compete in the Rodeo Cowboys Association, where he secured the Team Roping World Championship. He was later inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979. When he passed away in 1996 at the age of 77, he left behind a unique cultural footprint as both a Hollywood icon and a world-class athlete.

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