The 'Voiceless Sinatra'

I saw no photos of him in his later years, but Van Johnson always looked younger than he was, and I assume that was true even when he died Friday at the age of 92. For that, he was known as the "voiceless Sinatra."

When I was growing up, it seemed that Johnson was always on TV or the movie screen. The television programs were new, but he never seemed to age, whether he was a guest on "Here's Lucy!" (Lucille Ball was one of his early benefactors), "Batman," "Love, American Style," "Maude," "McCloud," "Fantasy Island," "Murder, She Wrote" or a miniseries like "Rich Man, Poor Man."

As a child, I saw him at the movie theater on occasion — in the family-oriented film "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows," which was an inferior sequel to the Hayley Mills vehicle, "The Trouble With Angels," although it benefited from Johnson's presence as the priest who runs a boys' school.

And I saw him appear with Ball and Henry Fonda in "Yours, Mine and Ours."

Johnson's seemingly age-defying quality was something that certainly helped his career, along with the fact that a serious injury in a car accident left him with a metal plate in his head and prevented him from being drafted into World War II.

That accident qualified as a "blessing in disguise," because Johnson had little significant competition for youthful leading-man roles at MGM during the war years.

He never won any awards for his acting, but he earned solid reviews for performances in films like "A Guy Named Joe," "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and "The Human Comedy."

I will always remember his earnest performance as Lt. Maryk in "The Caine Mutiny," but I must admit that Johnson has never been the first — or even the second — person I've thought of when I've thought of that movie.

My first thoughts have always been of Humphrey Bogart as the unstable captain or Fred MacMurray as the glib communications officer who plants the seeds of rebellion or even Jose Ferrer as the lawyer who defends Johnson in the court-martial.

Johnson's character was a steady presence in that film, though, and a crucial element in the moral of the story.

I guess the last time I saw him in a film was more than 20 years ago, when I saw him in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (as one of the characters who is trapped on the movie screen after Jeff Daniels' character leaves the film and enters the real world) — although Johnson remained active in movies and TV for about seven years after making that film — and in dinner theater until he was in his 80s.

As luck would have it, a couple of Johnson's movies are scheduled to be shown on the cable channel Turner Classic Movies this month.

"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" will be aired by TCM Friday at 10:15 a.m. (Central). TCM also is scheduled to show the musical "In the Good Old Summertime," starring Johnson and Judy Garland, on Christmas Eve at 1:15 p.m. (Central).

They serve as timely reminders of Johnson's versatility.