A freckled-faced boy-next-door, actor Van Johnson became a big star at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s when he came to Hollywood from the Broadway chorus. He cornered the market on genial guys who romanced nice girls like June Allyson and Esther Williams in comedies and musicals, which made him a top box office draw during the war and into post-war America. On occasion, he was given a chance to show some dramatic grit in war pictures like “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo” (1944) and “Battleground” (1949). Johnson’s career faded in the early 1960s, though he remained active on television and theater until
