Johnny Crawford, who became a child star as the son of 'The Rifleman,' dies at 75

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Fri Apr 30, 2021: Johnny Crawford, original Mouseketeer and Rifleman star, dies at 75

Obituaries

Johnny Crawford, who became a child star as the son of ‘The Rifleman,’ dies at 75

By Harrison Smith
April 30, 2021 at 9:14 p.m. EDT

Johnny Crawford, who reigned as one of television’s most popular young actors while starring as Chuck Connors’s sensitive son on “The Rifleman,” then parlayed his screen success into a string of Top 40 hits as a teenage crooner in the early 1960s, died April 29 at an assisted-living home in the Sun Valley section of Los Angeles. He was 75. ... He had Alzheimer’s disease, said his wife, Charlotte McKenna-Crawford, and was in declining health after being hospitalized last year for covid-19 and pneumonia.

Mr. Crawford was 9 when he began performing on national television, appearing on “The Mickey Mouse Club” in 1955 as one of two dozen original Mouseketeers. Wearing mouse ears and matching white shirts, he and his castmates charmed an audience of young baby boomers while singing and dancing between serials and educational segments. Episodes began with a roll call and ended with a farewell song: “Now it’s time to say goodbye / to all our company.”

After the first season ended, Mr. Crawford was cut from the show. He suspected it was because he kept getting distracted while learning his dance steps, focusing instead on fellow Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. “That really broke my heart. . . . I was a has-been at nine,” he told an interviewer in 1982. “I told my agent that I would have worked at Disney’s for nothing. That’s when she told me that I was working for them for nothing.”

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John Ernest Crawford was born in Los Angeles on March 26, 1946. Both parents were occasional actors, and his mother was also a concert pianist. The family’s home was filled with old records, and by the time Mr. Crawford auditioned for “The Mickey Mouse Club” he had learned 1920s songs such as “Charley, My Boy” and “Mean to Me.” ... Rather than sing a popular standard, he auditioned by performing a tap-dance routine and fencing with his brother. He said he secured a spot as a Mouseketeer by imitating singer Johnnie Ray, performing the song “Cry.” ... Mr. Crawford later played a Native American in the adventure film “Indian Paint” (1965), appeared with Kim Darby in “The Restless Ones” (1965) and was shot by John Wayne in the western “El Dorado” (1966). He served two years in the Army and starred in the Oscar-winning short film “The Resurrection of Broncho Billy” (1970).

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Read more:

Chuck Connors, star of ‘The Rifleman,’ dies at 71

James Drury, star of long-running TV western ‘The Virginian,’ dies at 85

Ty Hardin, rugged actor who played Bronco Layne in TV westerns, dies at 87

Harrison Smith Follow https://twitter.com/harrisondsmith
Harrison Smith is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk. Since joining the obituaries section in 2015, he has profiled big-game hunters, fallen dictators and Olympic champions. He sometimes covers the living as well, and previously co-founded the South Side Weekly, a community newspaper in Chicago.