Education
He was graduated from University of Southern California with a degree in architecture before attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
He was graduated from University of Southern California with a degree in architecture before attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
He was working for well-known architect Kem Weber when he was hired by David O. Selznick in 1938. He worked as a sketch artist for designs on Gone with the Wind in 1939, and was heavily involved with the creation of the special effects for The Wizard of Oz that same year. He returned to his first career of architecture for a year, and worked with many notable architects in the Los Angeles area, many of whom having been his classmates at University of Southern California. He retired in 1971 and died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1990.
When the McCarthy hysteria of Communism settled down, Johnson returned to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for his art direction on The Facts of Life in 1960 and the expensive remake of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962, and for visual effects on George Stevens"s religious epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and the John Sturges thriller Ice Station Zebra in 1968.