RAFER JOHNSON

(18 August 1934 - 2 December 2020)

The former American athlete and actor Rafer Johnson, who has died from a stroke aged 86, was first a basketball star and subsequently an Olympian decathlon champion. He co-founded the California Special Olympics and served as President from 1983-1992. While a TV sports anchorman, he also became involved in campaigning for both John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy. He was one of the men who tackled Robert Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, and later achieved success in the California Hall of Fame. He almost entered films in 1960 when Kirk Douglas was making Spartacus during the Rome Olympics but, as an amateur sportsman, Johnson could not accept the role of Draba (which went to Woody Strode). Later on Johnson appeared in The Sins of Rachel Cade with Angie Dickinson, The Fiercest Heart with Juliet Prowse, Wild in the Country with Elvis Presley, A Global Affair with Bob Hope, None But the Brave with Frank Sinatra, The Last Grenade with Stanley Baker, Michael Winner’s The Games, Licence to Kill with Timothy Dalton as 007, and John Turteltaub’s Think Big, his last film (in 1990). He also made a couple of Tarzan pictures (not as the hero) plus some television series and a TV movie on his own life. Rafer Johnson was married to Elizabeth Thorsen and they have two children.

MICHAEL DARVELL