Johnny reflects on his career after "The Rifleman".

Q: Child actors are usually hindered in their adult work by people who refuse to let them grow up. Has that been a hindrance to you?

JC: Well, I have thought of that, but I don’t think so anymore. People nowadays are pretty sophisticated and realize that time marches on for everybody. Mostly, the ones that are surprised that I’m older are young children who watch the show Saturday mornings and have no reference to know that it’s an old show, and when they’re told that I’m the son of the Rifleman in person, they look at me rather oddly and they shake their heads ‘no, he isn’t’. But more than the public, it’s people who make the movies in Hollywood that really are prone to think rather close mindedly about using former child actors, and tend to be afraid that audiences won’t accept them as grownups. But the profession I’m in is not an easy one and I have always known that, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to me when I come up against that and other problems. I’ve been up for so many parts and lost out on so many that I don’t get too emotional about it. I can, thank God, look at a movie and see some other actor in a role that I had hoped to get and still enjoy a good perform- ance. Of course, I regret perhaps that I’m not playing that particular role, but I regret it more if the actor doesn’t do a good job. I feel eventually I will be doing parts that other people will have wished they had gotten, and as long as I am working and I have continued to work as as actor in theatre around the country and I really enjoy that as much or more than making films, I’m pretty happy, really.

Q: Tell us what you’re doing these days.

JC: Well, I just finished a production of the musical ‘I Love My Wife’ in Canada and I really enjoy doing thetare work very much. I, in fact, prefer it over film in many ways. There’s something about working in front of a live audience that is very exciting and rewarding, and also, doing theatre you often get to do better properties than you get to work on when you’re doing film, unless you’re among the chosen few. Most films and TV shows just aren’t that rewarding for actors other than financially, and even in that area. Doing a TV series is actually kind of scary because so few of them are successful, and one can become overexposed in a relatively short perod of time. So I think I’m most happy when I’m doing a play somewhere, and having the opportunity of doing the same play over and over again and getting to really develop the character. It’s really rewarding and I hope that I continue to be an actor all my life, and I think that doing theatre is the best way to insure that. (Taken from an article in the TV Collector magazine 12-14-82)

Johnny Crawford Today: Johnny continues his love of music today as leader of a swing orchestra appropriately titled “The Johnny Crawford Dance Orchestra” and will appear in a Sony-Tristar film release in the fall of 1998 titled “The 13th Floor”. A new CD of Johnny’s current music is expected to be released in August of 1998.