Child-actors often have to face the fact that they may not be able to make the transition into an adult career
Becoming a star as a child can be a drawback in showbusiness as many actors can attest. Johnny Crawford was one of them. At 13 he won his most important role as Mark McCain in The Rifleman and became typecast. He never received another movie offer.
Crawford, who was nominated for an Emmy Award as a teen due to the great chemistry he and Chuck Connors showed in the series, became a household very early in his life. Unfortunately, that success and that fame quickly faded away.
When The Rifleman ended in 1963, he was one of the most popular young actors and singers in the world, with 4 songs on the Billboard Top 40 hits. A year after The Rifleman ended, he appeared on the NBC education drama, Mr. Novak, in a smaller part.
In 1965 he played an American Indian in Indian Paint. Next, he co-starred with Kim Darby in The Restless Ones, where he portrayed a young man involved with a disturbed girl. Crawford participated in El Dorado, a 1967 film adaptation of Harry Brown’s novel The Stars in Their Courses.
A year later, he was a guest-star in one episode of Hawaii Five-O playing a soldier wanted for murder; and, the next year, he worked for one episode on The Big Valley as a young deputy named Billy Norris.
In 1970, Crawford’s close friend and producer, John Longenecker, asked him to be part of his student film titled The Resurrection of Broncho Billy. Crawford accepted and the movie won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject.
As the work offers dwindled, the parts got smaller, and the genius boy-actor was a man playing bit-parts on the fringes of great Hollywood productions.
Crawford is now concentrated on his music, leading a California-based vintage dance orchestra which sponsored by the Playboy Jazz Festival. His band has played 15 times at the Art Directors Guild Awards shows at the Beverly Hilton and Beverly Hills.
