by Herb Boyd
In a recent retrospective on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) about the film career of Sidney Poitier, “No Way Out” was one of the features. While it marked the beginning of Poitier’s odyssey in Hollywood, the film also had several uncredited Black actors who would go on to bigger and better roles. Among those were Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Frederick O’Neal.
One of the credited Black actors was Dots Johnson, who portrayed Lefty Jones. Three years later, Johnson would get a larger part in the “Joe Louis Story” as Julian Black, Louis’s manager.
But Johnson’s most significant role was as an American MP in Roberto Rossellini’s “Paisan” in 1946. Johnson’s character, Joe, has his most moving moment in the second episode, after the Allies invade the mainland and capture Naples, a port city. A street urchin stumbles upon Joe, who is drunk and about to be a robbery prey. When the police arrive, the urchin and Joe run off and during their flight, Joe relates his war experiences to the young boy. Later, Joe falls asleep, and the urchin steals his boots. The next day, Joe, now fully sober as an MP, catches the urchin stealing supplies from a truck, and demands the return of his boots.
Joe then accompanies the urchin back to where he lives, but after seeing the conditions of squalor, decides to leave without taking his boots.
A poster for the film lists Johnson as Dats, just one of several names that will identify him in his filmography, which includes at least seven in which he is credited.
Johnson was born on February 3, 1913, in Baltimore, Maryland and what little information we were able to obtain comes from the brief bios in his films. His first film was in 1946, where he portrayed “The Duke,” and it’s not clear whether this was a reference to Duke Ellington, since “Tall, Tan, and Terrific” is a musical, starring Mantan Moreland. A year later, he appears in “Reet, Petite, and Gone” as Michaels—some confusion of misidentification may have occurred because another actor, J. Louis Johnson, is also among the performers.
There are no problems of identity in his next two films—“No Way Out” and “The Joe Louis Story”—and his roles here give him a chance to demonstrate his acting ability. In “The Grissom Gang” in 1971, Johnson is not credited and obviously, he is not a member of the white Grissom family or gang.
His last film was “If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band,” where he portrays Jim. The cast includes several boldface Black names: Laurence Fishburne, Moses Gunn, and Arthur French. The film follows the life of young Billie Jean Sims, whose father is in jail, grandmother is blind, and brother is strung out on drugs. Only Fishburne as Fish is her anchor as she navigates the hurdles of the ghetto and seeks to reunite with her father. How Johnson’s character is part of this plot is not explained.
Like so many uncredited and even credited Black actors, so much more needs to be said, particularly about Johnson, who died on August 22, 1986. He was 73.