Richard Keith Johnson (30 July 1927 – 5 June 2015) was an English stage and screen actor, writer and producer.

[1] He had a distinguished theatrical career, notably as a cornerstone member of the Royal Shakespeare Company,[3] and was once acclaimed as "the finest romantic actor of his generation.

He trained at RADA and due to the manpower shortage of wartime made his first professional appearance relatively quickly, on stage in Manchester with John Gielgud's company in a production of Hamlet in 1944.

[8] He also appeared in episodes of Assignment Foreign Legion, The Buccaneers, Armchair Theatre, and Four Just Men, and had the lead in Epilogue to Capricorn (1960).

[4][9] After Johnson's stage performances had received excellent reviews, MGM offered him a long-term contract in June 1959.

In 1961–62 he portrayed Clive Root on Broadway in Graham Greene's The Complaisant Lover, which ran for 101 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Johnson was second billed to Kim Novak in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), directed by Terence Young.

He was top billed in the Italian horror film The Witch (1966) then was cast as Bulldog Drummond in Deadlier Than the Male (1967) with Elke Sommer for director Ralph Thomas, a James Bond-style adventure.

[24] Johnson was Creon in Oedipus the King (1968) with Christopher Plummer, then starred in the spy film A Twist of Sand (1968).

"[27] Johnson played Rembrandt for British TV in 1969 and was Cassius in Charlton Heston's version of Julius Caesar (1970).

He did The Fifth Day of Peace (1970) with Franco Nero, Hamlet (1970) with Richard Chamberlain, The Beloved (1971) with Raquel Welch, A Man About a Dog (1972), A Marriage (1972) and I Want to Marry Your Son (1973).

He did a horror film Beyond the Door (1974), and Churchill's People, The Night Child (1975), and Hennessy (1975) for director Don Sharp; he provided the original story of the latter.

He was in the films Aces High (1976), Take All of Me (1976) in Italy, The Four Feathers (1978) for Sharp, The Comeback (1978), Screamers (1979), Zombi 2 (1979), The Flame Is Love (1979), Island of the Fishmen (1979) and The Great Alligator (1979).

[29] In the 1980s Johnson could be seen in Spy!, Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980), Haywire (1980), The Marquise (1980), The Monster Club (1981), The Member for Chelsea (1981), The Kenny Everett Television Show, Tales of the Unexpected (several episodes), Cymbeline (1982) in the title role, Magnum, P.I., The Aerodrome (1983), and Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (1984).

[30] In 1982 Johnson helped set up United British Artists, the film and theatre-producing company, along with fellow actors Albert Finney, Maggie Smith and Glenda Jackson.

Johnson said, "In this profession it is mighty irritating always to be in the hands of other people, waiting on the end of a telephone, unable to guide your ship.

According to one reviewer, his performance in Anglo Saxon earned him "a sheaf of golden notices and put him at the top of the ratings for mature heart-throbs.

"[27] Johnson appeared in Heavy Weather (1995), Kavanagh QC, Murder Most Horrid, Tales from the Crypt, Breaking the Code (1996), The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1996), Supply & Demand, The Echo, Milk (1999), and Happy Days (2000).

"[4] Johnson's later career appearances included doing The Seagull at Stratford in 2000, plus The Whistle-Blower (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), The Royal, The Robinsons, Whatever Love Means (2005) as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Wallis & Edward (2005) (as Stanley Baldwin), Rebus, Scoop (2006), Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Waking the Dead, The Raven (2007), Two Families (2007), and Jump!

[29] Film-wise he was in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008), Spooks, Lewis, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (2011), and Silent Witness.

During his tenure at UBA he produced the films Turtle Diary (starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley, with a screenplay commissioned from Harold Pinter), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.

[32] His second wife was American actress Kim Novak, with whom he appeared in the film The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965); the marriage didn't last long and they had no children, but they remained on friendly terms after the divorce.

[33] Johnson then married Lynne Gurney on a beach in Goa, India, in 1989, following this with a discreet civil wedding at Kings Road, Chelsea in 2004.

[34] Richard Johnson died on 5 June 2015, aged 87, after a short illness at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London.