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His many eccentric characters became nationwide hits within weeks and, after four nominations, Arte won an Emmy, the only individual performer from the LAUGH-IN crew to do so.

'Invariably,' he says now, 'playing psychotics,' including THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST and THE THIRD DAY.ДЄt this point, he took a cut in pay to go into his third television series, LAUGH-IN. In addition to over 200 radio and television spots, he also appeared in four or five movies. It lasted exactly nine weeks.ДЄfter a brief interlude working as a clothing salesman, Arte began doing commercials for which his ability to do highly unique characterizations was an inestimable asset.

The play ran a year, and he then returned to California to work in yet another television series, SALLY, starring Joan Caulfield. Among the stars and writers who came out of Tamiment prior to Arte's arrival were Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and many others during his tenure, he worked with such other young hopefuls as Carol Burnett, Dick Shawn, Jack Cassidy, Pat Carroll and Larry Kert, and exercised all of his talents for singing, dancing, acting, comedy and improvisation.ДЇrom Tamiment, Arte went straight to Broadway, replacing Roddy MacDowell in NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS. This demanding training ground required a new show every week which played for two nights and was then retired while a new one was written, rehearsed and prepared for the week following. The next stage in his career, however, provided a turning point with three seasons at Tamiment, a resort-with-theatre in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. From the time he first set foot on the sound stage to the time he walked out of the show some months later, he was never allowed to sing a note, leaving Hollywood somewhat less than fulfilled.

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Impressed with Johnson's singing talent, producers of the television series IT'S ALWAYS JAN sent Arte to Los Angeles to do a continuing part in the show.

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(His first professional part had him playing a 60-year old man.) The tour led to bookings at small but increasingly prestigious nightclubs, including the Ruben Bleu and the Blue Angel, where his musical comedy act was extremely well received and featured sketches of several of the characters who would later make him famous. On a dare, he tried out for the road company of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and, to his amazement, found himself a working actor. He was continuing on this somewhat circuitous road toward a greater knowledge of fish when further schooling was interrupted by a trip to New York and a job in public relations for a publishing house. But, when entering the University of Illinois, his goal was a career in ichthyology (the study of fish)! As no such major was available there, he was forced to content himself with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in history.

His parents, attorney Abraham Lincoln Johnson and Edith MacKenzie Goldberg, provided for early instruction in music and Arte now plays violin, saxophone, clarinet and all the woodwinds.

Tyrone Horneigh, Pyotr Rosmenko, Wolfgang Busch, Rabbi Schanquar and many others were all born at the same moment in Chicago and collectively given the name Arte Johnson. His return in 1974 as Og the Leprechaun (amidst choruses of 'It's Not That Easy Being Green') in FINIAN'S RAINBOW saw Arte break every existing tent attendance and box office record and, since then, he and his lovely wife Gisela have more or less taken Milwaukee and its zoo, museum, restaurants, shops вЂ“ and, most importantly, the annual Variety Club epilepsy telethon вЂ“ into personal 'protective custody.' The feeling on the city's part for them is decidedly mutual. Two weeks and fourteen standing ovations later, he found himself eagerly adopted by local audiences who had probably never laughed louder or longer at any tent show. Photos from A FUNNY THING.FORUM, June 8-20, 1976 Cast Biographies for A FUNNY THING.FORUM (1976)ДЄrte Johnson first came to Melody Top four years ago to play seven characters opposite Karen Morrow in LITTLE ME.

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