{{short description|American film director}} {{One source|date=April 2024}} '''Joseph McMillan Johnson''' (September 15, 1912 – April 17, 1990) was a leading [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] [[art director]] born in [[Los Angeles]].
He was graduated from [[University of Southern California|USC]] with a degree in [[architecture]] before attending [[Art Center College of Design]] in [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]]. He was working for well-known architect [[Kem Weber]] when he was hired by [[David O. Selznick]] in 1938. He worked as a sketch artist for designs on ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' in 1939, and was heavily involved with the creation of the [[special effects]] for ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' that same year. He worked on most of Selznick's major productions including ''[[Duel in the Sun (film)|Duel in the Sun]]'' (1946), ''[[The Paradine Case]]'' (1947) and ''[[Portrait of Jennie]]'' (1948), for which he won an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for the [[visual effects]].<ref name="Oscars1949">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1949 |title=The 21st Academy Awards (1949) Nominees and Winners |access-date=2011-08-18 |publisher=Oscars.org ([[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093808/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/21st-winners.html |archive-date=6 July 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>
A frequent collaborator with [[Alfred Hitchcock]], (''[[Rear Window]]'' in 1954 was followed by ''[[To Catch a Thief (film)|To Catch a Thief]]'' in 1955 which earned him another [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nomination), Johnson was forced to take a break from Hollywood during the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy]] witch hunts. He returned to his first career of architecture for a year, and worked with many notable architects in the LA area, many of whom having been his classmates at USC. When the McCarthy hysteria of Communism settled down, Johnson returned to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for his art direction on ''[[The Facts of Life (film)|The Facts of Life]]'' in 1960 and the expensive [[remake]] of ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]'' in 1962, and for visual effects on [[George Stevens]]'s religious epic ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965) and the [[John Sturges]] [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] ''[[Ice Station Zebra (film)|Ice Station Zebra]]'' in 1968.
He retired in 1971 and died of a [[cerebral haemorrhage]] in 1990.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0425262}}
{{Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame (2000s)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Joseph Mcmillan}} [[Category:Film directors from Los Angeles]] [[Category:American art directors]] [[Category:1912 births]] [[Category:1990 deaths]] [[Category:American production designers]] [[Category:Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners]] {{US-artdirector-stub}} {{US-film-director-1910s-stub}}