A former member of the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) and the AJRA (American Junior Rodeo Association), he competed frequently at rodeos throughout the country during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Brother of Robert Crawford Jr., son of Robert Crawford.
Continued performing in theater and nightclubs after his early TV and pop-music heydays.
Crawford had a key role in the early career of Victoria Jackson of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) fame. In 1980, she was a college student in Birmingham, Alabama, earning credit doing flip-flops, as a member of the chorus, in a summer stock production of "Meet Me in St. Louis", featuring Crawford. He presented her with a one-way plane ticket and encouraged her to pursue a career in Hollywood. This led to her 22 appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962), before she was cast as a regular on "Saturday Night Live" (1975).
His maternal grandfather, Belgian violinist Alfred Megerlin (1880-1941), was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic (1918-1922), the Minneapolis Symphony (1923-1926), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1927-1929).
His paternal grandfather, Robert "Bobby" Crawford (1889-1941), was a horse jockey from Chicago who changed his occupation to song "plugger" and became a very successful music publisher as the founder of De Sylva, Brown & Henderson and Crawford Music Corp.
Is of Russian-Jewish, German, English and Irish ancestry.
Johnny has been a compulsive trick roper ever since Montie Montana got him spinning a "flat loop" in the very early days of The Rifleman, and horse wrangler Buster Trow taught him the "butterfly." After his Rifleman days Johnny was coached by Gene McLaughlin for many years.
Most famous for portraying Chuck Connors' sensitive young son, Mark McCain, on TV series "The Rifleman" (1958).
Was one of Walt Disney's original Mouseketeers in 1955.
With five Top 40 hits in the 1960s, Crawford's recording of "Cindy's Birthday" peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 40 in 1962.