Monsters and Matinees: Before ‘Professor,’ Russell Johnson used his wits in 3 sci-fi classics

As classic movie fans, we’ve all had those “wow” moments with actors we may not expect to see in a film as in “Wow! Is that (fill in the blank) …” Or “Wait – I think that’s …” This usually happens in their early films and it’s always fun to make that connection.

One of my favorite “wow” moments was in the great sci-fi film It Came from Outer Space when I excitedly said out loud (to an empty room) – “Hey, that’s the Professor!”

Yes, it was Russell Johnson in a film made a decade before he would become cemented in pop-culture history as the Professor on the CBS hit comedy Gilligan’s Island. And instead of wondering aloud if it was Russell Johnson, I indeed called him Professor, the character he is most remembered for playing.

While the series made household names out of the seven actors playing the castaways on an uncharted island, it also made it difficult for them to separate themselves from those distinct TV characters. It was almost like the work they did before Gilligan’s Island didn’t exist; then, after the series ended, they were typecast as those characters.

For Johnson, that meant he would always be recognized as Professor Roy Hinkley – shorted simply to Professor – an amiable and intelligent man who used his skills to create all sorts of interesting gadgets.

But before he played that iconic role, he appeared in three notable sci-fi films of the 1950s and I thought the centennial of his birth – he was born Nov. 10, 1924 – is a good time to celebrate that legacy.

In It Came from Outer Space (1953), Johnson was a telephone worker whose body was borrowed by aliens to share messages with clueless humans. In This Island Earth (1955) he was a scientist chosen by an alien race to help them survive, and in Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956) he was a Navy radio specialist trapped with others on an island by the title creatures.

Those weren’t lead roles, but his characters were integral to the plot. Plus, the three films are noted for their technological advances and feature such lauded names as directors Jack Arnold and Roger Corman and producer William Alland.

Before getting to the films, here’s a very brief look at the life of Russell Johnson.

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Russell Johnson was born Nov. 10, 1924 in the small borough of Ashley, Pa. (near Wilkes-Barre). The oldest of seven children, he took on a lot of responsibility in caring for his younger siblings. After his father died, he was sent to a private school/orphanage with his brothers.

Following high school, Johnson enlisted in the U.S. Air Force where he had a decorated military career. He flew 44 combat missions during World War II and received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star after his B-52 was shot down and he broke both of his ankles.

He used his G.I. Bill to study acting at the Actors Lab in Hollywood where other students included Audie Murphy, who would become a good friend, plus Marilyn Monroe, Hume Cronyn, Dorothy Dandridge and Leo J. Cobb. His first role was in the 1952 noir “For Men Only,” directed by Paul Henreid, and he followed that with four more films that year.

Johnson continued acting for nearly 40 years, starring in a healthy mix of film and television. He made three early Westerns with Audie Murphy: Tumbleweed (1953), Column South (1953) and Ride Clear of Diablo (1954); co-starred with Gilligan’s Island pal Alan Hale Jr. in the Western Many Rivers to Cross (1955) and the TV series Casey Jones (1957); and had guest spots on a large number of popular TV shows including Gunsmoke, The Californians, Wagon Train, The Real McCoys and Tales of Wells Fargo. Other guest roles were on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits and two episodes of The Twilight Zone (Execution and Back There).

He starred for two seasons on Black Saddle and fittingly appeared multiple times on the military documentary anthology series, The Silent Service (1957), that told true stories about the U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet. Other films included the epics The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and MacArthur (1977).

The early 1960s brought Gilligan’s Island. The series ran only from 1964 to 1967 and if you thought – like me – that it aired much longer, that’s because it never really went away. Even today, we can watch the comedy series on MeTV and streaming services such as Tubi. Plus there are there are three Gilligan’s Island made-for-TV movies – Rescue from Gilligan’s Island (1978), The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island (1979) and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981) – and two animated series.

Johnson died Jan. 16, 2014 at age 89.

While it’s an achievement to be known 60 years later for a role as Johnson is for Gilligan’s Island, we are here to celebrate him for his performances battling aliens and giant telepathic crabs. Following are capsule looks at the three films and Johnson’s roles in them.

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It Came from Outer Space (1953)

John (Richard Carlson), a writer and amateur astronomer, and his fiancée Ellen (Barbara Rush), a teacher, are first on the scene after a meteorite crash in the desert. When they discover to their shock that it’s a spaceship, they try to convince town residents of what they’ve seen. Instead, they are ridiculed for their outlandish claims.

Johnson plays George who is working the lines along the desert highway with his partner Frank (Joe Sawyer) for the Sand Rock Telephone Exchange. These two average guys have a big, and at times, creepy role to play. When we first meet them, handsome George’s mind is on his big date that night, while Frank is checking out a phone line up a pole. When John and Ellen arrive while their looking for proof of aliens, Frank lets them listen to the strange sounds he’s hearing. Though they pass it off as probably nothing, the two parties split up to investigate and that’s when George and Frank have a close encounter of the alien kind. (Note to self: If you hear high-pitched sounds and see a big creature resembling an eye, you should run in the other direction.)

The next time the men meet John and Ellen they are a shadow of their former selves, speaking in monotone with glazed eyes and slow, zombie-like movements. Something is clearly wrong. George and Frank will provide the movie’s most chilling moment when they appear as shadowy figures in a doorway after John chases them down an alley. He asks questions but learns he may not like the answers.

It Came from Outer Space ultimately shows itself as a very thoughtful film that touches the surface of how we treat those who aren’t like us. When the townsfolk finally believe there are aliens, they are afraid of the “other,” and John is surprised to find himself trying to protect the aliens by fighting off the angry mob bent on destroying them.

The film is directed by Jack Arnold and based on a Ray Bradbury story. 

This Island Earth (1955)

Johnson has a smaller part in this film, but it’s a key role in whether the Earth’s survives or not. He is Dr. Steve Carlson, one of three exceptional (as we’re told multiple times) U.S. atomic scientists chosen by aliens to save their planet. The other two are played by Rex Reason and Faith Domergue. Jeff Morrow is the mysterious platinum-blonde Exeter, a scientist from the distant planet of Metaluna who guides them. (Morrow and Reason would co-star the following year in The Creature Walks Among Us.)

Exeter has tested scientists from around the world to find the ones who can create desperately needed nuclear energy to save Metaluna from a dangerous ongoing assault. But convincing the scientists to do that work is another thing as the characters – and viewers – must decide whether Exeter is telling the truth or will use their skills to turn on the people of Earth. (It doesn’t help that the aliens have a machine called the “thought transformer” that is like mind-control for those who don’t obey.) Just know that Johnson’s Dr. Steve is integral in learning the answer.

Joseph Newman is the film’s official director, but Jack Arnold directed most of the Metaluna sequences. The film was widely hailed for its use of Technicolor and special effects, being called “imaginative, fantastic and cleverly conceived” by Variety at the time. The influential film pops up in various ways in films including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Explorers (1985), UHF (1989) and Looney Tunes Back in Action (2003) as well as in song and video. You’ll know the movie from its images of a mutant with a giant head (it doesn’t appear until late in that film) that is said to be one of the inspirations for the work done by artist H.R. Giger for his work with aliens (and Alien).

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

Gosh, this is a fun film with the eye-raising hypothesis that not only giant crabs exist, but that they can speak the thoughts of humans. Roger Corman produced and directed this film that finds a group of scientists and sailors – including Johnson as a radio technician – arriving on a remote Pacific Island to find members of a previous expedition that seems to have disappeared.

But there’s not a body – alive or dead – to be found. Not even bones, if we want to be gross about it. And the journal left by the lead researcher has puzzling notes about a giant worm before the entries abruptly end. (They’ll soon wish it was just a worm.)

Soon, the new group is being killed off (the seaplane explodes, a sailor is quickly decapitated after falling into the water), and there are multiple earthquakes that open cavernous holes and send parts of the island into the ocean. A core group of five must fend off those strange occurrences and be wary of voices calling to them that are of the missing or dead. (These crabs have strange powers.) Perhaps that ominous clickity-click sound – described by one unnerved character as like a “kid dragging a stick across a picket fence” – is a warning of what’s to come.

Johnson’s character, who did TV and radio repairs with the Navy during the war, becomes the only hope for those left alive. While they fend off giant, intelligent crabs and the island continues to break apart, he races against time to cobble together a radio to get a distress signal out. Can he do it? Don’t forget he was later called the Professor.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a writer and board member of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto.