DON JOHNSON 1988 Interview with Barbara Walters at his home then in Miami

traveling more than 70 miles an hour in a scarab racing boat he often takes in the skyline of Miami Florida which has been his home now for almost four years this city is known as being huntin fun-loving and faintly glamorous you could describe Don Johnson the same way and if Miami has experienced a rebirth in the last several years so - has this 36 year old actor his second chance came with the television role that changed his life price Miami Don Johnson had starred in five unsuccessful TV pilots when he tried for the part of Sonny Crockett in the series Miami Vice the show of course became a hit and Don Johnson became a bonafide sex symbol he and his partner played by Philip Michael Thomas put cops but unlike any cops you've seen before the stubble on the face those t-shirts and pastel jackets became the rage but even more important than all the razzle-dazzle Don Johnson but act is Sonny Crockett as an edge that is not often seen on television now I may seem somewhat unorthodox to the untrained eye but when it comes to being a cop I am strictly business pal the truth but in the mid to late 70s he spent most of his career in run-of-the-mill television movies like this one as the middle-aged Elvis Presley in Elvis and the beauty queen or in bit parts like a rock singer on the bold ones with David Hartman almost no one in Hollywood would touch him the reason he was addicted to both alcohol and cocaine and there were too many women Don Johnson had two marriages that lasted only days each and a third to actress Melanie Griffith whom he started dating when she was 14 and he was 22 lasted only a year in 1981 he began a relationship with another actress Patti d'Arbanville the following year she gave birth to their son Jesse even though they've never married and have ended their relationship they have joint custody of the little boy it was after Jesse was born that Don Johnson gave up drugs and alcohol cold turkey that was more than four years ago today he is a workaholic serious sober and still very much dedicated to the show with the ratings sagging this year and Don Johnson had an on-camera marriage to singer Sheena Easton in the hopes of fusing new life into the series during the hiatus from Miami Vice he made a movie called sweethearts dance which will be released in February he plays a man going through a midlife crisis and his co-stars are Jeff Daniels who plays his best friend and Susan Sarandon who plays his wife what do you wanna watch it when you goddamn was I wanted to love each other well isn't that something because that's what I want too last year he released an album which went platinum he says that love for performing his roots as far back as when he was growing up in Missouri both of his parents were teenagers when he was born and the family didn't have much money Amazing Grace he used to sing him was a church where his grandfather was a preacher I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see I suppose that that was a initially where I got the bug for to be in show business was singing gospel tunes and having people come up to me after church and pinch me on the cheek give me a quarter and David that's sweet let's talk about those Oh a days your parents divorced when you were 11 yeah that's a very vulnerable age a little kid yeah do you remember it I remember it perfectly remember distinctly it was devastating to me at the time something you know I can remember distinctly that something clicked in my mind and and and it made me not trust relationships and emotional you know emotional involvement at that at that time and since that time it's taken me all these years to prepare myself for for any kind of a emotional commitment at all one of the things that that's helped me to do that is my son you know that that was a that was a commitment I was reluctant to make even at the time but when Patti got pregnant it was there was such a amazing occurrence because I'm neither one of us thought that we were fertile didn't you think you could no I've been trying with with another lady for for a couple of years for her completely wrong reason Ellen II know and hold on awaiting yeah different personal here uh a second why are you living with Patty we're trying to get somebody uh no no no I was living with Betty why not only okay okay before that comes this way Tantillo players without a program it fried up extra extra I'll be fired you explain human complaining this is the I do not kiss and tell okay but there was another lady you wanted to have a baby by yeah well we had discussed the possibilities and hybrid I've always wanted children and I want more children when you found out that patty was actually pregnant did you want then to keep the baby she looked up at me and she says I'm pregnant and I want the baby and I went well I have you avid everything you know don't you think we should talk about this and and I'm not sure that I want to be married and you know we may not be together she said I don't care about any of that I want to keep this baby well that thrilled me you know so we decided yeah let's do this I mean in at the time it appeared to be a very liberated and eighties thing to do I would not do it again that's why I want to ask you would you do it I mean you adore this boy I could live and breathe every breath is this child and yet why wouldn't you do it again because it's just too difficult on both of us I read once that you said Jesse saved my life okay tell me my life up until my son was born was fairly aimless and empty affair and when he was born I was faced with the very real situation how is this little person going to think of me when he gets grown-up enough to look at me were you sober enough to know this when I was it for a moment or do nothing Barbara will respect him enough to recognize that how old was he he was nine months old so you really literally looked at this baby and said well actually I didn't look at the baby the baby looked at me and had a look of horror on his face you serious yeah I've been I've been out for a weekend foray into the into the world of hanging out with my buddies and you know and running wild and hid in one spot and in the other and then I walked in after one of those weekend's and stepped into my my house where there was this this wonderful little scene of Madonna and Child at the breakfast table and I walk in it looking like looking like something the cat drug in you know and all twisted mangled and you know my eyes looking like two dark circles you know I mean messed up man and my little boy is mid-bite in his in his oatmeal and he's looking up at me going what Danny hell is that you know oh it's oh oh it's only daddy you know and that's when it hit me and you were able to stop well that and with the album without the help of of a good program and and Patti that Patti was the Patti had been sober for a while and also it helped so you never even take that one drink not even having a glass of wine at the pond ever there's a lot of people out there and reports have come back to me dad Don Johnson was seen drinking at this party or seeing with a glass of champagne in his hand at that party or or uh or somebody will mention to some of ya was with him the other we got loaded and stuff it ain't so just ain't so okay good to know Waller on the rumors we read that you are seeing Melanie Griffith again whom you were married a few years back at you're very happy and cozy you might marry again that's wrong we have seen each other on occasion and and even had romantic liaisons upon occasion but we are not currently an item as it were and have no plans to marry what are you looking forward you know I'm looking for someone to spend my life with and to share my life with actually I'm just I really impressed so so sorry nurse oh yeah yeah you could have talked all night God said and all different times you know when I read about you I thought what is he like when you were young you like them older well you all do you like them younger I still like I'm older older than you mm-hmm even though Melanie was 14 years old when you started to go out with a you really have eclectic tastes as they say well there it is a big world but you know they're yours are you it gives you a wine rate this is it there is a good deal out there to be experienced and I by God I've made a promise to myself I'm here well I am here to do this life's experience and there's very little you won't see I'm giving it my best shot when did you lose your virginity I read it you at 12 how was that it was 12 did she seduce you and did you seduce her it was a mutual you're a focaccia yeah it was a it was a mutual thing we she was 17 I don't a woman yes and uh even at this moment just thinking back on it it was very exciting there's a great experience is it true that she was your babysitter well what not for me but for my younger sisters and brothers did you see her again yeah at 12 years old you began to have an affair yeah for long is not that is not necessarily an uncommon thing it isn't no I think a lot of it lots of twelve-year-old boys I don't know about I'm trying not to sound as if this is a surprise to me is everyday how are you much older than your babysitter do you have a philosophy you live on expect nothing to top I'm to live live with yes it is and that goes back to that little boy yeah expect nothing yeah and look how much you've gotten by expecting nothing yeah well uh hi and you know that's hard work to you know expect nothing yet work hard but you gotta expect nothing from it you know you got to do it for the love of the work that's the key right there is to do it for the love of it and not for any other reason because if you do it for any other reason you are going to find that that whatever it is it's empty it's never what you think it is it's never what you what you thought it would be but if you do it for the love of doing it then it's exactly it's exactly that

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Views: 293,513

Rating: 4.8237648 out of 5

Keywords: Don Johnson, Don Johnson (actor), Miami Vice, Barbara Walters, 1987, Nash Bridges, Django Unchained, Miami, Interview

Id: vjg_Q87l37Y

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2013