Johnson Willis

Collignon / Dufayel

Johnson found acting relatively late having spent many years in the music industry playing and recording with bands. This led to him being cast in the first tour of Return to the Forbidden Planet.  

There followed work with many exponents of musical and physical theatre including director John Doyle’s Carmen, Mack and Mabel and Merrily We Roll Along, Paul Hart with The Tempest and Craig Revel Horwood’s Martin Guerre all at the Watermill Theatre, Pete Rowe at the Ipswich Wolsey theatre where he played numerous pantomime villains along with shows like Happy End, Company, Sugar, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Guys and Dolls, the innovative physical theatre director Phelim McDermott’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The David Glass Ensemble.

Johnson’s academic life was terminated at a very early age so perhaps of greatest significance to him was the time spent with the late Terry Hands at Theatre Clwyd Cymru. Among other productions, he did Twelfth Night, King Lear. Troilus and Cressida and The Cherry Orchard.

More recently he has been with the RSC in Salome, Visa Versa, and Dido Queen of Carthage and now the wonderful Olivier and Grammy-nominated musical of Amélie.