John Ernest Crawford (March 26, 1946 – April 29, 2021) was an American actor, singer, and musician.

He first performed before a national audience as a Mouseketeer.

At age 12, Crawford rose to prominence playing Mark McCain in the series The Rifleman, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy Award at age 13.

Crawford had a brief career as a recording artist in the 1950s and 1960s. He continued to act on television and in film as an adult.

Beginning in 1992, Crawford led the California-based Johnny Crawford Orchestra, a vintage dance orchestra that performed at special events.

One of The Walt Disney Company’s original Mouseketeers, in 1955, Crawford has acted on stage, in films and on television.

Disney started out with 24 original Mouseketeers. But, at the end of the first season the studio reduced the number to 12, and Crawford was released from his contract.

His first important break as an actor followed with the title role in a Lux Video Theatre production of, “Little Boy Lost,” a live NBC broadcast on March 15, 1956.

He also appeared in the popular western series The Lone Ranger, in 1956, in one of the few color episodes of that series. Following that performance, the young actor worked steadily with many seasoned actors and directors.

Freelancing for two-and-a-half years, he accumulated almost 60 television credits, including featured roles in three episodes of NBC’s The Loretta Young Show and an appearance as Manuel in, “I Am an American,” an episode of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise.

By the spring of 1958, he had also performed 14 demanding roles in live teleplays for NBC’s Matinee Theatre, appeared on CBS’s sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve, in the Wagon Train episode “The Sally Potter Story” (in which Martin Milner also appeared) and on the syndicated series, Crossroads, Sheriff of Cochise and Whirlybirds and made three pilots in the hope of being on a TV series.

The third pilot, which was made as an episode of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater, was picked up by ABC and the first season of The Rifleman began filming in July 1958.

Crawford was nominated for an Emmy Award, at age 13, for his role as Mark McCain, the son of Lucas McCain, played by Chuck Connors, in the Four Star Television series The Rifleman, which originally aired from 1958 to 1963.

Throughout The Rifleman’s five seasons, there was a remarkable on-screen chemistry between Connors and Crawford in the depiction of their father-son relationship.

They were still close friends when Connors died on November 10, 1992, and Crawford gave a eulogy at Connors’ memorial service.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Crawford had wide popularity with American teenagers and a recording career that generated five Billboard Top 40 hits, including the single, “Cindy’s Birthday,” which peaked at #8, in 1962.

His other hits included “Rumors” (#12, 1962), “Your Nose is Gonna Grow” (#14, 1962) and “Proud” (#29, 1963).

Late in 1961, Crawford appeared as Victor in the episode “A Very Bright Boy” of the ABC sitcom, The Donna Reed Show. Earlier, his brother Robert had also been a guest star on The Donna Reed Show.

Once in 1964 and once in 1965, Johnny Crawford appeared on the NBC education drama, Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus as a Los Angeles high school English teacher.

Among his films, Crawford played an American Indian in the unique adventure film, Indian Paint (1965). He played a character involved with a disturbed young girl played by Kim Darby in The Restless Ones (1965); and played a character shot by John Wayne’s character in El Dorado (1967).

While enlisted in the United States Army for two years, Crawford worked on training films as a production coordinator, assistant director, script supervisor and occasional actor. His rank was sergeant at the time of his honorable discharge in December 1967.

In 1968, Crawford played a soldier wanted for murder in, “By the Numbers,” an episode of the popular TV series Hawaii Five-O, starring Jack Lord.

The Resurrection of Broncho Billy was a University of Southern California student film Crawford agreed to do as a favor to his close friend, producer John Longenecker. It won the 1970 Academy Award for “Best Live Action Short Subject.”

The Naked Ape was a partially animated 1973 feature film starring Johnny Crawford and Victoria Principal, produced by Hugh Hefner.

In an article about that movie he became the first man to be shown in full-frontal nudity in Playboy magazine.

Beginning in 1992, Crawford led a California-based vintage dance orchestra which performed at special events. His band had been sponsored by the Playboy Jazz Festival; and the orchestra had been the repeated choice for 15 consecutive annual Art Directors Guild Awards shows at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, CA. A remastered version of the orchestra’s highly first album, “Sweepin’ the Clouds Away,” was released on August 21, 2012, on the CD Baby  label.

In 2012, Crawford did an introductory commercial for The Rifleman for MeTV, saying, “Watch me on ‘me,’ MeTV, on The Rifleman!”

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IN GOD WE TRUST

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