Johansson landed his first role on the soap opera
Santa Barbara. He played
Greg Hughes from 1989 to 1990. Soon he made appearances in other television shows such as ''
Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Beverly Hills, 90210, and later recurred on Lonesome Dove: The Series and starred on Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years''. Johansson became well-known to fans of
90210 for playing John Sears, a fraternity brother who unsuccessfully vied for the affections of
Kelly Taylor (
Jennie Garth) and set up Steve Sanders (
Ian Ziering) to burglarize a professor's office. The character returned for the season 4 finale. He also appeared in commercials, most notably as the delivery man in
a Diet Coke commercial. He has appeared in the films
Soapdish,
John Q and
Alpha Dog, and had a small uncredited role in
The Notebook. He portrayed the role of Dan Scott in One Tree Hill beginning in 2003 until the show's end in 2012. He subsequently featured in
Takashi Miike's 2003 film
Gozu, appearing as a man with a cow's head. In 2003, Johansson wrote and directed the film
The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie. He has also directed several episodes of
One Tree Hill. In 2006, he starred in
Emily Skopov's
Novel Romance, alongside
Traci Lords and
Sherilyn Fenn. He appeared in the 7th season of
The Drew Carey Show, playing a sportscaster. He is the director of
Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011), the first third of a trilogy based on the
novel by
Ayn Rand. The film received an approval rating of 12% on
Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 52 critics. == Personal life ==