Early life He was born in
Los Angeles, California to
tailor Thomas Johnson and his wife Alma, the youngest of five siblings. Johnson had a musical upbringing as his father was a
baritone soloist in the
choir at the
Angelus Temple in
Echo Park. He attended the
University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, studying under
Robert Marsteller. He received a bachelor's degree in music in 1956. He played on his first film in 1958, the score for
Al Capone. He went on to become
Hollywood's "first-call" tuba player, playing for television commercials and television series, such as
The Flintstones. In addition to
Jaws, his films included,
The Godfather, the
Indiana Jones series, the
Star Trek film series,
The Lion King,
Titanic,
The Thin Red Line (1998 remake),
The Matrix,
Cats & Dogs,
Forrest Gump,
Air Force One,
Back to the Future, ''
A Bug's Life and Lethal Weapon''. The
Jaws solo was written in an extremely high range for the tuba. In a 2004 interview with Tubanews.com, Johnson remembered being late to the recording session and opened his music to find the tuba solo. It wasn't until later that he found out it was the theme for the shark. Johnson said he asked composer
John Williams why he didn't write the solo for the
French horn, an instrument better suited for the register. Williams' response was, "Well, I wanted something that was in that register but I wanted it to sound a little more threatening." Upon Johnson's death, Williams praised him as "one of the great instrumentalists of his generation. Not only was he the voice of the shark in
Jaws, his performance across the full range of the repertoire inspired not only me, but a whole generation of young tubists." In addition to his work on film soundtracks, Johnson played on recording sessions for many albums by such artists as
Elvis Presley and
Frank Sinatra.
"Weird Al" Yankovic said Johnson was his "go-to guy" whenever he needed a tubist for his
polka medleys. Johnson performed the tuba solo on Yankovic's
Nirvana parody, "
Smells Like Nirvana". His other recordings include
Clare Fischer's
Extension,
The Manhattan Transfer Meets Tubby the Tuba,
Partita for Brass Quintet and Tape, and
Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Scott Joplin. Johnson performed as tuba soloist with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Pasadena Symphony, the
San Fernando Valley Symphony, the L.A. Pops Orchestra, the
Henry Mancini Orchestra, the
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the
Academy Awards Orchestra, the USC Wind Ensemble and the Los Angeles Tuba Quartet. He taught
junior high school music in the
Los Angeles Unified School District for nearly 20 years, but for most of his career, he taught advanced tuba players in private lessons and at USC and
UCLA. Among his students were
Norm Pearson, principal tubist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic;
Alan Baer, principal tubist of the
New York Philharmonic;
Gene Pokorny, principal tubist of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Wesley Jacobs, principal tubist (Ret.) of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra;
John Van Houten;
Jim Self, a jazz tubist and studio musician who worked on many sessions with Johnson; and Kent Fisk, principal tubist (Ret.) of the
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and
West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Noted tubist
Roger Bobo also studied under Marsteller in the 1950s, and he and Johnson became close friends and friendly competitors, playing many concerts and recording sessions together.
Personal life, memorial tribute Johnson married Patricia Lehman (1938–2007), a Colorado-born violinist and a fellow music student from USC, in 1957. The couple had four children. On October 16, 2006, Johnson died from complications of
cancer and
kidney failure at the
UCLA Medical Center (now known as the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) in Los Angeles at the age of 71. He had been working until a few weeks before his death. On December 3, 2006, a
memorial concert was held at
Bovard Auditorium at USC. The concert featured musical tributes by a variety of performers and culminated with the finale of
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F Minor by a massed tuba choir of 99 tubists. ==Works==