Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson was the only man to win a PRCA national championship buckle and an Academy Award. Born in Foraker, Oklahoma to an Irish father and Cherokee mother. He won his buckle in 1953 for team roping and his Academy Award for portraying Sam the Lion in The Last Picture Show in 1971. Ben started his career working for Howard Hughes wrangling horses for the picture, The Outlaw. Ben then became a wrangler on and a stuntman on many western films in the age of the Western. More than this, Ben was business savvy and made good investments in real estate. When he died his net worth was over 100 million dollars. The people he worked with said they never saw him loose his temper. One thing I find interesting is that his mother outlived him having died at 101 in Osage Oklahoma. Ben Johnson is just one of many reasons I am proud to be from Oklahoma. He accomplished much with his life and his life reminds me of an old vaquero saying. “Don't let people who say you can't do something interrupt you while you are doing it.”