Johnny Duncan obit

Johnny Duncan, Robin the Boy Wonder in a 1949 Batman Movie Serial, Dies at 92

He was not on the list.

The dancer and actor was pals with Bogart and appeared in such films as 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' and 'Spartacus.'

Johnny Duncan, a popular guy around Hollywood who played Robin the Boy Wonder in a Batman serial that was shown in theaters in 1949, has died. He was 92.

Duncan, who taught Lana Turner the Lindy, palled around with Humphrey Bogart and had his head chopped off by Kirk Douglas in a sword fight in Spartacus, died Feb. 8 at his home in Davenport, Fla., his family announced.

He also appeared, mostly as a background player, in such films as Mervyn LeRoy’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944); Otto Preminger’s Whirlpool (1949); John Ford’s When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950); Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), starring Ronald Reagan and a chimp; and the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), directed by Ed Wood.

Duncan, though, is best known for starring as a shaggy-haired Robin/Dick Grayson in Batman and Robin, a 15-chapter serial from Columbia Pictures. He appeared opposite Robert Lowery as the Caped Crusader/Bruce Wayne, and they battled the black-hooded criminal The Wizard in the series that took three months to make and typically played for young audiences on Saturday mornings and afternoons.

Batman co-creator Bob Kane had wanted a 16-year-old actor to play Robin, but producer Sam Katzman at Columbia thought Duncan would be perfect for the role — even though he was 26 at the time.

“[Kane] said, ‘Oh, no, I don’t want a guy 26 years old; you know, that’s as old as Batman,’ ” Duncan recalled in a very entertaining 2005 interview. “So anyway, they looked at, gosh, kids and kids and kids and kids, and finally they couldn’t find anybody — Kane didn’t like ’em, so Sam called me and says, ‘Hey, John, you know, wear some jeans or somethin’ and a sweater and look as young as you can and, for God sakes, don’t comb your hair. Just come on over.’ So I did. And so when I walked in the door, before I was even introduced, Kane says, ‘Hey, that’s Robin.’ So that’s how I got the part.”

A native of Gower, Mo., near Kansas City, Duncan learned how to tap dance at an early age and toured with acts that included The Will Mastin Trio, which featured Sammy Davis Jr. and his father. He was discovered by a 20th Century Fox talent scout, and he and his whole family packed up and drove west to Hollywood.

He danced in nightclubs on Hollywood Boulevard, and that’s where he met Turner, then a teenager.

In one of his first movies, Duncan played a sailor in the Bogart film Action in the North Atlantic (1943), and he became good friends with the star.

“Bogey was a great guy,” he said. “He was a little guy like Jimmy Cagney, and Bogart and Alan Ladd and all of us were very good friends. We partied together with their wives, and when a part in a picture or something would come up for a little guy, why, usually I’d get it.”

Bogart later gave him a job as another sailor in The Caine Mutiny (1954).

Duncan also played the title role in The Million Dollar Kid (1944), one of several movies he made with The Bowery Boys/East Side Kids.

His last film was Spartacus (1960).

“So I had this fight with Kirk Douglas, a sword fight, and he cuts my head off,” he said. “And when he cuts my head off, this [fake] blood and stuff squirts out like the veins in my neck. And, my God, they had to cut it, it was so gruesome. It squirted all over Douglas, all over the other actors around and everything, and today it would have been great. … But in those days, they said, ‘Oh, my gosh. We can’t let that be in the film'.”

Survivors include his wife of 18 years, Susan; children Cathy, Sean, Mandy, Maranda and Landon; grandchildren Danny, Tyler, Zachary, Juliah, Nataley, Caden, Chance and Evelyn; and great-grandchildren Kelly, Angie and Mike.

 

Johnny Duncan learned to dance Jitterbug as a teen and by the age of 19 had his first major appearance in a dance role in the "King of Swing" Benny Goodman camp classic musical The Gang's All Here. This kicked off Duncan's career as a movie swing dancer and actor and led to numerous appearances in other films, and a contract with 20th Century Fox, where he appeared in productions with Shirley Temple and Jane Withers. Notable roles include parts in The East Side Kids, The Bowery Boys, Mystery of the 13th Guest and the 1949 serial Batman and Robin as Dick Grayson / Robin, the Boy Wonder. He was so young looking that he was twenty-six years old when he was hired to play the Boy Wonder.

He later appeared in bit parts in a number of films including Plan 9 from Outer Space. He was a member of The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One in 1952. His final film appearance was in the 1960 film Spartacus.

Actor (75 credits)

1960 Spartacus

Beheaded Man (uncredited)

1959 Plan 9 from Outer Space

Second Stretcher Bearer (uncredited)

1959 Juke Box Rhythm

Party Guest / Dancer (uncredited)

1957 Whirlybirds (TV Series)

Eddie James

- Cycle of Terror (1957) ... Eddie James (as John Duncan)

1956 Rock Around the Clock

Prom Dancer (uncredited)

1956 The Cisco Kid (TV Series)

Mickey Doan / Mail Rider

- West of the Law (1956) ... Mickey Doan (as John B. Duncan)

- The Epidemic (1956) ... Mail Rider (as John B. Duncan)

1955 Running Wild

Jitterbug Dancer (uncredited)

1954 The Caine Mutiny

Sailor (uncredited)

1954 Public Defender (TV Series)

Bob

- Step Child (1954) ... Bob (as John Duncan)

1954 Highway Dragnet

Marine (uncredited)

1953 The Flaming Urge

Ralph Jarvis

1953 The Wild One

Gang Member (uncredited)

1953 Miss Sadie Thompson

Marine (uncredited)

1953 The Ford Television Theatre (TV Series)

- To Any Soldier (1953)

1953 All Ashore

Dancer (uncredited)

1953 So You Want to Be a Musician (Short)

Jitterbugger (uncredited)

1952 Off Limits

Soldier in Fatigues (uncredited)

1952 The Pride of St. Louis

Western Union Boy (uncredited)

1952 With a Song in My Heart

Soldier (uncredited)

1951 The Stu Erwin Show (TV Series)

- The Big Game (1951) ... (as Johnnie Duncan)

1951 The Big Night

Motorcycle Boy (uncredited)

1951 David and Bathsheba

Jessie's Third Son (uncredited)

1951 He Ran All the Way

Boy at Pool (uncredited)

1951 The Harlem Globetrotters

Attendant (uncredited)

1951 Bedtime for Bonzo

Paperboy (uncredited)

1950 Walk Softly, Stranger

Office Messenger (uncredited)

1950 Summer Stock

Stock Company Member (uncredited)

1950 A Wonderful Life (Short)

College Boy at Party (uncredited)

1950 When Willie Comes Marching Home

Soldier (uncredited)

1949 Whirlpool

Soldier (uncredited)

1949 The Woman on Pier 13

Bellhop (uncredited)

1949 Take One False Step

Bellhop (uncredited)

1949 Batman and Robin

Robin / Dick Grayson (as John Duncan)

1949 City Across the River

Student in Shop Class (uncredited)

1949 Fighting Fools

Fighter in Gym (uncredited)

1948 Street Corner

Hal (as John Duncan)

1948 Good Sam

Jitterbug (uncredited)

1947 It Had to Be You

John (scenes deleted)

1947 Sport of Kings

Jockey (uncredited)

1947 Mr. District Attorney

Newsboy (uncredited)

1947 Beat the Band

Jitterbug (uncredited)

1947 Trail to San Antone

Ted Malloy (as John Duncan)

1947 Johnny O'Clock

Newsboy (uncredited)

1946 No Leave, No Love

Hotel Bellhop (uncredited)

1946 Inside Job

Messenger (uncredited)

1946 The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Bellboy (uncredited)

1946 Cinderella Jones

Newsboy (uncredited)

1946 From This Day Forward

Young Lieutenant (uncredited)

1946 Gay Blades

Bellboy (uncredited)

1945 Come Out Fighting

Gilbert Mitchell

1945 Mr. Muggs Rides Again

Squeegie Robinson

1945 Twice Blessed

Teenager (uncredited)

1945 The Horn Blows at Midnight

Jitterbug Dancer (uncredited)

1945 Salty O'Rourke

Ralph (uncredited)

1944 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Jitterbugger (uncredited)

1944 Heavenly Days

Teenager Blowing Noisemaker (uncredited)

1944 Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Call Boy (uncredited)

1944 Youth Aflame

Jitterbugger

1944 Delinquent Daughters

Rocky Webster

1944 A Fig Leaf for Eve

Bellboy (uncredited)

1944 Ghost Catchers

Jitterbug (uncredited)

1944 Million Dollar Kid

Roy Cortland (as Johnnie Duncan)

1943 The Gang's All Here

Jitterbug Dancer (uncredited)

1943 Jive Junction

Frank

1943 Where Are Your Children?

Jitterbug dancer (uncredited)

1943 Campus Rhythm

Freshie

1943 The Mystery of the 13th Guest

Harold Morgan (as John Duncan)

1943 Swing Fever

Dancer, USO Sailor (uncredited)

1943 Teen Age

Dan Murray

1943 The Unknown Guest

Teenager at Carnival (uncredited)

1943 Action in the North Atlantic

Sailor (uncredited)

1943 Clancy Street Boys

Cherry Streeter (uncredited)

1942 Junior Army

Cadet (uncredited)

1942 Call of the Canyon

Jitterbug (uncredited)

1939 The Arizona Wildcat

Townsboy (uncredited)