Actor, Singer, Dancer . He was the son of Morey H. Downs, a Navy Lieutenant, who would be posted to San Diego, California in 1921. At the age of eight, Downs was picked up by Hal Roach Studios and cast in the Our Gang comedy shorts beginning with "The Champeen" in 1923, he remained with the franchise for some two dozen installments, outgrowing his role by 1927's "Chicken Feed." He spent the next few years working on Broadway, winning juvenile roles in "Growing Pains" and "Strike Me Pink" starring Jimmy Durante; and in Vaudeville in a song and dance act with "Our Gang" colleague, Mary Kornman, until returning to Hollywood in 1934. Hal Roach again hired him, giving him the small role of Little Boy Blue in the musical "Babes in Toyland" (1934) and then did a stint of so called college musicals including "College Scandal" (1935), "College Holiday" (1936), and "Hold That Co-Ed" (1938). Type-cast as the college boy, his career faded with the approach of the Second World War, despite one notable, uncredited performance in "Rhapsody in Blue: The George Gershwin Story" (1945). He then returned to Broadway for the successful run of "Are You With It." In the 1950s and 1960s he hosted a popular children's television show, "The Johnny Downs Show" in San Diego. He spent his final decades investing in real estate, and succumbed to cancer at the age of 81.
Actor, Singer, Dancer . He was the son of Morey H. Downs, a Navy Lieutenant, who would be posted to San Diego, California in 1921. At the age of eight, Downs was picked up by Hal Roach Studios and cast in the Our Gang comedy shorts beginning with "The Champeen" in 1923, he remained with the franchise for some two dozen installments, outgrowing his role by 1927's "Chicken Feed." He spent the next few years working on Broadway, winning juvenile roles in "Growing Pains" and "Strike Me Pink" starring Jimmy Durante; and in Vaudeville in a song and dance act with "Our Gang" colleague, Mary Kornman, until returning to Hollywood in 1934. Hal Roach again hired him, giving him the small role of Little Boy Blue in the musical "Babes in Toyland" (1934) and then did a stint of so called college musicals including "College Scandal" (1935), "College Holiday" (1936), and "Hold That Co-Ed" (1938). Type-cast as the college boy, his career faded with the approach of the Second World War, despite one notable, uncredited performance in "Rhapsody in Blue: The George Gershwin Story" (1945). He then returned to Broadway for the successful run of "Are You With It." In the 1950s and 1960s he hosted a popular children's television show, "The Johnny Downs Show" in San Diego. He spent his final decades investing in real estate, and succumbed to cancer at the age of 81.
Bio by: Iola
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