Arthur Stanton Eric "Arte" Johnson is an American comic actor. Johnson was a regular on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. His best-remembered "character" was that of a German soldier with the catchphrase: "Verrrry interesting, but['stupid', 'not very funny', and other variations]". Johnson was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the son of Edythe Mackenzie and Abraham Lincoln Johnson, an attorney. He attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1949 after working on the campus radio station and the U of I Theater Guild with his brother, Coslough "Cos" Johnson. He initially sought employment... in Chicago working for advertising agencies but left for New York to work for Viking Press. His first "show business" job came when he impulsively stepped into an audition line and was cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Johnson appeared in Ben Bagley's "The Shoestring Revue", which opened off-Broadway at the President Theater in New York on February 28, 1955, along with Beatrice Arthur, Dody Goodman, Chita Rivera, and Jane Connell. He appeared three times in the 1955-56 CBS sitcom It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige and Merry Anders.
more