CB’s Favorite Performances : Ben Johnson – Sam The Lion

Some performances just sneak up on you and Ben Johnson’s work as Sam the Lion did just that. If there was ever perfect casting this was it. Sam is one of my favorite screen characters, He is just so goddamn real. I never met the man but I’d say Ben was pretty close to the bone as Sam. He just spoke the words and you believed him.

On the first cut below you can feel the let down the boys have at being called to task. Sam calls it straight, no bullshit. Johnson just says it and means it. Powerful stuff. I believe everything he says in this film. He’s not in it long but he leaves his stamp on the audience and the other characters. The last scene is just magic and Ben and Larry McMurtry’s dialogue are made for each other.

I’m sure other actors could have done a good job with this character but for my money Ben Johnson made Sam The Lion come alive. Hard for me not to think he wasn’t a real person.

A few more Lions in the world wouldn’t hurt. CB would have liked to put a line in the water with Sam and smoke a rolled cigarette. Great work by a CB favorite.

“If she was here I’d probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about five minutes”

“I’ve been around that trashy behavior all my life. I’m gettin tired of puttin up with it”

“A few football teams have had some luck with taklin. Keeps the other team from scorin”.