The Mighty Don

He is Mighty. He is Don.

The date was December 15th, 1949. In a small town called Flatt Creek in the state of Missouri, Donnie Wayne Johnson was brought into this world on his maternal grandparents' farm.
Don spent his first six years there. When he was six year old, he and his parents moved up to Wichita, Kansas. His parents divorced soon after.

At the age of twelve, Don went back to Missouri with his mother. He began getting into trouble -- hot wiring a car when he was, again, twelve -- and spent some hard time in a juvenile detention center. He quickly learned that he did not want to be on the bad side of the law.
Don left home at 16, but managed to stay in school. He went back to Wichita for his senior year of high school, and graduated in the Class of 1967.
Because of his successful audition for the Summer Repetoiry Program at the University of Kansas, Don was awarded a (drama) scholarship to the school. After about a year at the University, Don auditioned for a director from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, who was in town directing Cervinski's operetta, "Rake's Progress." Don was hired by the company and left the University.

Before Donnie Boy was even 22, he was married twice -- both marriages last just months and both were annulled.
Then in 1976, Don married Melanie Griffith; they divorced about six months later. To my knowledge [so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong], Don's next serious relationship was with actress Patti D'Arbanville. In 1983, Patti gave birth to Don's first child, Jesse Wayne Johnson. Patti and Don split in the mid-eighties. Don remarried Melanie Griffith on June 21st, 1989. Along with Melanie came her son, then 3-and-a-half year old Alexander -- the beautiful blossom of her marriage to Steven Bauer. Soon after Don and Melanie remarried, Don's *third* child, daughter Dakota, came along.
"There can't be anything more important than the time you give your children," Don says. "...I've learned that parenting is the best thing I do. I really enjoy being with my children... I learn about what's in their hearts when we are playing."
Don and Melanie were married [blissfully most of the time, but not-so-much sometimes] until 1996. "His twenty-three-year light-switch romance with Griffith was plagued by cocaine and alcohol abuse, roving eyes, and general naughtiness of both parties, but now that Melanie is blissfully installed in a marriage with her Two Much co-star Antonio Banderas, it looks like the strange and estranged romance of Don and Melanie has been flipped to the OFF position once and for all."
During Don's last visit to Tom Snyder's show , "Tom asked The Tough Question: How did Don deal with his "trials and tribulations" (referring to the break-up of his marriage, etc.) so well? Don answered smoothly and reflectively: "At a certain point, when everybody has had there way with you, as it were, you tend to become a little more spiritually-minded about this sort of thing. Thats not me they're talking about--that's somebody else. Who I am has nothing to do with that. This is what I do for a living and not who I am as a human being." Go Don!!!! ;-)
However... "His rumored dalliances with a stunning array of the world's most beautiful woman make Don Johnson the Warren Beatty of the 1990's."

Along with Don's wavy love-life, he's had other swims in shark-infested waters. For one thing, his movie career [*not by my standards, mind you*] has been basically boom-and-bust without the boom. "After his five-year quest for kilos of cocaine in south Florida ended, Johnson made a bid for movie stardom, but once again met with little success. His projects were so consistently mediocre that they hardly bear remembering, let alone mentioning."
I would just like to state that I disagree with the above paragraph. But since I have tried to be objective, I included it--along with a link to the crass writer's website. Maim them.
In 1994, Don admitted himself into the Betty Ford Clinic. This was his third detox and he once again considered giving up his career. [:-@] Luckily for us, he recovered well, and is now back on his feet and doing some of his best work on his baby, Nash Bridges.

Don's other *hobby* (slash career, I guess) -- along-side being a wonderful father and actor -- is music. He sings, writes songs and plays the guitar. In 1986, he released his first album, Heartbeat, with the help of his musical friends, who include Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan [bless his soul, and may he rest in peace]. The title single: "Heartbeat" peaked at #5. In 1988, Don released another album, Let It Roll. [I couldn't tell you much about this one because I neither own it, nor have I ever heard any of it. But, like everything else, I'm sure it's lovely.]
But of course, Don doesn't have all bad karma -- he has his full share of successes too!!! He created and secured his status as a major sex-symbol on Emmy-winning Miami Vice; he won a Golden Globe award for his performance as Sonny Crockett on the latter series; he's the star and executive producer of his new hit series Nash Bridges; his children, I'm sure, think the world of him...and...as much as I'd like to be in denial about it, Don Johnson is married to Kelley Phleger -- a beautiful (and lucky) lady.
"I have a very blessed life. I am graced all over the place." Don says, not ambiguously as we female fans interpret it, "I've worked very hard and I've taken some tough shots here and there, but by and large I have to say that....Well, the Chinese have a saying: May you live in interesting time. That's one of the greatest betrothals that the Chinese can give you." [Who gives a flying flip about the Chinese??? Ahem...Sorry.] "And if that's the case, then I have had an abundance of interesting times." [Uh....yeah.]

Today, over everything else, Don's focus is on kids. He supports many kids' charities, especially those for the terminally ill. [What a sweetheart!!!] He is a huge supporter of the Horatio Alger National Scholarships Program for youth. [Gotta get me one 'a them.] "I cannot imagine not helping children. They are God's most beautiful but most helpless creatures. I don't dream about things that I want anymore. I dream for the health and success of my children. For all children. I pray for that. For me, it's not about things in life. It's about the love you make and the love you share."
To para-quote Salon online magazine , Don's Southern, but urban; hokey, but cosmopolitan; he's white, but black; rich but humble. Don's a rainbow coalition unto himself. [I had to look that up, but I know what it means now...trust me...it's a good thing.] He's the celebrity as the walking embodiment of mergermania. [Had to look that one up, too.]. Don's more than an actor, he's a way of life [for some more than others...], the American success story over and over [and over and over]. He's Don Johnson Incorporated, and, Bubba, you can take that to the bank.