Don Johnson says he didn’t sleep for five years while starring in ‘Miami Vice’.
Don Johnson says he didn’t sleep for five years while starring in ‘Miami Vice’
The 73-year-old actor was propelled to global fame playing James ‘Sonny’ Crocket on the cop series from 1984, but insisted the whirlwind he experienced after taking the part was mainly more work, and not all partying.
He told Parade magazine: “At the time, there were only three or four networks and we were getting like 40 million people a week watching our show.
“Those are the kinds of numbers that people would lose their minds over now. “So I didn’t sleep for five years. I was filming most of the time, and then on the weekends I was shooting magazine covers, and then occasionally – when no one was looking – I was out partying.”
Five-times married dad-of-five Don, whose nuptials have included remarrying his third wife Melanie Griffith, 65, before their second divorce in 1996, added about his history with women: “Well, to be fair, it seemed like I had a high number of marriages, but I always just married the same girl twice.
“You know, I’ve had a big life. That period of my life is a blur, and yet I remember phenomenal things happening.
“It was a magical time. I found myself invited to the White House, I found myself meeting the Pope. And some of the actors we launched in ‘Miami Vice’ are a who’s who of big stars today: Bruce Willis, Michael Chiklis, Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts, the list goes on.
“I mean, I’m a farm boy from Missouri. It was a dream.”
Don, who is now settled with his wife of 24 years Kelley Phleger, added he was a “wild thing” in school – but that side of him got him into acting.
He said: “I was very inventive, I got in a lot of trouble, I got kicked out a few times.
“I graduated from Wichita South High School and that’s where my life took a turn. I was in a business class right after lunch, and about the third day in (the teacher) goes, ‘If you fall asleep in my class one more time, I’m gonna ask you to leave.’
“The next thing I know, I wake up and she’s telling me to go see the counsellor who says, ‘Well, it’s either play football and take another semester in school, or there’s this drama and speech class... .’”
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