Dennis Johnson
*Dennis Johnson was born on this date in 1945. He was a Black Television producer and director.
Johnson is from Kenbridge, Va., and attended Temple University and UCLA. While studying at UCLA in the 1970s, he began working at NBC as a page for the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He was a retired television executive who began his career as an NBC page and rose to become senior vice president of programming for Showtime. He climbed the production ladder as an associate producer before moving into the programming department.
In the mid-1970s, he joined ABC and became vice president of variety programs, then left to become senior vice president of Osmond Television Co. He moved to Showtime in 1984 as the cable channel's director of current programming and was promoted to senior vice president.
Johnson also served as president of the National Assn. of Minorities in Cable in the mid-1990s. Dennis Johnson, 68, died on Dec. 23, 2013, after suffering a heart attack while vacationing in St. Barthelemy, West Indies.
