Bayard Johnson
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Bayard Johnson studied philosophy and writing at the University of
Puget Sound. He has written and produced feature films for Warner
Brothers, Disney, Sony Pictures, MGM/UA, and 20th Century Fox. Johnson
has made two feature films in Africa, and has written movies based on
both the classic Tarzan character and on Kipling's Jungle Book. His
first African movie, "Damned River" (Zimbabwe, 1988), is among the Top
20 action movies of the 1980s in the Netflix database. With partner
Bill Duke (director of "Deep Cover," co-star of "Predator"), Johnson
co-wrote a TV series for HBO and produced a feature film (2007's
"Cover") about the HIV epidemic. With partner Russell Means, Johnson
co-wrote the feature screenplay "Wounded Knee 1973" and the 2012 book
"If You've Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You've Lost Your Way: An
Introduction to American Indian Thought and Philosophy." Also with
Russell Means, Johnson co-wrote, co-produced, and directed the
award-winning short film "Looks Twice," based on a traditional Lakotah
story. A licensed Master Mariner, Johnson fished in Alaska and
California and worked as captain of an oilspill recovery ship in
California while embarking on his writing career. His novel "Damned
Right" was published by Fiction Collective 2 in 1994, and in German
translation in 1998 (titled "Speed Taxi"). Johnson's short fiction have
have surfaced on occasion ["Fiction International," "Exquisite Corpse,"
"Theater der Zeit" (Berlin), "Alt-X"]. With Mother Nature's Army he has
released a number of albums including 1992's "Live At Mama's" and
"Coming To Get You 2014." Johnson produced "LSD: Leary/Stokes Duets"
(1997) with Timothy Leary, and "The Radical" (1996) with Russell Means.