C. David Johnson

C. David Johnson is a Canadian actor born Christopher David Johnson on November 29, 1955, in Montreal, Quebec. He attended Stanstead College, the University of New Brunswick, and the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School before embarking on a career that has spanned television, film, and stage in both Canada and the United States.

Johnson first gained widespread recognition in 1987 when he was cast in the leading role of Charles "Chuck" Tchobanian on the Canadian dramatic television series Street Legal. The series ran for eight years and became one of the most successful television productions in Canadian history. His performance earned him four consecutive Gemini nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role. After Street Legal, Johnson joined the cast of the family series Mysterious Island as a series regular. In 1998, he appeared in the feature film Thanks of a Grateful Nation alongside Ted Danson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Brian Dennehy, a film examining the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm and its impact on Gulf War veterans. His television work also includes guest appearances on The Best Years, Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, and The Dresden Files, as well as starring roles in the television movies The Julie Posey Story, The Man Who Saved Christmas with Jason Alexander and Ed Asner, and Terminal Invasion. In 2019, he appeared in the television series Diggstown. Johnson has additionally served as an occasional guest host of the CBC Radio One current events program As It Happens.

His stage career spans more than thirty years of work in theatres across Canada. Johnson made his professional theatre debut with Theatre New Brunswick, where he appeared in productions including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Misery, Sleuth, and Peter Pan, in which he played Captain Hook. He has worked extensively at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and performed at the Stratford Festival, where his roles included Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music and Speed in Two Gentlemen of Verona. At Soulpepper in Toronto, his productions included The Way of the World, Jitters, and The Play's the Thing, the last of which earned him a Dora Award nomination.

Johnson made his Broadway debut in 2010, playing Bob in the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert. His Broadway career continued through 2017 and included appearances in Children! Children! and the play The Passing Present.