RIP Stephen Johnson

Stephen R. Johnson, Director of some of my most personal musical revelation moments in video, passed away on 1/26. He directed the music videos for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, Big Time and Steam. Also did videos for Talking Heads (Road To Nowhere) and shitload of others. He directed and was a huge creative force of the the first season of Pee-Wees Playhouse (Paul Rubens, who Stephen Referred to as "a dick")

Not just that, but he was a personal friend of mine who I was honored to have gotten to talk to on the phone a number of times and have some good email conversations. So respect to Stephen. He was one of my greatest inspirations.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=174043763

didn't know him, but surely I knew his work! thanks for the heads up and... rip

Reubens & Phil Hartman both came from The Groundlings, did he have any involvement with them?

I think Stephen came on board for the TV show, because the producer liked his animation style or something. The opening to Pee-Wee's play house is pure Stephen signature creativity as were a number of the characters he was uncredited for creating.

RIP

Sorry for your loss SPD²

This is yet another one of those cases where I find about a talented person upon their death. I was a huge Pee-Wee's Playhouse fan growing up, I remember the visuals of that show fondly, as they fit in with other films and shows I love back then, like Tim Burton's films of that era. Those Peter Gabriel videos were ones I probably only saw once or twice as a child but vividly remember.

Damn, completely mind-blowing work he leaves behind!

Also interesting:

  On 3/5/2015 at 6:08 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

Also interesting:

 

This is from a VHS I recorded as a 14 year old. Years later when I started talking to him, I made him a YouTube channel and handed it off so that's how this ended up on there.

There's actually another part too this in the middle that I cut out about the Digging In The Dirt video but Stephen direct that one.