Gerald MacIntosh Johnston was born on 1 October 1904 in Winnipeg, Canada. He was the son of James MacIntosh and Clare Maude Johnston, and he attended St. John’s College in Winnipeg. In 1923, his family moved to New York City, where they lived at East 66th St.

Johnson was clearly a handsome young man who wanted to be an actor. Initially, he got some work as a model in New York and he began acting in local theater productions. He adopted the stage name of Gerald Kent. In 1928, he got his first big professional break when a New York prodcuer named Jed Harris offered him a role in the play Royal Family. The following year he landed an even more important role that sent him to stardom. That is, he became Mae West’s leading man in the play Diamond Lil, which became a Broadway hit. After a long run on Broadway, Diamond Lil hit the road and was also performed in San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Johnston spent two years with Mae West in the show, and he thought of her as “a pretty swell gal.”  Their professional collaboration came to an end when Mae West broke into the movies. In 1934, Johnston himself got his break in the film industry, appearing in Little Friend.  He went to have roles in A Dream Comes True and High Peril. 

When the war broke out in 1939, Johnston “hustled up to Canada” with the intention of returning to Winnipeg and enlisting there. However, once he reached Montreal he instead decided to sign up with the Black Watch, in which he enlisted on 27 September 1939. He said that he joined the Black Watch because it was “a grand regiment and a fine bunch of boys.” 

Johnston was known as Gerry to his friends, and he was quite the social and outgoing individual. As the Black Watch Diary Blog external link below reveals, he “racked up seemingly unending charges for drunkenness and AWL’s almost immediately after enlisting."  He probably got away with this more than an ordinary soldier would because he was famous. When the Black Watch shipped from Canada and reached their camp in England in October of 1940, a “battery of British news cameramen” was waiting for Johnston when he arrived.  He good-naturely posed for dozens of pictures.

In 1942, the actor Leslie Howard, working for the British Ministry of Information, invited Johnston to appear in a short film entitled From the Four Corners. In this film, Howard shares a pint with three soldiers from the Commonwealth, one each from Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Johnston played the role of the Canadian. He used his real name in this film, and he played himself as a member of the Black Watch. In the climax of the film, the four characters are looking over London from a window in St. Paul’s Cathedral, talking about the values they were fighting for and reaffirming their fervor in the fight against Adolf Hitler.

One can surmise that Johnston volunteered to serve because he believed in the cause. He was 35 years old when he joined the Black Watch, so there was no threat of him being drafted. The $100 per month that he earned as an actor was ten times greater than his $10 per month he received in pay as a solider. In this author’s opinion, Johnston wasn’t acting in From the Four Corners. He was just being himself.

On 19 August 1942, the Black Watch was part of a force of over 6,000 Allied soliders, mostly Canadians, that attacked the German-occupied port of Dieppe. Now known as the Dieppe Raid, it was a poorly conceived, poorly planned, and poorly executed operation that ended in disaster after ten hours. Johnston was taken prisoner and sent to the Prisoner of War camp Stalag II-D near Stargard in Poland.

On 5 November 1944, Johnston attempted to escape from the Stalag by cuting a hole in the fence. He made it about 75 to 100 yards from the fence when he was stopped by a German sergeant who ordered him to halt. According to an eyewitness account of another POW, Johnston obeyed the orders.  He put his hands up, and the sergeant asked Johnston where he was going and how he got out. Johnston answered as orderd.  Without any provocation, the Nazi then shot Johnston dead on the spot.

Johnston was so well liked by his fellow prisoners, that they took up a collection to buy him a coffin. The Germans allowed 14 POWs to hold a funeral for him, and they paid a photographer to take a picture of the funeral. He was buried in the municipal cemetery in Breitenstein-Friedeberg. The author has not yet determined the circumstances under which his body was disinterred and moved to Heverlee.

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Jerome Sheridan wrote this story based upon:

• Information provided by Chris Dickon
• Gerald MacIntosh Johnston on the Black Watch Diary Blog
• “Fighting Actor,” Winnepeg Free Press 7 October 1940
• “Winnipeg Born Actor Now in Black Watch,” Winnipeg Tribune 25 January 1940.