Alex Johns (August 23, 1966 – August 7, 2010) was an American film and television producer. Johns is best known for his work as the co-producer of more than seventy

episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode, a part of a dramatic work * Episodes (TV series), ''Episodes'' (TV series), a British/American television sitcom which premiered in 2011 * Episodes (journal), ''Episodes'' (journal), a geological science journal ...

of the animated television series ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...

''. He was also the co-executive producer of the 2006 animated comedy film '' The Ant Bully''.

Early life

Johns was born in

Roseville, California Roseville is the most populous city in Placer County, California, located within the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of 2019, the United States Census Bureau, US Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 141,500, making it the third-l ...

, on August 23, 1966, the son of Xandria Walker and Wendell Johns (who predeceased him). Johns was one of five brothers, along with Michael, Christopher and Daniel Johns, and David Cimino. He was the grandson of actor

Steve Cochran Steve Cochran (born Robert Alexander Cochran, May 25, 1917 – June 15, 1965) was an American film, television and stage actor. He attended the University of Wyoming. After a stint working as a cowboy, Cochran developed his acting skills in loca ...

(1917–1965). Johns graduated from Escalon High School in

Escalon, California Escalon (Spanish: ''Escalón'', meaning "Step") is a city in San Joaquin County, California, United States. The population was 7,472 at the 2020 census, up from 7,132 at the 2010 census and 5,963 at the 2000 census. Escalon is a Spanish word ...

, in 1984. He attended both

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

and the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Career

Johns began his career in the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

colorizing Film colorization (American English; or colourisation/colorisation [both British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia, or other monochrome m ...

classic

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

movies in the late 1980s. Johns was successful in this work despite the fact that he was

colorblind Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color perception. Color bl ...

, which he kept a professional secret. He began working in television in the 1990s on the series, ''

The Ren & Stimpy Show ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', commonly referred to as simply ''Ren & Stimpy'', is an American animated Comedy film, comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotion ...

''.

Matt Groening Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is best known as the creator of the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Futurama'' (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2 ...

, the creator of ''

'', hired Johns to work on the show. Johns would eventually co-produce more than seventy episodes of ''Futurama'' during his career. Groening also gave Johns a prominent production role on the 1999 Christmas television special, ''

Olive, the Other Reindeer ''Olive, the Other Reindeer'' is a 1999 American animated Christmas comedy musical television film written by Steve Young, based on the 1997 children's book by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold, and directed by Academy Award-nominated animator ...

'', which starred

Drew Barrymore Drew Blythe Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, talk show host, and businesswoman. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received multiple List of awards and nominations received by Drew Barrymore, awards a ...

and

Ed Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor. He is most notable for portraying Lou Grant on the sitcom ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977) and drama '' Lou Grant'' (1977–1982), making him one of the few ...

. Director John A. Davis hired Johns to co-executive produce the 2006 animated film, '' The Ant Bully''. In a professional twist, Johns had actually fired Davis from the production staff of ''Olive, the Other Reindeer'' in the late 1990s due to tactical and budgetary reasons. Davis spoke of the unusual situation in an interview in 2010 explaining, "Alex was in the uncomfortable position of telling me I was being replaced, but to hear his spin, it sounded like I was getting a promotion! He was awesome...He did such a great job firing me, I had to hire him! or ''The Ant Bully''" The film went on to gross more than $28 million at the U.S. domestic box office.

Death

Johns died on August 7, 2010, at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, Tertiary referral hospital, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre, academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars ...

in Los Angeles after a long-term illness at the age of 43. The 100th episode of ''Futurama'', " The Mutants Are Revolting", was dedicated to his memory.''Futurama'', "The Mutants are Revolting," end credits

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Alex 1966 births 2010 deaths Film producers from California Television producers from California San Diego State University alumni University of California, San Diego alumni People from Roseville, California People from Escalon, California