Biography for
Lyndon Johnson (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

27 August 1908, Stonewall, Texas, USA

Date of Death

22 January 1973, Stonewall, Texas, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Nickname

L.B.J.
LBJ
Landslide Lyndon
Johnson, Light Bulb

Height

6' 4" (1.93 m)

Spouse

Lady Bird Johnson

(17 November 1934 - 22 January 1973) (his death) 2 children

Trade Mark

Texas Accent

Outspoken intimidating personality

Known for speaking in clear certain terms with use of southern metaphors and casual swearing

His Height

Trivia

Thirty-sixth president of the United States of America, 22 November 1963 - 20 January 1969.

Served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 10 April 1937 - 3 January 1949.

First member of Congress to enlist in the armed forces in World War II; served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific.

In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader.

Served in the U.S. Senate, 3 January 1949 - 3 January 1961. Had been simultaneously elected vice-president and reelected to the Senate in November 1960; resigned from the Senate to become vice president on 20 January 1961.

In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had one of the widest popular margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes. To date, no candidate, Democrat or Republican, has managed to best his 1964 electoral result (Richard Nixon, however, did come close and won 60.7% of the popular vote).

Daughters: Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson.

Graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College.

Father-in-law of Chuck Robb (husband of daughter Lynda).

Pictured on a commemorative four-cent postage label issued by the (now defunct) Independent Postal System of America in 1973.

He was the only President born and raised in Texas (both Presidents George Bush, the elder, and George W. Bush, the younger, were born in New England; Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Texas, but raised in Kansas).

He was interred at the LBJ Ranch in Blanco County, Texas.

Vice President of The United States (20 January 1961 - 22 November 1963).

During his 1964 campaign, he portrayed his opponent Barry Goldwater as a warmonger who, if elected president, would start a nuclear war. He ran the infamous "Daisy" ad, which featured a girl counting daisy petals, followed by a countdown and a mushroom cloud. This attack ad was believed to have helped him defeat Goldwater in a landslide.

Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy who was JFK's Attorney General and then a Senator from New York, harbored a strong dislike for Johnson, a feeling that was mutual.

A heavy smoker, Johnson had already suffered two major heart attacks before becoming President at the age of 55, the first in 1955 when he was 46.

Was an admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Therefore, it is believed he did not attend the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965 because Churchill had not attended Roosevelt's funeral twenty years earlier.

His television ads ended with the slogan, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."

His 1964 presidential campaign slogans included: "All the way with LBJ", and "LBJ for the USA."

A frequent anti-war chant was, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"

Before he announced he would not run for reelection in 1968, his opponent, Richard Nixon declared his intention to seek the GOP nomination. Critics called a choice between Nixon and Johnson "a choice between obscenity and vulgarity!".

One of his final public appearances was the state funeral of Harry S. Truman, less than a month before his own death.

Started smoking again after he left the White House in 1969, and put on weight. In April 1972 he suffered a third heart attack, but would not give up his old habits. "I'm an old man", he once explained, "so what's the difference? My body it just aging in its own way.".

At 6' 4", he is the tallest President of the United States, tying with Abraham Lincoln.

After he retired from the presidency, CBS-TV paid him $100,000 per television interview in a package deal which included the publication of his memoirs by a CBS subsidiary, Holt, Reinhart & Winston.

In his last will and testament, he left his portion of property jointly owned with his wife Lady Bird, an estate estimated to be worth $20 million in trust in equal shares to his two daughters.

Was the last US president of the 20th Century to smoke cigarettes. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford smoked pipes; Ronald Reagan and George Bush were nonsmokers; Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton smoked an occasional cigar.

Worked as a schoolteacher before entering politics.

The only U.S. President to attempt to end national poverty.

Personal Quotes

I accepted the second spot because I'm a gambling man. I did my research and one in four dies in office.

I felt I was a trustee to carry on after he [assassinated President John F. Kennedy] had been taken from us. After I finished the execution of his dream, I had some of my own.

[About President John F. Kennedy's assassination] "We heard some sounds. Some thought it was a firecracker, some thought it was a gun, but the next thing I knew we were on our way to the hospital. The president was wounded. The greatest shock that I can recall was one of the men saying 'He's gone'. It was suggested that we go the the planes as quickly as we could and that we get to Washington as quickly as we could. We had decided that we would wait until Mrs. Kennedy and President Kennedy's body were onboard. We were there 15 minutes before I took the oath"

[March 31, 1968, announcing his decision not to seek re-election] I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

[in 1964, paraphrasing his presidential opponent Barry Goldwater] Extremism in the pursuit of the presidency is an unpardonable vice. Moderation in the affairs of the nation is the highest virtue.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read 'President Can't Swim'.

[Gerald Ford] is so dumb he can't walk and chew gum at the same time.... He's a nice fellow, but he spent too much time playing football without a helmet.

"I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.... [Richard Nixon]'s like a Spanish horse, who runs faster than anyone for the first nine lengths, and then turns around and runs backwards. You'll see; he'll do something wrong in the end. He always does.

[on J. Edgar Hoover, as quoted in the New York Times / 31 October 1971] It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.