Don Johnson Had Shocking Friendship with Hunter S. Thompson (Unique)

Don Johnson and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson loved a shocking friendship for practically three a long time till Thompson’s demise by suicide in 2005.

“I cherished him,” the actor tells PEOPLE of the previous Rolling Stone author and writer of Worry and Loathing in Las Vegas. who was 67 on the time of his demise. “I discovered a lot from him.”

The 2 met again within the early ’80s earlier than Johnson, now 74, grew to become globally well-known enjoying detective Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice.

“We met again in, consider it or not, within the Andy Warhol days after I was taking pictures my first film in New York,” says Johnson. “We met as a result of he was the loopy m—–f—er that got here in with a pocket full of medication, and our film was about medication. So I acquired to know him fairly effectively.”

Their friendship solely grew from there, particularly after they each moved to Woody Creek, Colorado.

“Lo and behold, he grew to become my neighbor, actually my neighbor, like 1 / 4 of a mile away at my ranch in Colorado,” Johnson says. “And for the subsequent 25 years, if I used to be away and I had a sick animal or one thing like that, he’d come over and sleep within the stall with my animal and nurse them again to well being.”

He was additionally the enjoyable uncle to Johnson’s youngsters — actress Dakota Johnson has opened up about their relationship, telling AnOther journal in 2015 that Thompson would all the time carry her odd however treasured items.

“He was a magical particular person to me,” Dakota, now 35, informed the outlet.

“He would come into the driveway at odd hours and rearrange rocks and issues. … He’d carry me odd items, like fowl collars or bizarre fishing gear. At any time when I’d see him he would bend down and take his hat off, and I might pat his bald spot. I don’t know why! It was a factor we did.”

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Johnson tells PEOPLE, “If my children wanted one thing or if my then-wife [Melanie Griffiths] was alone, he’d be there. Now, I selected to not go away her alone with Hunter for too lengthy. However I cherished him.”

He says the 2 even co-wrote Johnson’s standard Nash Bridges sequence collectively, which additionally starred Cheech Marin.

“Hunter was the progenitor of Nash Bridges,” he says. “We co-wrote it collectively. However our model was unmake-able,” he says with amusing. “We had a senator’s spouse with Tourette syndrome. And CBS mentioned, ‘No, you possibly can’t say ‘m—–f—er’ on community TV!’ ”

He jokes that is why he is now working with the streamers: His movie Insurgent Ridge was just lately successful for Netflix, and his present sequence Physician Odyssey, additionally starring Joshua Jackson, is now on Hulu.

Within the sequence, Johnson performs the captain of a luxurious cruise ship, whereas Jackson performs the on-board physician. As for whether or not he loved crusing across the Mediterranean in a luxurious yacht, the reply is, sadly, no.

“My luxurious yacht was in the course of the Paramount lot,” he says, of the present getting a little bit assist from film magic. “However do not inform anybody that!”