The Secret Life of Sam

Actor Sam Johnson is profiled in Monday’s Australian Story, speaking openly about a difficult chapter of his life following the death of his girlfriend in 2005.

‘Lanie’ took her own life, only 3 months after the suicide of a close friend of Johnson’s. His mother also suicided when Johnson was a toddler.

Last year Johnson was also in trouble with the law following an assault incident at Star City Casino.

“There was a period after Lainie died where I wasn’t really taking very good care of myself and I was in a fairly self-destructive pattern and drinking heavily and prone to moments of madness…,” he says.

But his work with streetkids via Open Family Australia has helped him find a way back. Johnson is now part of the cast of TEN’s new police series Rush.

Australian Story airs 8pm Monday on ABC1.

Press Release:

A few years ago, ‘Secret Life of Us’ actor Samuel Johnson was one of the rising stars of the Australian film and TV industry. He was dubbed ‘Mr Everywhere Man’. Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, he disappeared.

Johnson’s career and personal life went into free fall in 2005 after the final series of ‘The Secret Life of Us’.

In this week’s Australian Story, Johnson is scathing about the celebrity scene, “People ask me for an autograph. I just feel fraudulent, like I shouldn’t be there…I thought you had to be really gifted to be famous but I learned that you don’t.”

Johnson dropped out and headed to the nearest place he felt at home — rural Daylesford, ninety minutes from Melbourne. It’s where he was born and lived before his mother committed suicide when he was a toddler.

But there was no escaping the pattern of sudden death in his life.

In the summer of 2005, he lost a close boyhood friend to suicide and, three months later, his girlfriend Lainie Woodlands also took her own life.

“There was a period after Lainie died where I wasn’t really taking very good care of myself and I was in a fairly self-destructive pattern and drinking heavily and prone to moments of madness…”, says Johnson.

He found himself back in the news late last year when he was prosecuted for assaulting a man at a casino.

In The Sum of Sam, Johnson talks candidly about the turmoil of the last three years – and his life changing involvement with Open Family Australia (OFA), a charity that works with vulnerable young people.

He was one of the key drivers of an OFA project that recently took eleven young people on a retreat for a crash course in film-making and a journey of emotional self discovery and personal expression.