EP. 190: CALIFORNIA - Hollywood Celebrity Turned Ruthless Killer: The Tragic Tale of Johnny Lewis
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There are millions of people around the world whose dream is to be widely known. People who want their names in the spotlight. Maybe they wanna sing, perform on Broadway, or maybe even star in movies. For a lot of these people, they will move to places like Hollywood or New York City, and they'll work for years to get their big break in showbiz. However, the reality is only a fraction of the people with this dream will actually go on to achieve it. As we know, the industry is pretty selective. So the stars that do make it big are the lucky ones. They have it all. Money, fame, nice houses, luxury cars, notoriety. But sometimes being at the top isn't all that it's made out to be. And in the story we have for you today, you'll see just how true that statement is. In the early 2000s, actor Johnny Lewis was on his way to becoming a household name. At just 28 years old, he had already starred in the main cast of four popular TV shows, becoming a fan favorite character in the breakout hit, Sons of Anarchy.
He also walked the red carpets with his once girlfriend, pop star Katy Perry. But in late 2012... Johnny Lewis came in the spotlight for a very different reason. So this is his story. I'm Courtney Browen.
And I'm Colin Browen.
Thank you.
From the very beginning, it seems that Johnny Lewis was destined for the spotlight. Born Jonathan Kendrick Lewis in the San Fernando Valley on October 29, 1983, he was the son of Devona and Michael Lewis, who had both moved to Los Angeles to follow their own dreams. His father, Michael, had journeyed to the City of Angels to work as a playwright, screenwriter, and counselor. Devona, who had grown up on a farm in a town of just 60 people in Alberta, Canada, was an English and drama teacher. Like thousands of dreamers before them, they settled down and bought a house in what locals refer to as the Valley, putting them a stone's throw away from the glitz and glamour of the world-famous studios.
But of course, there was another thing that drew them to Los Angeles, their ties to Scientology. But we'll get into that a little bit later.
As for their son, Johnny, he was the middle child, wedged between his older sister, Anna, and his younger brother, Eric. And while we normally begin stories about people who commit horrible crimes with a peek at a traumatic childhood, that wasn't the case with Johnny Lewis. By all accounts, he wasn't a monster mutilating neighborhood pets. He wasn't starting fires or getting in fights with people, and he stayed out of trouble. All of those heinous acts would come much later. The little Johnny Lewis growing up in Sherman Oaks was beloved and kind, and he seemed to have a magical, almost magnetic quality about him. In his brother Eric's 2018 documentary titled In Search Of, Eric describes his older brother in a way that I'm sure many younger siblings can relate to. He said, quote, he taught me love and compassion and grit and pride and vulnerability. He taught me how to be a human, end quote.
The three siblings were tight-knit from a young age. Old family videos taken from the bulky camcorders of the 80s show snapshots of their seemingly idyllic childhood. Johnny's hair is so blonde that it's almost white. His eyes are bright blue and always crinkled from the toothless grin on his face. There are videos of him singing his ABCs, hugging and dancing with his sister. Videos of him giggling beside her, both of them happily twirling in fairy costumes. Videos of him teetering around the yard barefoot and swinging on the swing set with a lack of grace that only a toddler can make cute.
And although Johnny's childhood was normal, in the sense that he grew up in a loving home, it was pretty different from other kids his age. In fact, at just six years old, his mother took him to his very first audition. And by seven years old, he had landed his first acting role. Now, we couldn't find much information about whether acting was Johnny's idea or his mother's,
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