Actor Rodney Van Johnson has always set the bar a little higher. The world-class track and field star holds college and state (Ohio) records in the high jump, and qualified for the Olympics in the 100 meters. Now he’s a triple threat setting new records in Hollywood — as the only actor to appear consecutively on three different soap operas, on three different networks — currently starring on the new hit daytime soap opera Passions (NBC). As the appropriately athletic tennis coach, T. C. Russell, Rodney plays a devoted husband and loving father of two teenage girls, who is fiercely protective of his family…and his secret past.
Just as he began Passions, Rodney was “dying” on “ABC’s Port Charles,” starring as Sebastien, a sensitive and charismatic man with a heart ailment, who romantically spends his final days with a woman he met only once. Rodney started his soap hat trick on“CBS’s The Young and The Restless,” starring as Trey Stark, the smooth but menacingly controlling record executive, who destroyed anyone in his way.
But the Cincinnati native is no stranger to primetime. Before his daytime run, Rodney starred on the CBS action-adventure series, “Pensacola: Wings of Gold,” with James Brolin, playing the role of First Lieutenant Wendell McCray. He’s also guest starred on “Mad About You,” “Grace Under Fire,” “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “Sweet Justice,” Babylon 5,” starred in two pilots and co-starred in the feature film “Blood Brothers,” and has just completed a two-episode arc on the new Paramount Network sitcom, Girlfriends. In addition, he has produced and performed in several stage productions, including “Fences,” “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Two “Trains Running” and “A Few Good Men.”
According to Rodney, “It all kicks in now, I’m applying everything I’ve learned in life to stay competitive as an actor… I hope that’s what makes me unique as an actor and a professional.”
Rodney also volunteers his time as a tireless advocate for John Hopkins University, promoting awareness and research for pancreatic cancer, a devastating disease that has touched his family and his heart. His goals include writing, directing and producing, much like his idol, Sydney Poitier. “He’s the perfect gentleman, and he’s done everything with skill and dignity. I’d welcome any opportunity to work with him.” In the meantime, “I want people to appreciate my work long-term. I’m not just a soap hunk in stereotypical ways. I’m a performer, which is where I want to be. I’m in the business for the rest of my life.”