Darwin Joston
Biography
Darwin Joston was an American actor, born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who studied drama at Chapel Hill and earned his degree in 1960. He moved to New York, spent about five years in theater and summer stock, then settled in Los Angeles, where he worked mostly in television from the mid-1960s into the mid-1970s, with a recurring part on Lassie and guest roles on series including The Virginian, Ironside and McCloud. His signature role was Napoleon Wilson, the sardonic antihero of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a part Carpenter wrote with him in mind. He also played Paul in David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) and the coroner in Carpenter's The Fog (1980), and his last film part came in Time Walker (1982). As roles grew scarce in the 1980s, he shifted to transportation work on film and television crews, retiring in 1994. He died in 1998.
60years old at death
- Born Winston-Salem
- Died Winston-Salem
- Star sign: SagittariusThe sign runs November 22 to December 21
- Also credited as Francis Darwin Solomon
Movie Career
- Films
- 4
- Career span
- 6 years1976 to 1982
Every film, newest first
- 1982Time WalkerIMDb rating 3.8
- 1980The FogIMDb rating 6.8
- 1977EraserheadIMDb rating 7.2
- 1976Assault on Precinct 13IMDb rating 7.3
Genres
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Did you know?!
Big break
Carpenter said he had Joston in mind when he wrote the role of Napoleon Wilson, and that he gave the character some of Joston's personality traits.
Big break
David Lynch cast Joston as Paul, the pencil-factory clerk, in Eraserhead after seeing one of his earlier performances, though Joston never learned which one.
A role that slipped away
Joston was considered for the Native-American assassin John Rainbird in the film adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter, but the role went to George C. Scott after Universal replaced director John Carpenter with Mark L. Lester.
A change of course
In the 1980s, Joston acted less often and slowly shifted from acting into full-time work as a teamster on transportation crews for film and television.
Big break
Eric Red, a young filmmaker who admired Joston's performance in Assault on Precinct 13, gave him the lead role in Red's 1981 short film Gunmen's Blues, playing a world-weary hitman.
Darwin Joston movies on Netflix
Most often with
John Carpenter directed two of these films. Four actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Charles Cyphers's page
John Carpenter's page
Austin Stoker's page
Nancy Kyes's page
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.