Ronnie Johnson (well known for his role as Stick in Spender) was raised in Gateshead and lived on the Springwell Estate. He was interested in music from an early age and soon learnt to play guitar. One of his first bands was Pigmeat with Jim Murray and Ray Stubbs and after getting a job playing bass guitar at a Live Theatre panto was asked to act in the show.
He applied for Equity membership but they already had a 'Ron Johnson' so he used his father's name of 'Sammy'. Appeared in several TV productions including ‘Auf Wiedersehen Pet’ and ‘Spender’ and often worked with local writers like CP Taylor, Tom Hadaway, Leonard Barras and Arthur McKenzie. He continued to be a musician with the 'Ray Stubbs R&B Allstars' as well as forming 'Matt Vinyl and the Decorators'.
He was then cast as the memorable ‘Stick’ in Spender, a TV detective series written by Jimmy Nail and Ian La Frenais. He began to turn his hand to scriptwriting and moved house to the hills above Malaga in Spain. It was there that he dies suddenly when out jogging in 1998. He was 49 years old.
