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While under contract to Universal Studios, Russell made three westerns with Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WWII. "He was a very nice, quiet kind of a guy,"
says Russell, "but he was also a piece of tightly sprung steel - a tough bugger. It was easy to see how this guy got the Congressional Medal of Honor and every other decoration the army had to offer. We never really
exchanged war stories, but I did show him my
Purple Heart, telling him 'I've got one of these too,
Mister (laughs).' I do remember the two of us
discussing what outfits we were in, and such.
He was terrific - an interesting guy."
The first western they made together was 1953's "Column South", where Russell
started all the action by instigating a brawl. Not a difficult thing to do when
you're in the barracks singing "Dixieland" to a group of Yankee soldiers, then
proceed to throw the first punch. However, Russell redeems himself at the
end of the film when he sacrifices his life for the entire troop. 
 The second Audie Murphy/Russell Johnson movie
was "Tumbleweed" also filmed in 1953. Ask Russ about the climactic fistfight where Murphy flips him over his shoulder, sending him into orbit and Russ
will tell you, "That was me all right - no stunt double
was present for either of us. Audie and I fought
up and down that hill all day long.
In fact, he hung my lip over my tooth - he punched me in the mouth. It wasn't supposed to happen that way, but
we had rough screen fights in those days that were physically challenging and demanding."
  Russell's third film with
Murphy was "Ride Clear of Diablo", made in 1954. For those of you who know him mainly as the Professor, it's hard to imagine that Russell ever played a heavy, but play one he did - and well. In this
movie, his character was one of his most pathetic -
a character who looks Audie in the eye and tells him,
"It ain't polite to stare", then swings a full whiskey bottle right into Murphy's face.
Excerpts from the magazine article, "The Professor Wore Black"
by Ed G. Lousararian, Editor-in-Chief of WILDEST WESTERNS magazineYou can visit his site at
www.wildestwesterns.com
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Russell