Shadow2 says on 21/Dec/11
Rob, time for a long overdue correction here. If "1991 Hollywood Songstress" has become the reference for an actors listed height on this site, we have a problem. Van was 6'1", never 6'2", and some of us can quote a dozen movies that immediately prove this.

richinkle says on 8/May/11
Van Johnson looked to be about 6'-1" based on the attached youtube clip with Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley from a 1954 I love Lucy episode. Click Here

5'-7 1/2" Ball, with a 2" heel advantage, comes up just above Van Johnson's brow - and appears no more than 4" shorter, closer to 3 1/2". (She appears to have the same height relation to Johnson as 5'-8" Lansbury does in scene from "State of the Union", 1948, and as seen in this still from the movie: Click Here)

Arnaz, who has about a 1" heel advantage, appears about 2 1/2-3" shorter than Johnson, making him about 5'-9" to 5'-9 1/2".

Shadow2 says on 10/Nov/10
Van was a strong 6'1", not the 6'2" occasionally mentioned by MGM publicity in the 1940's. You only have to see him in 1950's era movies with 6'3" Fred MacMurray, 6'4" Howard Keel, 6'2" Barry Sullivan, and 6'1.5" Walter Pidgeon to compare. In the 1960's and 1970's Van did a lot of episodic TV with other tall actors, and he was never more than 6'1". Many later biographies correctly record this precise height for him. However on his TV guest roles Van had a noticeable tendency to stretch his frame whenever he greeted another cast member, similar to 5'11" Ricardo Montalban who had serious back problems. In Van's case this "stretching" accentuated his height. I saw Van once in his late 70's, and he was still close to 6' tall.