From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/arts/music/plas-johnson-dead.html
Plas Johnson, Saxophonist Behind rCyThe Pink Panther,rCO Dies at 94
His recording for the theme song, written by Henry Mancini, included a
solo improvised in the studio. He also backed Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand.
By Matt Schudel
July 21, 2026
Updated 3:38 p.m. ET
Plas Johnson, a Hollywood studio musician whose loping tenor saxophone in
the opening credits of the 1963 film rCLThe Pink PantherrCY brought a playful bounce to one of the most recognizable movie themes of all time, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94.
His children Eric Johnson and Stephanie Oliver confirmed the death, and
said their father had performed at his retirement community as recently as
a month earlier.
Mr. Johnson had an ample list of credits as varied as 1950s rock rCOnrCO roll hits, TV theme songs and recording dates with superstars. But the work
that stood out was the theme of rCLThe Pink Panther,rCY written by Henry Mancini for the slapstick detective comedy directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers as the pompous and bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Thirty seconds into the animated credit sequence, featuring a monocled
pink panther, Mr. JohnsonrCOs saxophone plays a 16-bar theme that is, all at once, slinky, seductive and mysterious, with a mischievous touch of humor. Later in the piece, Mr. Johnson kicks into a swinging solo rCo improvised in the studio rCo before the playful opening theme returns.
Mr. Mancini and Mr. Johnson had previously worked together on Mr.
MancinirCOs gritty theme for rCLPeter Gunn,rCY a noirish TV detective drama that
premiered in 1958. The full album, rCLThe Music From rCyPeter Gunn,rCOrCY won the
first-ever Grammy Award for album of the year.
As he was composing the music for rCLThe Pink Panther,rCY Mr. Mancini wrote the piece with Mr. Johnson in mind. rCLI nearly always precast my players
and write for them and around them, and Plas had the sound and the style I wanted,rCY he recalled in his 1989 book rCLDid They Mention the Music?rCY written with the jazz journalist Gene Lees.
The recording session took place at 8 a.m. on a cold winterrCOs day. rCLWe only did two takes, I think,rCY Mr. Johnson told The Modesto Bee in 2007. rCLWhen we finished, everyone applauded, even the string players. And thatrCOs saying something.rCY
He added, rCLThey never applaud for anything.rCY
Released as a single, the rCLPink PantherrCY theme became a Top 10 hit in the adult contemporary category and won three Grammys, including for best instrumental arrangement. Years later, Mr. Johnson began to play the tune
in his nightclub appearances.
rCLI sometimes get people coming up and telling me that I sound just like
the original version,rCY he told The Long Beach Press-Telegram in 2005, rCLand their eyes get real big when I tell them that was me on the original. They never knew who it was that did it, and they always get that look of recognition when they realize it.rCY
Plas John Johnson Jr. was born in Donaldsonville, La., west of New
Orleans, on July 21, 1931. His first name, which rhymes with rCLjazz,rCY derives from the French word rCLplaisant,rCY meaning pleasant or agreeable. Plas was the middle of three children in a musical family.
rCLMy mother, Grace, played piano and sang,rCY he told The Bee. rCLMy dad, Plas
Sr., played alto sax. They hustled work everywhere we lived. We would
travel up and down the bayou on weekends. They would play wherever they
could, in bars and restaurants, dances.rCY
Mr. Johnson was 12 when his father bought him a soprano saxophone and gave
him rudimentary lessons. He soon progressed to the larger alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, later adding the clarinet and flute. He and his older brother, Ray, a pianist, and their younger sister, Gwen, a singer, often performed together.
As a teenager, he performed in New Orleans, where he played blues,
Dixieland and bebop, and excelled at the intricate, fast-paced bebop style pioneered by Charlie Parker in the 1940s. In 1951, he joined the touring
band of Charles Brown, a popular R&B singer, before being drafted into the Army, for which he played in a military band in California.
He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s and became one of the first
Black musicians to establish a foothold in the busy West Coast film- and recording-studio scene.
On any given day he was called on to play rhythm-and-blues, support the
silky strings of an orchestra or knock out a hard-hitting solo for a rock tune. He became a mainstay of the Wrecking Crew, an ad hoc group of
musicians known for their ability to adapt to any style of music.
Mr. Johnson was part of studio ensembles that recorded theme songs of TV
shows like rCLThe Monkees,rCY rCLMannixrCY and rCLThe Odd Couple.rCY He backed singers
as diverse as Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Dr. John,
Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald and Marvin Gaye.
A versatile reed player, Mr. Johnson supplied the piccolo solo on the 1958
hit by Bobby Day, rCLRockinrCO RobinrCY; appeared on rCLPet Sounds,rCY the Beach
BoysrCO classic album from 1966; and a flute solo to Nicolette LarsonrCOs Top 10 hit in 1979, rCLLotta Love.rCY At night, he played with small groups in jazz clubs and released more than a dozen albums under his own name.
He also spent 15 years in the band of the TV talk-show host Merv Griffin
and was a member of jazz bands led by Frank Capp and Gene Harris. In 2006,
he recorded a new version of the theme for a film remake starring Steve
Martin as Clouseau.
Mr. Johnson was featured in the 2008 documentary rCLThe Wrecking Crew,rCY about the acclaimed but largely anonymous Los Angeles studio musicians. In later years, he focused on jazz, applying rCLhis warm and furry tone to a
set of variations combining fast-fingered ornamentation with driving swing phrases,rCY the critic Don Heckman wrote in a review of one of his performances for The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. JohnsonrCOs first marriage, to Elizabeth (Blinkenberg) Johnson, ended in divorce. In addition to his son Eric and daughter Stephanie, he is
survived by Philip Nunn, another child with his wife of 60 years, Carol Johnson, who also survives him; three children from his first marriage,
Cheryl Johnson, David Johnson and Denise Hurley; eight grandchildren; and
12 great-grandchildren.
In his years in the studios, Mr. Johnson became known for his ability to
punch up a tune with a sparkling solo that might last for only a few
seconds. It was the product, he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2007,
of rCLyears on the road in clubs, learning about 5,000 tunes, playing behind singers and stripteasers, and for dancers. People got up and danced, or
rocked in their chairs. That was your applause.rCY
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