Life of a Salesman: Positive Attitude Conquers Cancer, Accident : Ex-Movie Serial Actor Relishes His Triumphs Over Close Calls

Johnny Duncan was spending the afternoon the best way he knew how--fireballing his black Honda Nighthawk motorcycle along Mulholland Drive, leaving his buddies behind.

Then came the speed wobble at 70 m.p.h., the spin, the flip through the air. Duncan, 64, landed on the side of the road, and the 450-pound motorcycle landed on top of his vulnerable 5-foot, 4 1/2-inch frame.

Nearly 3 months after the August accident, Farzin Ferdosi, 29, who was riding closely behind Duncan, still “gets the creeps” recalling the scene.

“It was the worst thing I had ever watched,” Ferdosi said. “He looked like he had been shot out of a cannon. He did at least two full somersaults--no exaggeration--and his helmet flew off and went rolling down the road.

“I didn’t want to go near him. I knew he was dead.”

He wasn’t. Duncan, a silver-haired, semi-retired screen actor, the original Robin, the Boy Wonder of the 1940s “Batman” movie serial, had faced--and conquered--more difficult odds. Thirteen days, five fractured ribs, two broken vertebra, a torn leg muscle and a punctured lung later, Duncan checked out of the hospital.

Fast Recovery

Two days later, he was back on the job as vice president of Glen Ivy Resorts in Woodland Hills.

“It was incredible,” said Bob Radez, the company’s director of sales and marketing. “I went to see him in the hospital and he was a mess. But that’s Johnny Duncan--he won’t lie down. Today he looks like a million dollars.”

Because of his spirit and tenacity, Duncan is respected by colleagues such as Ferdosi as a beacon of youth.

“I admire him,” Ferdosi said. “I can’t think of anyone who dislikes Johnny, and that’s hard to say about anyone in the sales business. He’s a great man who loves life.”

Until the accident, high-speed canyon motorcycle rides with co-workers in their 20s were routine. That has changed to 36 holes of golf each week.

‘Hurts Just a Little’

“It hurts just a little,” Duncan cracked, “whenever I bend over to put the tee in the ground.”

Said Ferdosi: “Johnny is amazing. He should have been dead.”

And long before the day on Mulholland Drive. Duncan, in fact, owes death 12 years but refuses to pay the debt.

In 1976, an irritation on his chest was diagnosed as melanoma, a skin tumor that forced the surgical removal of nearly all his chest muscles. After two operations, doctors told Duncan he probably would live no longer than a year. Duncan refused chemotherapy.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to take chemotherapy or have any more operations or cut-outs,’ ” he said. “I figured, ‘If they got it, they got it, if they didn’t, that’s it--I’ll die.’ ”

With his recuperative ability, that probably will not be soon. Duncan, who wears snakeskin cowboy boots, is a pugnacious character straight out of a Hollywood B movie--the kind he frequently appeared in during the 1940s and ‘50s.

Besides his role as Robin, Duncan’s screen credits include several films as a member of the Bowery Boys and scores of other low-budget films, as well as minor roles in such blockbusters as “The Caine Mutiny,” with Humphrey Bogart, and “The Wild One,” with Marlon Brando.

Gives Up Motorcycles

Most recently, Duncan has appeared in television episodes of “Dallas,” “Dynasty” and “Hill Street Blues.”

Although he refuses to be slowed by cancer, Duncan reluctantly has given up motorcycles. The recent accident was his fourth since cancer surgery.

“I was going to quit after my accident in ’84 because of the hurt I was going through,” Duncan said. “Then I said to myself, ‘You’re not conquering yourself.’ In life, if you’re scared of something, you must face it. So I forced myself back on that motorcycle.”

Joanne Duncan, 41, said her husband is driven by an innate force.

“There is a part of him that never really grew up,” she said. “He gets very angry when he thinks some greater force than he thinks it is time to bite the dust. That’s true of the cancer and the accident.”

Loves Fast Lane

Duncan, however, has come to realize the need to take care of himself. For the past 10 years, his diet has consisted largely of fruits and vegetables and no red meat. And he clings fast to the credo “early to bed and early to rise.”

Yet his love for the fast lane is enduring.

“As badly as I hurt sitting here right now,” Duncan said, “if my bike was ready I would go out today and ride just exactly like that had never happened, because I really love the thrill. But I’m trying very hard not to ride again.”

Said Todd Breeding, 26, another associate: “That’s what I like about Johnny. He’s a doer.”

And he’s not finished yet. His cancer has been in remission for more than a decade, and Duncan, once a caped crusader, is still crusading. Simply stated, he refuses to die.

“When I was a boy on a farm in Missouri, my dad sat me down and said, ‘Son, every day of your life you have to fight--you can’t let anything whip you,’ ” Duncan said. “So, I’ve been fighting every day since then.

No Signs of Cancer

“What am I going to do? I’m either going to fight it and not give a damn, or I’m going to care so much about cancer that it scares me to death. There ain’t no other way to go for me. I ain’t ever going to stop. And I ain’t ever going to be my age.”

Dr. Daniel Riihimaki, of City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, performed Duncan’s second operation. He examines Duncan once a year but sees no signs of recurring cancer, thanks largely, he said, to Duncan’s zest for life.

“I see nothing but cancer patients,” Riihimaki said. “They, basically, have two attitudes: There are those who are devastated by it and feel it is a significant death blow, and those that have a positive attitude and want to lick it.

“John is a very positive individual. He said nothing is going to keep him down. That old Batman and Robin image is a part of that.”

The walls of Duncan’s office are decorated with photographs of his days as Robin and as a Bowery Boy. The largest is a 4-by-3-foot poster advertising the episode “Target Robin.”

“People still come in here and say, ‘I know you, you used to be Robin,’ ” Duncan said.

‘Mind Controls the Body’

Duncan is proud of the role. His license plate reads “1ST ROBN.” Yellowing photographs from his acting days are kept inside a brown photo album with “Robin” stamped on the cover. In the past, Duncan has presented Batman and Robin memorabilia to child cancer patients at City of Hope.

“You must believe in what you are doing,” he said. “The world is a theater and we’re all actors. How we present ourselves on-screen and off-screen is what matters. When I played Robin, I was Robin, and L. A. was Gotham City.

“I believe that the mind controls the body.”

It is difficult for Duncan to sit still while a constant stream of chatter touching on his acting career, motorcycles and life pours forth. His hands move as he sits on the edge of his chair, seemingly ready to leap from behind the desk at any moment. . . . to the Batmobile!

He admittedly finds it difficult to slow down. He has sworn off motorcycles before, only to return to riding.

“But if this last accident didn’t teach me that I do have to protect myself, then I must be crazy,” he said. “Because I might live another 30 years.”

Longevity in Family

That is a possibility, Riihimaki said. “I don’t see any signs of recurrence, so he should live a normal life span,” he said. “Apparently, surgical treatment has removed the cancer. But you can never tell with this kind of tumor. Sometimes it will show up 20 to 30 years later.”

Duncan has a family history of longevity on his side. His father is 95. His grandfather died at 102.

“I have to respect my age,” Duncan said. “How am I going to survive if I get hurt and I’m a paraplegic and can’t function? I can’t put myself in that jeopardy. So, I took up golf.”

Despite the absent chest muscles, Duncan still manages to score in the 90s.

“I’ve got the bug right now,” he said. “If I shoot the ball and someone starts pulling away in the golf cart, I know I can catch him.”

But when will cancer catch up with Duncan? He doesn’t know. And he doesn’t waste time wondering.

“I don’t want to die, none of us want to die,” he said. “But you have to have an attitude that we’re going to die, all of us. And if I go sooner, then, well. . . . I went sooner, that’s all.”