Johnny Sands, 76; Actor Began Career in Hollywood as Usher

Johnny Sands, 76, who rose from movie theater usher to acting in more than a dozen films alongside such stars as Cary Grant and Shirley Temple, died Dec. 30 at his home in Ainaloa, Hawaii, of unspecified causes.

Born Elbert Harp Jr. in Lorenzo, Texas, the boy left home at age 13 and hitchhiked to Hollywood. He had acted in school plays and, after working as an usher, was spotted by a talent scout on his way to the beach.

Choosing his stage name for his love of the beach, Sands made his screen debut as an unnamed student in “The Stranger” in 1946 starring Orson Welles, Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson. The same year, Sands was Danny in the romantic comedy “Affairs of Geraldine” and as Tommy in “Till the End of Time,” starring Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum and Dorothy McGuire.

Sands was perhaps best-known for his 1947 role of Jerry White, teenage Shirley Temple’s boyfriend, in “The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer,” which starred Temple, Grant and Myrna Loy, and as Aladdin in the 1952 film “Aladdin and His Lamp.”

But in 1970, Sands moved to Honolulu, where he became a real estate agent. He retired in 1991.