PASSINGS: Sebastian Horsley, Ernie Johnson

Sebastian Horsley

British eccentric had himself nailed to cross

Sebastian Horsley, 47, a self-styled dandy and noted British eccentric who found fame by having himself nailed to a cross in the Philippines, died Thursday in London. Police did not give a cause of death, but British media reported that he died of a suspected overdose.

Horsley’s dysfunctional childhood and catastrophic personal life provided the fodder for his memoir, “Dandy in the Underworld,” which describes his adventures in drugs, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and high fashion.

Sebastian, the elder son of millionaire Nicholas Horsley, described a childhood full of “atheism, alcoholism and insanity.” Modeling himself on Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde, he was often pictured wearing a top hat, velvet coat and bright red nail polish against the backdrop of an apartment packed with human skulls (“I wanted to collect something, just not stamps,” he told a recent interviewer.)

Horsley is perhaps best known for a bungled attempt to have himself crucified in the Philippines in 2000 as part of an art project. The procedure almost ended in disaster when his foot support broke, threatening to rip his hands apart; he was caught and taken down from the cross just in time.

Horsley’s open drug use was one of the reasons he was barred from entering the United States on grounds of “moral turpitude” in 2008. But he took the ban in good humor, saying, “My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. I thought that would get me through.”

Ernie Johnson

1940s UCLA football star

Ernie Johnson, 84, a UCLA football star in the 1940s who also played basketball and rugby for the Bruins, died at his home in Sacramento on Sunday, his family announced. The cause was not given.

Johnson was a four-year letterman in football. His freshman season, 1946, he played halfback and led the team in scoring with 42 points. The Bruins went 10-0 in the regular season, finishing first in the Pacific Coast Conference, then lost to Illinois in the Rose Bowl, 45-14.

He went on to lead the team in rushing in 1948 and then in 1949, Red Sanders’ first season as coach, Johnson switched to tailback in the single-wing formation and led the Bruins in total offense and in passing. He was a first-team all-PCC selection in his senior season.

Johnson also earned a letter in basketball in 1949-50, John Wooden’s second season at UCLA.

He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999.

Born Jan. 29, 1926, in Berkeley, Johnson grew up in Sacramento and served in the Navy’s V-12 college training program during World War II.

After college he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but did not play in the NFL. He became a football coach and history teacher in Northern California.

-- Times staff and wire reports

news.obits@latimes.com