Don Johnson ‘feared losing everything’ before was cast in Miami Vice

Don Johnson as Det. James 'Sonny' Crockett, Philip Michael Thomas as Det. Ricardo 'Rico' Tubbs. Photo / Getty Images

Don Johnson “feared losing everything” before he was cast in Miami Vice.

The 74-year-old actor struggled for years to make ends meet before he landed his big break in the leading role of James “Sonny” Crockett in the 1980s cop series and admitted that his work ethic came from watching his parents struggle throughout his childhood.

He told WSJ: “Poverty leaves a mark. For years I feared losing everything. I managed it with meditation.

“In Missouri, my father, Wayne, was a failed farmer. We moved to Wichita, Kan., where he went to work for Boeing. Within two years, he was crew chief of the men who had been over him. My mother, Nell Eva Leigh, was a beautician. I got my work ethic from them. By then, I had a younger sister, Jamie, and two younger brothers - Greg and K.C. In Wichita, we lived in a small house with a single bathroom in projects built originally as employee housing for Boeing. We were still plenty poor.

“When I was 11, the family I knew blew apart. My parents divorced, and I went through a lot of guilt for feeling enormous relief when they did. At that age, you bury the stress parents create.”

However, Don - who now has a reported net worth of US$50 million - recently insisted the whirlwind he experienced after taking the part was mainly more work, and not all partying.

Actor Don Johnson and his wife, actress Melanie Griffith, circa 1990. Photo / Getty Images

He told Parade: “And we were getting like 40 million people a week watching our show. Those are the kinds of numbers that people would lose their minds over now.

“So I didn’t sleep for five years. I was filming most of the time, and then on the weekends I was shooting magazine covers, and then occasionally – when no one was looking – I was out partying.”