Treated successfully for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but later died of cancer of the bladder and of the prostate.
Donated his scripts and tapes from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) to his alma mater (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)'s communications school.
His stage name "Arte" came about by accident: Originally billed as "Art
E. Johnson", his name was mistakenly posted as "Arte" on a playbill.
Johnson liked the look and sound of the name, so he kept it.
Attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at the same time as Allan Sherman ('Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!") and Sheldon Keller, both of whom were five or six years older than he. Johnson graduated in 1949.