Van Johnson, a disarming and popular Hollywood star of 1940s musicals and comedies who later proved effective as a G.I. grunt in “Battleground” and a conflicted Naval officer in “The Caine Mutiny,” has died. He was 92.

Starting in the late 1940s, Johnson took many viewers and reviewers by surprise for his dramatic performances.

He was especially good as a presidential candidate’s wily campaign manager in Frank Capra’s “State of the Union” (1948) with Spencer Tracy as his client. Johnson also portrayed a sneaky aide to a general in “Command Decision” (1948); and a cynical rifleman in William Wellman’s “Battleground” (1949), a film praised for its harrowing depiction of combat during the Battle of the Bulge.

Johnson was singled out by critics as the executive officer who sells out the paranoid Capt. Queeg (played by Humphrey Bogart) in “The Caine Mutiny” (1954), based on a best-selling novel by Herman Wouk. New York Times movie reviewer Bosley Crowther praised Johnson for conveying the “distress and resolution” required of the part.

All of those films almost totally reversed the screen persona Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio chief Louis Mayer first established for Johnson, a onetime Broadway chorus boy elevated to immediate stardom during World War II.

Injuries from a car crash prevented Johnson from being drafted during the war. In the absence of many male rivals, he was heavily promoted and became extremely popular.

Tall and freckled, with strawberry-blond hair, he was dubbed “the voiceless Sinatra” because of his appeal among bobbysoxers.

He was born Charles Van Dell Johnson on Aug. 25, 1916, in Newport, R.I., where his father was a real estate salesman. From his earliest years he was fascinated by the touring companies that played in Newport theaters, and after high school he announced his intention to try his luck in New York. He arrived in 1934 with $5 and his belongings packed in a straw suitcase.

Johnson had a famously difficult private life. He married Evie Abbott Wynn in Juarez in 1947 on the day her divorce became final from actor Keenan Wynn, who had been Johnson’s best friend. The Johnsons, who became known for hosting sumptuous Hollywood parties, were divorced in 1962 in a bitter proceeding.

No cause of death was immediately reported.