Topic: Christopher Johnson

Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 1992) was an American itinerant who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, weighing only 67 pounds (30 kg), he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve. Inspired by the details of McCandless's story, author Jon Krakauer wrote a book about his adventures published in 1996 titled Into the Wild. In 2007, Sean Penn directed a film of the same title, with Emile Hirsch portraying McCandless.

McCandless's story is also the subject of a 2007 documentary by Ron Lamothe named The Call of the Wild.

McCandless was born in El Segundo, California, the first child to Walt McCandless and Wilhelmina "Billie" Johnson. He had one younger sister named Carine. In 1976, he moved with his family to Annandale, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. located in Fairfax County, after his father was employed as an antenna specialist for NASA. His mother worked as a secretary at Hughes Aircraft where Walt worked, later assisting Walt with his successful home-based consulting company in Annandale. Despite the McCandless family's financial success, Walt and Billie were often fighting and sometimes would contemplate divorce. Chris also had several half-siblings living in California from Walt's first marriage. Walt was not yet divorced from his first wife when Chris and Carine were born, but Chris did not discover his father's affair until a summer trip to southern California.