Movies 
Welcome to the Brown Family club's section on "Famous and Notable Browns" devoted to Brown relatives who have worked in Hollywood motion pictures and television as actors, directors, producers, writers, stuntmen and other fields.
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Movies
Johnny Mack Brown 
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John Mack ("Johnny") Brown was a movie star idol in the 1930's, '40's and '50's. He was undoubtedly the most famous Brown in American entertainment. Millions of kids grew up idolizing this Hollywood movie star--myself included.
When television first came to rural area southwest Georgia in the 1950's, the nearest stations were in Albany, Ga. and Tallahassee, Florida. We could barely get a picture from Albany and that from Tallahassee was fuzzy. When the first TV station in Dothan, Alabama came on the air, everyone in the region with a television set was glued to it. I walked a couple of miles to the nearest folks who had a set; the house was full. After all the opening ceremonies, the very first program they aired was a Western movie starring Johnny Mack Brown. Nothing could have pleased us better! Everyone stood and cheered.
Johnny Mack Brown was a true Southerner, something very rare in movies and television until recent years. Before TV, the movies were the entertainment of the period for kids and most adults. Every little boy wanted a cap pistol (a toy pistol which used paper rolls that created a loud BANG!) so he could become a cowboy -- like Johnny Mack Brown, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. I got my first for Christmas at age four. I still remember going out on the front porch at dawn and shooting off several rounds to wake up my cousins down the road so we could start playing cowboys. Everyone in our little rural county went to town on Saturdays. The kids went straight to the movies for a double feature -- one of which was always a Western. And Johnny Mack Brown was one of our favorites. He was not only a movie star -- he was one of us! It was not until high school that I became aware of the fact that our hero was actually a neighbor, from the very next county across the river in Alabama.
Johnny Mack Brown was born in Dothan, Alabama on 1 Sep 1904, a son of John Henry Brown and Hattie Pearson. Dothan was a young country town then; it had been founded after the new railroad came through the area and immediately attracted folks from the region. His father John Henry settled there and opened a dry goods (clothing) store. Like other boys in the "Wiregrass" area of south Alabama, Southwest Georgia and Panhandle Florida, he grew up hunting and fishing (wasn't much else for boys to do in our area). He was an outstanding football player for Dothan High School, where he graduated from in 1922. He then attended the University of Alabama and became an All-American running back for the school's football team. Even then, Alabama was a powerhouse in football and in 1926, Alabama met the University of Washington in the Rose Bowl at Pasadena, Ca. He scored two of Alabama's three touchdowns to win over the favored Huskies.
Johnny was offered contracts with several professional football teams but turned them down. He coached for a brief period and then headed to Hollywood. He began doing bit parts about 1927 in the old silent movies. In the beginning, the football star was cast as a dancer in several movies. His "Bowery Tap" routine became well-known. He landed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became a leading man in their movies for the next five years. He had natural good looks and the audiences loved him. He landed parts opposite such leading actresses as Mary Pickford (one of the top stars of the silent era), super stars Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford.
When the talkies made their debut, MGM (founded by foreigners) looked upon Johnny Mack as a liability because of his deep Southern drawl (ain't that just like damnyankees and other foreigners!). When they needed someone to play a Southerner, they usually picked some character from New York City and told him to fake it, something one-third of the nation despises to this day. MGM head Louis B. Mayer later got rid of Johnny
His first big role as a cowboy was in 1930 as a gunslinger in MGM's big budget feature Billy the Kid, with Wallace Beery (another major star of the period). The movie bombed in the theaters (as did John Wayne's first western that year). He emerged as a star by the end of the silent movie era. MGM loaned him out to other studies, including RKO (Republic) and Fox Studios during this period. After the "Kid" failure, he was cast in the serials -- a Hollywood invention that used the same stars and same characters. They were like the TV mini-series of today. Some of the best during the 1930's were Fighting With Kit Carson, 1933, Rustlers of Red Dog, 1935, Flaming Frontiers, 1938 and The Oregon Trail, 1939.
From 1943 to 1950, Johnny Mack Brown was one of the top moneymaking Western stars. That bothered a few people over at MGM. They had him under contract until bossman Louis B. Mayer let him go because this foreigner believed nobody wanted to see a Southerner in films. "Who would pay to see a soft-spoken boy from Alabama?" Mayer questioned.
M
illions of kids, that's who. It was the best thing that ever happened for Johnny's career. His later pictures played so many kids' matinees that theater managers developed his Southern accent. Fighting with Kit Carson was his first big serial; it had a shooting schedule he described as "rush, rush, rush"---25-30 pages of script per day for 22 days with few retakes. At Universal Studios, he rushed through two serials at the same time."I'd do a scene for one, then get on my horse and ride over a hill and do a scene for the other," he recalled in 1965. "Back and forth I went every day until one or the other was finished. And I never once changed hats."
Johnny Mack Brown made about 165 films during a Hollywood career that spanned about 40 years including the guest appearance roles in later years. He made about 120 Western films and serials; over half of these were at Monogram. Folks that he worked with said Johnny Mack Brown was a nice person to work with ... and a true "Southern gentleman". At the end of shooting every picture Johnny Mack Brown made, he would always tell the cast "Thanks for letting me make this film with you".
The Motion Picture Herald and BoxOffice magazines conducted polls from about the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s. With a few exceptions, the annual results would list the 'Top Ten' (or 'Top Five') Western film stars. Johnny Mack Brown was consistently ranked among the "Top Ten" sagebrush heroes for eleven consecutive years from 1940 - 1950. He was voted the fifth most popular Western star in 1943.
Johnny was an avid outdoorsman and often enjoyed both hunting and fishing with another Wester star, Charles ("Durango Kid") Starrett. He was also great at twirlin' and spinnin' a six-shooter, a feat he performed in several films.
I will always remember Johnny Mack Brown as one of my greatest childhood heroes. One of the highlights of my life was when I was in high school and we went to the National Peanut Festival parade in Dothan, Ala. Johnny Mack was the guest of honor that year and more than 120,000 people crowded the streets of Dothan. That was a humongous crowd for little Dothan back then.
He was so popular that comic book publishers even came out with Johnny Mack Brown comic books. His first appearance in comic books came in Tim McCoy Western Movie Stories #21, Aug 1949, published by Charlton Comics. Johnny's own comic book series began in Mar 1950 with Dell Publishing Co. They printed color books on him until Feb 1959, including a total of 22 issues. National Periodicals published comic books on him in their 1939 Movie Comics.
He also appeared in the first 21 issues of Dell Giant Series Western Roundup, starting in Jun 1952, featuring Johnny and other Western stars such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Will Bill Elliott and Rex Allen.
The national craze for low-budget Westerns began to fade during the late 1950's and Johnny Mack Brown soon went the way as most other Western stars in their old age.
In 1957, Johnny was honored for his All-American achievements with induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. In the 1960's, he did guest appearances in such westerns as The Bounty Killer, 1965, Requiem For a Gunfighter, 1965 and Apache Uprising, 1966.
Johnny Mack married Frances Cornelia ("Connie") Bacon at Tuscaloosa, AL. in 1926. They had three daughters and a son. During his later years, Brown had some financial difficulties and sold his Beverly Hills home. Johnny Mack Brown died 14 Nov 1974 from a heart condition. He was buried at Woodland Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, Ca.
You'll always be our hero, Johnny.
Bryan Brown B
ryan Brown was born 23 Jun 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia where he became a star but has achieved his biggest success in his American movies. A former insurance salesman, Bryan began his acting career in Britain in the mid-1970's. He gained much attention in the Boer War drama Breaker Morant, 1979. He made a hit in the US with the special-effects drama, F/X, 1986 and followed this up with a sequel F/X2in 1991. He starred opposite Tom Cruise in Cocktail in 1988. He starred with Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the Mist, 1988.Was slated to star in an Australian film called "Kangeroo" with Olivia Newton-John in 1983 but the film was recast and released in 1986. He produced his own romantic comedy movie Sweet Talker in 1990.
Bryan married actress Rachel Ward in 1983. They teamed up in the popular TV miniseries The Thorn Birds, 1983 and The Good Wife, 1986. He was inducted into TV Week magazine's "Logie Awards Hall of Fame in 1989.
Bryan and Rachel have two daughters and a son.
Clancy Brown C
lancy Brown has become one of the most famous Browns in entertainment today. His excellent acting abilities and good looks have earned him a place in the motion picture industry as one of the leading Hollywood "hunks".Clancy starred in the role of John Danziger in the TV series Earth 2 "He's just a regular guy. The most important thing to him is his daughter, but he also feels the whole group of pioneers needs to be taken care of. If someone is needed to take the trash out, he won't mind doing it."
Clancy is perhaps the most unlikeliest candidate for acting stardom. He comes from a newspaper publishing family that is big in politics.
"I'm extraordinarily proud of my dad," says Brown, whose father, former US Representative Clarence J. Brown, served in Congress from Ohio for 16 years and ran for governor in 1982. "He's one of my heroes. Politics never interested me, especially these days, because of its exaggerated public nature. To run for office means coming up with millions of dollars to make a candidate into a TV star."
Calvin Brown Jr. Calvin Brown Jr. was born in Charlotte, NC. He became a writer and worked as a script writer for several television series since the 1980s.
He has been a writer for several television series since the 1980's, including Married...with Children, 1987, Vinnie & Bobby, 1992, Hanging' with Mr. Cooper, 1992, Living Single, 1993, The Sinbad Show, 1993, My Brother and Me, 1994, Moesha, 1996, The Parkers, 1999 and The Proud Family, 2001.
Clarence L. Brown Clarence Brown was born 10 May 1890 in Clinton, Massachusetts. He became of the top directors and producers in Hollywood for many years. He started in the movies as an editor in 1915 during the silent film era. He became an assistant to famed director Maurice Tourneur. By 1917, he was earning $30 a week as an assistant directdor. He reportedly finished directing Tourneur's 1920 version of The Last of the Mohicans after the director was taken ill. He directed many of what have come to be regarded as classic silent films, including The Eagle, Smouldering Fires (both 1925), Kiki (1926), Flesh and the Devil, 1927 -- the first of his seven films with super star Greta Garbo (he was her whose favorite director), A Woman of Affairs, 1928, another smash hit for Garbo. By 1924, his salary for the movie Butterfly, had reached $12,500.
When the talkies hit the theaters, Clarence's hits in 1930, included Anna Christie and Romance- both of which he was nominated for an Oscars. In 1931, he directed A Free Soul which earned him still another Oscar nod. He had many more hits throughout the 1930's. He got his fourth Oscar nomination for The Human Comedy in 1943 and his fifth for the sensational hit National Velvet in 1944. He got his last Oscar nomination for The Yearling in 1946 starring Gary Cooper (one of my all-time favorites).
Clarence spent three decades at MGM. He died 17 Aug 1987 in Santa Monica, Ca. He was married four times, including Alice Joyce, Mona ("Ona") Maris and Marian Spies. He had a daughter Adrianne, born 1918.
Garrett Brown Not everybody in Hollywood becomes a success in front of the camera. Garret Brown became famous by being behind the cameras...literally. Garrett invented the "Steadicam" camera and has used it to shoot almost 200 movies since the 1970's. This earned him an Oscar. He holds 50 worldwide patents on camera devices, including the Steadicam JR for camcorders; Skycam, which flies on wires over sporting events; and Mobycam, the underwater camera that chases swimmers at the Olympic games. He earned an Emmy for his Divecam. He also created the ultra-light aerial film camera "SumperflyCam".
Garrett shot film for Sesame Street in 1969. He was half the duo on the Molson and American Express radio commercials. He has worked as a steadicam operator on 64 films and TV shows since 1974, including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Cherry Falls, Bulworth, Casino, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Tootsie, Toy, Rocky, Taps, Reds and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. His popular lecture on "The Moving Camera" has been seen at film festivals and schools, including the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the American Society of Cniematographers, The Screen Actors Guild, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild.
Joe E. Brown Joseph Evans Brown became famous in movies of the 1930s as "Joe E. Brown", one of the most memorable comedians Tinseltown ever produced. Joe boasted that he was the only youngster in show business who ran away from home to join the circus -- with his parent's blessings. In 1902, the 10-year-old joined the Five Marvellous Ashtons, a curcus tumbling act which toured with several circuses and vaudeville theaters. As he grew up, he began introducing comedy bits into his vaudeville act. In 1920, he made his Broadway debut in Jim Jam Jems, an all-star review.
As he developed his comedy routines and skits throughout the twenties, he gained more confidence and his popularity began to soar.
His first try in Hollywood, The Circus Kid, 1928, in which he played a lion tamer, was totally out of his field and he did not hit it off with the public. He signed with Warner Brothers Studios in 1929 to do comedy roles and did film copies of such Broadway shows as Sally, 1929 and Top Speed, 1930. He developed his trademark, the loud yell, broad grin and huge, gaping mouth which is still his most memorable trait today. He became one of the top ten monemakers for 1933 and 1936. He left Warners in 1937 to make films for Leow's. Unfortunately, most of Loew's films were cheaply and poorly made and only a few were successful. His better ones there included Riding on Air, 1937 and The Gladiator, 1938. With Loews, his popularity fell and by the end of the 1930's, he was working in B movies.
He devoted a great deal of effort to entertain American troops during World War II. He lost his son, US Army Captain Donald Brown, in a training flight. The enthusiastic response of the troops he entertained helped him overcome his son's death.
Joe hit the road in 1947 in the road company production of Harvey. He also made The Tender Years the same year. He appeared in the hit Show Boat in 1951. He turned to TV in the 1950's and played the clown on the Buick Circus Hour 1952-1953. He did many guest appearances on several shows during the 1950's and 1960's. A whole new generation discovered him in Some Like It Hot, 1959. He appeared in at least 71 movies and two TV series over the years.
Joe died 6 Jul 1973 at Brentwood, Ca. and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, Ca. His wife Kathryn Francis died in 1977.
Lew Brown L
Over the years, Lew appeared in more than 150 movies and TV appearances. He appeared with Kenny Rogers in The Gambler, 1980 and Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang 1982. He made many appearances on such TV hits as Gunsmoke, Laramie, Rawhide, Maverick, The Virginian, Death Valley Days, Cimmaron Strip, The Wild Wild West, Stoney Burke, Alias Smith and Jones, Little House on the Prairie and The High Chaparral.
Lew now lives in Hawaii.
Russ Brown Russ Brown was born 30 May 1896 in Philadelphia, Pa. He earned a Tony Award in 1956 for Best Supporting Actor in the hit Broadway hit Damn Yankees. His movie roles included Moulin Rouge, 1934, Damn Yankees and South Pacific, both 1958, Anatomy of a Murder, 1959 and Advise and Consent, 1962. His last film was The Cardinal, 1963.
Russ was marrie to Loretta Daye and Cornelia Rogers. He died 25 Dec 1993 at Philadelphia.
Harry William Brown Harry William Brown was born 27 Feb 1918 in Ohio. He had small parts in at least 19 Hollywood movies starting in 1935. He appeared in two of the Bud Abbott and Lou Costello movies, including Bud Abbot and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein, 1948 and Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, 1945. His last movies were Abbot and Costello Meet the Killer, 1949 and City of Bad Men, 1953.
James Edwin Brown James Edwin Brown made his mark in Hollywood under the name J. Edwin Brown and as "Edmond Brown". He was born 29 Feb 1856 in Boston, Ma. He was a twin brother of Sedley Brown.
Edwin appeared in at least 22 movies during the early silent film era, from 1915 until his last known film, Scaramouche in 1925.
Ryan Thomas Brown Ryan Thomas Brown is a classically trained actor from Seattle, Washington, After he was injured playing football in high school, he began acting in school. He went to Los Angeles in the early 1990's and became known for his roles on the TV series Beverly Hills 90210.
He appeared on the TV series Saved by the Bell (several episodes in 1993, 1994), Silk Stalkings (1997), Clueless and Beverly Hills, 90210 (several episodes).
In addition to acting, Brown is a well known disc jockey in the Los Angeles area. Ryan is now pursuing acting in feature films and television projects in addition to his growing work in commercial and television acting career.
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