Jump to content

Clarence Brown

From Niidae Wiki
Revision as of 02:51, 22 March 2025 by imported>Lightiggy (Added categories)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Template:Short description Template:Similar names Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

[edit]

Born in Clinton, Massachusetts,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School<ref>John Shearer, Famous alumni from Knoxville High School, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 28, 2010</ref> And the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An early fascination in automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens-Duryea Company, then to his own Brown Motor Car Company in Alabama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and became an assistant to the French-born director Maurice Tourneur.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

[edit]
File:Clarence Brown 1921.jpg
Clarence Brown in 1921

After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I,<ref name="dga">Hollywood's Forgotten Master Gets His Due Directors Guild of America. Retrieved December 1, 2021.</ref><ref name="latimesobit">Clarence Brown, Director of Garbo, Gable, Dies at 97 Los Angeles Times via Internet Archive. Retrieved December 1, 2021.</ref><ref name="utknoxville">Clarence Brown, FILMMAKER, UT Knoxville, 1910 University of Tennessee. Retrieved December 1, 2021.</ref><ref name="britannicapage">Clarence Brown, American filmmaker Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 1, 2021.</ref><ref name="enthusiast">Classic Director Spotlight -Clarence Brown www.storyenthusiast.com. Retrieved December 1, 2021.</ref> Brown was given his first co-directing credit (with Tourneur) for The Great Redeemer (1920). Later that year, he directed a major portion of The Last of the Mohicans after Tourneur was injured in a fall.

Brown moved to Universal in 1924, and then to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he remained until the mid-1950s. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their major female stars, he directed Joan Crawford six times and Greta Garbo seven.

Brown was nominated five times for six films (see below) for an Academy Award as a director, but he never received an Oscar. However, he won Best Foreign Film for Anna Karenina, starring Garbo at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival.

Brown's films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars. Brown himself received five Academy Award nominations for six films and in 1949, he won the British Academy Award for the film version of William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust.

In 1957, Brown was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, but refused to watch new movies. He feared they might cause him to restart his career.

The Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He holds the record for most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director without a win, with six.

Personal life

[edit]

Clarence Brown was married four times. His first marriage was to Paula Herndon Pratt in 1913, which lasted until their divorce in 1920.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The couple produced a daughter, Adrienne Brown.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

His second marriage was to Ona Wilson, which lasted from 1922 until their divorce in 1927.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He was engaged to Dorothy Sebastian<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Mona Maris, although he did not marry either of them, with Maris later saying she ended their relationship because she had her "own ideas of marriage then."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He married his third wife, Alice Joyce, in 1933 and they divorced in 1945.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="University Press of Kentucky">Template:Cite book</ref>

His last marriage was to Marian Spies in 1946, which lasted until his death in 1987.<ref name="University Press of Kentucky"/>

Death

[edit]

Brown died at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California from kidney failure on August 17, 1987, at the age of 97.<ref name="latimesobit"/> He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.<ref name="Wilson, Scott">Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2. McFarland & Company (2016) Template:ISBN</ref>

On February 8, 1960, Brown received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street, for his contributions to the motion pictures industry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Selected filmography

[edit]
File:Rains-Came-Brown-Thompson-Bromfield.jpg
Journalist Dorothy Thompson is entertained on the set of The Rains Came (1939) by director Clarence Brown (left) and Louis Bromfield, author of the novel on which the film was based.

Director

[edit]

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Actor

[edit]
  • The Signal Tower (1924) – Switch Man
  • Ben-Hur (1925) – Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
  • Navy Blues (1929) – Roller Coaster Rider (uncredited)
  • Possessed (1931) – Man on Merry-Go-Round (uncredited) (final film role)

Notes

[edit]

Template:Notelist

References

[edit]

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Brownlow, Kevin. "Clarence Brown" in The Parade's Gone By New York: Knopf (1968)
  • Estrin, Allen. "The Hollywood Professionals, Vol. 6: Frank Capra, George Cukor, Clarence Brown", AS Barnes (1980)
  • Bastarache, A.J. An Extraordinary Town, How one of America's smallest towns shaped the world – A Historical Marketing Book by A. J. Bastarache.
  • Young, Gwenda. 'Clarence Brown: From Knoxville to Hollywood and Back'. Journal of East Tennessee History', pp. 53–73 (2002)
  • Template:Cite news
  • Young, Gwenda. Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2018
  • Neely, Jack. "Clarence Brown: The Forgotten Director", Metro Pulse (March 2008)
[edit]

Template:Commons category Template:Wikisource author

Template:Clarence Brown

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.niidae.com/index.php?title=Clarence_Brown&oldid=10615"