Clarence Brown Explained

Clarence Brown
Birth Name:Clarence Leon Brown
Birth Date:10 May 1890
Birth Place:Clinton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Death Place:Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Years Active:1915–1953
Spouse:
    Children:1
    Education:Knoxville High School
    University of Tennessee

    Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director.[1]

    Early life

    Born in Clinton, Massachusetts,[2] 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[3] and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]

    Career

    After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I,[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] 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.[12] Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, but refused to watch new movies, as 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.[13] He holds the record for most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director without a win, with six.

    Personal life

    Clarence Brown was married four times. His first marriage was to Paula Herndon Pratt in 1913, which lasted until their divorce in 1920.[14] The couple produced a daughter, Adrienne Brown.[15]

    His second marriage was to Ona Wilson, which lasted from 1922 until their divorce in 1927.[16]

    He was engaged to Dorothy Sebastian[17] 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."[18]

    He married his third wife, Alice Joyce, in 1933 and they divorced in 1945.[19] [20]

    His last marriage was to Marian Spies in 1946, which lasted until his death in 1987.[20]

    Death

    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.[8] He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[21]

    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.[22] [23]

    Selected filmography

    Director

    Actor

    Bibliography

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Little . Lexie . A Roustabout Career: The Forgotten Celebrity of Clarence Brown . Torchbearer . July 17, 2019 . July 10, 2019.
    2. Book: 501 Movie Directors. Steven Jay. Schneider. Cassell Illustrated. London. 2007. 54. 9781844035731. 1347156402.
    3. John Shearer, Famous alumni from Knoxville High School, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 28, 2010
    4. Web site: Clarence Brown Collection – Special Collections – Libraries – The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. lib.utk.edu. February 15, 2016.
    5. Web site: Clarence Brown Collection – Special Collections – Libraries – The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. lib.utk.edu. February 16, 2016.
    6. Web site: Clarence Brown – About This Person – Movies & TV . https://web.archive.org/web/20140505233831/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/83202/Clarence-Brown. dead. May 5, 2014. Movies & TV Dept. . . 2014 . February 15, 2016.
    7. https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1902-Spring-2019/Books-Clarence-Brown.aspx Hollywood's Forgotten Master Gets His Due
    8. https://web.archive.org/web/20200919200915/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-19-mn-808-story.html Clarence Brown, Director of Garbo, Gable, Dies at 97
    9. https://our.tennessee.edu/100-distinguished-alumni/clarence-brown/ Clarence Brown, FILMMAKER, UT Knoxville, 1910
    10. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clarence-Brown Clarence Brown, American filmmaker
    11. http://www.storyenthusiast.com/classic-director-spotlight/ Classic Director Spotlight -Clarence Brown
    12. Web site: George Eastman Award. George Eastman Museum. February 16, 2016. Molly. Tarbell.
    13. Web site: History Clarence Brown Theatre. clarencebrowntheatre.com. February 16, 2016. May 5, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160505162821/http://clarencebrowntheatre.com/about-us/history/. dead.
    14. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    15. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    16. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    17. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    18. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    19. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    20. Book: Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master. 9780813175966. Young. Gwenda. September 13, 2018. University Press of Kentucky.
    21. Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2. McFarland & Company (2016)
    22. Web site: Clarence Brown Hollywood Walk of Fame. www.walkoffame.com. June 21, 2016.
    23. Web site: Clarence Brown. Los Angeles Times. February 16, 2016.

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Clarence Brown".

    Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.