Johnny Mack Brown
Encyclopedia
Johnny Mack Brown was an All-America
n college football
player and film actor
originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career.
, Brown was a star of the high school football team, earning a football scholarship to the University of Alabama
. Playing the halfback
position on his university's Crimson Tide
football team, he earned the nickname "The Dothan Antelope" and helped his team to become the 1926 NCAA Division I-A national football champions. In that year's Rose Bowl Game
, he earned Most Valuable Player
honors after scoring two of his team's three touchdowns in an upset win over the heavily favored Washington Huskies
. While at The University of Alabama, Brown became an initiated member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
's love interest in her first talkie, Coquette
(1929), for which Pickford won an Oscar.
He appeared in minor roles until 1930 when he was cast as the star in a Western
entitled Billy the Kid
and directed by King Vidor
. An early widescreen film (along with Raoul Walsh
's The Big Trail
with John Wayne
, produced the same year), the movie also features Wallace Beery
as Pat Garrett
. Brown was billed over Beery, who would become the studio's highest paid actor within the next three years. Also in 1930, Brown played Joan Crawford
's love interest in Montana Moon
. Brown went on to make several more top-flight movies under the name John Mack Brown, including The Secret Six
(1931) with Wallace Beery
, Jean Harlow
, and Clark Gable
, as well as the legendary Lost Generation
celebration of alcohol, The Last Flight (1931), and was being groomed by MGM as a leading man until being abruptly replaced on Laughing Sinners
in 1931, with all his scenes reshot, substituting rising star Clark Gable in his place.
Rechristened "Johnny Mack Brown" in the wake of this extremely serious career downturn, he made exclusively low budget westerns and eventually became one of the screen's top B-movie cowboy stars, making 127 western films during his career, including Ride 'Em Cowboy
with Abbott and Costello
. A fan of Mexican music, he showcased the talents of guitarist Francisco Mayorga and The Guadalajara Trio in films like Boss of Bullion City and The Masked Rider
. Brown also starred in four serials
for Universal Studios
(Rustlers of Red Dog
, Wild West Days
, Flaming Frontiers
and The Oregon Trail
) and was a hero to millions of young children at movie theaters and on their television screens.
When the B-Western genre dropped sharply in box office
popularity, Johnny Mack Brown went into retirement in 1953. He returned more than ten years later to appear in secondary roles in a few Western films. Altogether, Brown appeared in over 160 movies between 1927 and 1966, as well as a smattering of television shows, in a career spanning almost forty years.
at 6101 Hollywood Blvd. In 1969, Brown was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
.
at the age of 70. Brown's cremated remains are interred in an outdoor Columbarium, in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
.
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
player and film actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career.
Early life
Born and raised in Dothan, AlabamaDothan, Alabama
Dothan is a city located in the southeastern corner of the US state of Alabama, situated approximately west of the Georgia state line and north of Florida. It is the seat of Houston County, with portions extending into nearby Dale County and Henry County...
, Brown was a star of the high school football team, earning a football scholarship to the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
. Playing the halfback
Halfback (American football)
A halfback, sometimes referred to as a tailback, is an offensive position in American football, which lines up in the backfield and generally is responsible for carrying the ball on run plays. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the halfback position was both an offensive and defensive...
position on his university's Crimson Tide
Crimson Tide
Crimson Tide may refer to:* Crimson tide, a type of algae also known as Karenia brevis* Alabama Crimson Tide, the sports teams of the University of Alabama* Crimson Tide , a 1995 American thriller...
football team, he earned the nickname "The Dothan Antelope" and helped his team to become the 1926 NCAA Division I-A national football champions. In that year's Rose Bowl Game
Rose Bowl Game
The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...
, he earned Most Valuable Player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...
honors after scoring two of his team's three touchdowns in an upset win over the heavily favored Washington Huskies
Washington Huskies
Washington Huskies is the nickname of the University of Washington's athletic teams. The school is a member of the Pacific-12 Conference. The athletic program is made up of 9 men's sports and 10 women's sports Washington Huskies is the nickname of the University of Washington's athletic teams. The...
. While at The University of Alabama, Brown became an initiated member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
Film career
His good looks and powerful physique saw him portrayed on Wheaties cereal boxes and in 1927, brought an offer for motion picture screen tests that resulted in a long and successful career in Hollywood. He played silent film star Mary PickfordMary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
's love interest in her first talkie, Coquette
Coquette (film)
-Plot:Norma Besant, daughter of a Southern doctor, is an incorrigible flirt and has many suitors. Her father Dr. Besant favors Stanley , who is taken with Norma. However Norma has met a simple man named Michael Jeffrey who she has fallen madly in love with. Dr. Besant disapproves of Michael...
(1929), for which Pickford won an Oscar.
He appeared in minor roles until 1930 when he was cast as the star in a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
entitled Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (1930 film)
Billy the Kid is a 1930 American film directed in widescreen by King Vidor about the relationship between frontier outlaw Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett , the man who later killed him.-Cast:...
and directed by King Vidor
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
. An early widescreen film (along with Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
's The Big Trail
The Big Trail
The Big Trail is a lavish early widescreen movie shot on location across the American West starring John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh....
with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, produced the same year), the movie also features Wallace Beery
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
. Brown was billed over Beery, who would become the studio's highest paid actor within the next three years. Also in 1930, Brown played Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
's love interest in Montana Moon
Montana Moon
Montana Moon is a 1930 film starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown , and Ricardo Cortez.-Plot:Joan Prescott, , a vacuous daughter of a wealthy, Montana rancher, meets Larry , a Texas cowboy. Joan and Larry fall for one another and are engaged...
. Brown went on to make several more top-flight movies under the name John Mack Brown, including The Secret Six
The Secret Six
For the DC comic book see Secret Six .The Secret Six is a fast-paced 1931 Pre-Code crime film starring Wallace Beery as "Slaughterhouse Scorpio", a character very loosely based on Al Capone, and featuring Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Marjorie Rambeau and Ralph Bellamy. ...
(1931) with Wallace Beery
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
, Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
, and Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, as well as the legendary Lost Generation
Lost Generation
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to...
celebration of alcohol, The Last Flight (1931), and was being groomed by MGM as a leading man until being abruptly replaced on Laughing Sinners
Laughing Sinners
Laughing Sinners Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in a story about a cafe entertainer who experiences spiritual redemption. The dialogue by Martin Flavin was based upon the play, Torch Song by Kenyon Nicholson. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont...
in 1931, with all his scenes reshot, substituting rising star Clark Gable in his place.
Rechristened "Johnny Mack Brown" in the wake of this extremely serious career downturn, he made exclusively low budget westerns and eventually became one of the screen's top B-movie cowboy stars, making 127 western films during his career, including Ride 'Em Cowboy
Ride 'Em Cowboy
Ride 'Em Cowboy is a 1942 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.-Plot:The author of best-selling western novels, Bronco Bob Mitchell , has never set foot in the west. A newspaper article has exposed this fact to his fans, and his image is suffering because of it. He decides to make...
with Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
. A fan of Mexican music, he showcased the talents of guitarist Francisco Mayorga and The Guadalajara Trio in films like Boss of Bullion City and The Masked Rider
The Masked Rider
The Masked Rider is the primary mascot of Texas Tech University. It is the oldest of the university's mascots still in existence today. Originally called "Ghost Rider", it was an unofficial mascot appearing in a few games in 1936 and then became the official mascot with the 1954 Gator Bowl. The...
. Brown also starred in four serials
Serial (film)
Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...
for Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
(Rustlers of Red Dog
Rustlers of Red Dog
Rustlers of Red Dog is a Universal movie serial based on the book The Great West That Was by William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. It was a remake of the earlier, 1930 serial The Indians are Coming-Cast:* Johnny Mack Brown as Jack Wood...
, Wild West Days
Wild West Days
Wild West Days is a Universal film serial based on a western novel by W. R. Burnett. It was the 103rd of the studio's 137 serials .-Plot:...
, Flaming Frontiers
Flaming Frontiers
Flaming Frontiers is a Universal movie serial. This was a remake of Heroes of the West . It was re-edited into a TV series in 1966.-Production:...
and The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail (1939 serial)
The Oregon Trail is a Universal movie serial.-Plot:Jeff Scott is sent to investigate problems with wagon trains attempting to make the journey to Oregon...
) and was a hero to millions of young children at movie theaters and on their television screens.
When the B-Western genre dropped sharply in box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
popularity, Johnny Mack Brown went into retirement in 1953. He returned more than ten years later to appear in secondary roles in a few Western films. Altogether, Brown appeared in over 160 movies between 1927 and 1966, as well as a smattering of television shows, in a career spanning almost forty years.
Personal life
Brown was married to Cornelia "Connie" Foster from 1926 to his death in 1974, and they had four children. A recent biography of actor Clark Gable lists Brown as one of Gable's sexual partners; according to this source, Gable "outed" Brown in an effort to prevent himself from being "outed." An accusation, or perception, of homosexuality might help account for the sudden downturn in Brown's film career.Awards
In recognition of his contribution to the motion picture industry, Brown was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6101 Hollywood Blvd. In 1969, Brown was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame is a state museum located in Birmingham, Alabama, dedicated to communicating the state’s athletic history...
.
Death
Brown died in Woodland Hills, California of heart failureCongestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
at the age of 70. Brown's cremated remains are interred in an outdoor Columbarium, in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
.