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Clarence Brown
Brown in 1921
Born	Clarence Leon Brown (1890-05-10)May 10, 1890 Clinton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 17, 1987(1987-08-17) (aged 97) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Years active	1915–1953
Spouse(s)	Paul Herndon Pratt (m. 1913; div. 1920) Ona Wilson (m. 1922; div. 1927) Mona Maris (m. 1929; div. 1931) Alice Joyce (m. 1933; div. 1945) Marian Spies (m. 1946)
Children	1

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

Early life

Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, the son of Larkin Harry Brown (1866–1942) a cotton manufacturer and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw) (1865–1954), Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School^[1] and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

Career

After serving in World War I, 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 MGM, where he stayed until the mid-1950s. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their female stars; he directed Joan Crawford six times and Greta Garbo seven.

He was nominated five times (see below) for the Academy Award as a director and once as a producer, but he never received an Oscar. However, he won Best Foreign Film for Anna Karenina, starring Garbo at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival.^[5]

Brown's films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars. Brown himself received six Academy Award nominations 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.^[6] 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.^[7] He holds the record for most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director without a win, with six.^[8]

Personal life

Clarence Brown was married four times. Firstly in 1913 to Paul Herndon Pratt (1894-1966) which lasted from 1913 until their divorce in 1920. The couple produced a daughter Adrienne Brown (1917-2013). Secondly, Brown married Ona Wilson (1884-1960) which lasted from 1922 until their divorce in 1927. He was engaged several times: most notably to Dorothy Sebastian and Mona Maris (although he did not marry either). In an interview with Alfonso Pinto, published in 1980, Maris admitted that she had broken off her engagement to Brown. Brown married his third wife, Alice Joyce (1890-1955), in 1933 and they divorced in 1945. Lastly, Clarence Brown married Marian Spies (1910-2004) from 1946 which lasted until his death in 1987.

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.^[9] He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.^[10]

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^[11][12]

Selected filmography

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.

• 
  Trilby (1915)


• 
  The Law of the Land (1917)


• 
  The Blue Bird (1918)


• 
  The Great Redeemer (1920)


• 
  The Last of the Mohicans (1920)


• 
  The Foolish Matrons (1921)


• 
  The Light in the Dark (1922)


• 
  Don't Marry for Money (1923)


• 
  The Acquittal (1923)


• 
  The Signal Tower (1924)


• 
  Butterfly (1924)


• 
  The Eagle (1925)


• 
  The Goose Woman (1925)


• 
  Smouldering Fires (1925)


• 
  Flesh and the Devil (1926)


• 
  Kiki (1926)


• 
  A Woman of Affairs (1928)


• 
  The Trail of '98 (1929)


• 
  Navy Blues (1929)


• 
  Wonder of Women (1929)


• 
  Anna Christie (1930) - Academy Award nomination for Best Director^[a]


• 
  Romance (1930) - Academy Award nomination for Best Director^[b]


• 
  Inspiration (1931)


• 
  Possessed (1931)


• 
  A Free Soul (1931) - Academy Award nomination for Best Director


• 
  Emma (1932)


• 
  Letty Lynton (1932)


• 
  The Son-Daughter (1932)


• 
  Looking Forward (1933)


• 
  Night Flight (1933)


• 
  Sadie McKee (1934)


• 
  Chained (1934)


• 
  Ah, Wilderness! (1935)


• 
  Anna Karenina (1935)


• 
  Wife vs. Secretary (1936)


• 
  The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)


• 
  Conquest (1937)


• 
  Of Human Hearts (1938)


• 
  Idiot's Delight (1939)


• 
  The Rains Came (1939)


• 
  Edison, the Man (1940)


• 
  Come Live with Me (1941)


• 
  They Met in Bombay (1941)


• 
  The Human Comedy (1943) - Academy Award nominations for Best Director and for Best Picture


• 
  The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)


• 
  National Velvet (1944) - Academy Award nomination for Best Director


• 
  The Yearling (1946) - Academy Award nomination for Best Director


• 
  Song of Love (1947)


• 
  Intruder in the Dust (1949)


• 
  To Please a Lady (1950)


• 
  Angels in the Outfield (1951)


• 
  When in Rome (1952)


• 
  Plymouth Adventure (1952)

Notes

References

Sources

• 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)


• 
  Young, Gwenda (April 2003). "Star Maker: The Career of Clarence Brown". Sight and Sound. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2007-05-14.
  


• 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)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clarence Brown.

• 
  Clarence Brown on IMDb


• 
  "An Extraordinary Town - Clinton, Massachusetts" (a book on Brown's birthplace, with an extensive section on Brown), extraordinarytown.com


• 
  Information available on the actual dates and nominations, plus commentary on the nominations for multiple roles/films in 1929/1930, oscars.org


• 
  Clarence Brown profile, virtual-history.com