Johnny Mack Brown

At 70 years old, Johnny Mack Brown has this physical status:

Johnny "Mack" Brown (September 1, 1904 – November 14, 1974) was an American college football player and film actor who was originally known as John Mack Brown during his film career.

He was mostly in Western films.

Early life

Brown, a boy of Ed and Mattie Brown, one of eight siblings, was born and raised in Dothan, Alabama. His parents were shopkeepers. He was a member of the high school football team and received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. In 1925, Tolbert "Red" Brown, his little brother, appeared on "Mack."

He sold insurance and later mentored the freshman running backs on the University of Alabama's football team after he graduated from college.

Brown became an initiated member of Kappa Sigma fraternity while attending the University of Alabama.

Brown, coached by Wallace Wade, was a key halfback on his university's Crimson Tide football team. He earned the nickname "The Dothan Antelope" and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Pop Warner called him "one of the fastest football players I've ever seen."

Only Center Michael Rushton was able to play. Brown appeared in the loss of Georgia Tech.

Brown was a member of the 1925 Alabama Crimson Tide football team and won the national championship. He received Most Valuable Player awards in this year's Rose Bowl after scoring two of his team's three touchdowns in an upset victory over the highly favored Washington Huskies. The 1925 Crimson Tide became the first southern team to win a Rose Bowl. The game is often described as "the game that changed the south." Brown was selected All-Southern.

Personal life

Brown was married to Cornelia "Connie" Foster from 1926 to his death in 1974, and they had four children.

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Film career

Brown's good looks and strong physique saw him on Wheaties cereal boxes and in 1927, causing a long and fruitful career in Hollywood. He also signed a five-year deal with Metro-Goldwyn–Mayer in the same year. In her first talkie, Coquette (1929), for which Pickford received an Oscar, he played silent film actress Mary Pickford's love interest.

He appeared in minor roles until 1930, when he was cast as the lead in a Western called Billy the Kid and directed by King Vidor. Wallace Beery plays Pat Garrett in this early widescreen film (along with Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail starring John Wayne, which was released the same year) as an early widescreen film. Brown was billed over Beery, who would be MGM's highest-paid actor within three years. Brown also played Joan Crawford's love affair in Montana Moon in 1930. Brown went on to produce several more top-flight films under the name John Mack Brown, including The Secret Six (1931) with Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, and Clark Gable, and MGM's historic Lost Generation celebration of alcohol, The Last Flight (1931), and he was being groomed by MGM as a leading man before being recalled on Laughing Sinners in 1931, substituting rising actor Clark Gable in his place. He was being tested by MGM and director Woody Van Dyke for the lead role of Tarzan the Ape Man, but Van Dyke didn't think he was tall enough.

In the aftermath of this serious career downturn, he produced low-budget westerns for independent producers, but he never recovered his former stardom. He went on to be one of the best B-movie cowboys on film and became a well-known celebrity at Universal Pictures in 1937. After appearing in four serials before, he started a series of 29 B-westerns over the next four years, with Fuzzy Knight co-starring him, and the last seven teamsing him with Tex Ritter. This is the pinnacle of his B-western career, thanks in large part to the studio's high success; Son of Roaring Dan, Raiders of San Joaquin, and The Lone Star Trail are among Son of Roaring Dan's most notable titles; the latter features a young Robert Mitchum as the muscle heavy. In films including Boss of Bullion City and The Masked Rider, Brown showcased the talents of guitarist Francisco Mayorga and The Guadala Trio. Brown appeared in a 1933 Mascot Pictures serial Combat with Kit Carson, as well as four Universal serials (Rustlers of Red Dog, Wild West Days, Flaming Frontiers, and The Oregon Trail).

Brown returned to Monogram Pictures in 1943 to replace Buck Jones, the studio's cowboy, who had died months before. Brown's Monogram film was immediately popular, and he appeared in more than 60 westerns in the next ten years, including a 20-movie film starring Buck Jones' (and earlier Wallace Beery's) old sidekick Raymond Hatton in 1943's (and earlier Wallace Beery's) old sidekick Raymond Hatton. Brown appeared in two higher-budgeted dramas, Forever Yours and Flame of the West, which were both released by Monogram in 1945, and they both credit the actor under his old "A-picture" name, John Mack Brown.

Johnny Mack Brown faded from television when Monogram dropped its brand name in 1952 (in favor of its expanded division, Allied Artists). He returned more than ten years later to appear in second roles in a handful of Western films. Brown appeared in more than 160 films between 1927 and 1966, as well as a smattering of television shows, in a career that spanned nearly 40 years.

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