Joe E. Brown

In March 2020, he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy", by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 68-69. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Joe Evans Brown passed away on July 6, 1973, only three weeks away from what would have been his 81st birthday on July 28.

Joe E. Brown's son Joe L. Brown became a baseball executive and is best known for being the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the period when they won the World Series in 1960.

He starred as the clown in the drama The Buick Circus Hour (1952) from 1952 to 1953 and made guest appearances on a number of other shows in the 1950s and early 1960s. His peers regarded him as one of the few truly nice people in Hollywood.

Even though he gave a good performance, it would be another three years before he was again on the big screen, in the big-budget 1951 remake of Show Boat (1951), in which he played Cap'n Andy Hawks. When his film career became almost nonexistent, Joe worked on radio and in television.

Bowling Green State University dedicated one of its three theaters to him (the one in which he appeared in "Harvey" in the 1950s) as The Joe E. Brown Theatre.

His first movie role in three years was as a small-town minister in the drama The Tender Years (1948).

In 1947 Joe was back in the biz and back on stage in a road company tour of the comedy "Harvey".

In 1944, his daughter Mary Katherine was injured in a car accident and near death. There were so many other car accidents that night that there were not enough doctors at the hospital to care for her. Brown ran around the hospital trying to find someone to help him until finally a doctor, tired and ready to go home, recognized Brown and agreed to help his doctor. He treated her for seven hours, saving her life.

He and his wife renewed their wedding vows on December 24, 1940. His oldest son Don gave away the bride, second son Joe was best man, and the daughters were flower girls. Daughter-in-law Virginia Newport Brown was the maid of honor.

In December 1939, his daughter Kathryn suffered a skull fracture when she was thrown from a horse. Three days later, Brown was in a car accident in where his car rolled over several times and fell down a 35 foot embankment. He ended up breaking his back and collapsing a lung. His heart stopped during surgery and he was clinically dead for 40 seconds.

In 1937, he left Warners to make films for David L. Loew, and it was a disaster. Most of the films were cheaply made with poor production values, and only a few were successful.

Two of the better ones were Riding on Air (1937) and The Gladiator (1938). Brown always called signing with Loew his biggest professional mistake, and with Loew his popularity fell.

Playing the flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Brown ad-libbed, "I won't play any more" when thrown into a lake. It always got a good laugh, but it is said to be the only non-Shakespeare bit of dialogue in the film.

Two of his biggest hits also involved the game of baseball, Elmer, the Great (1933) and Alibi Ike (1935). In his contract with Warners, he had it written that he would have his own baseball team at the studio to play when he was able.

Joe was one of the top ten moneymaking stars for 1933 and 1936.

As he had briefly played semi-pro baseball, he was a natural for films like Fireman, Save My Child! (1932), in which he played a pitcher who was also a fireman.

In Local Boy Makes Good (1931), Joe played a botanist who becomes a track star.

By the end of the 1930s he was working in "B" material, which would have been unimaginable less than five years earlier. With the advent of World War II, Joe worked tirelessly to entertain the troops while his film career floundered. Their enthusiastic response enabled Joe to overcome the death of his son, Captain Donald Brown, on a training flight.

He didn't register with the public until he signed with Warner Brothers in 1929 to do comedy roles in the film adaptations of Broadway shows such as Sally (1929) and Top Speed (1930). Joe would be well known for his loud yell, his infectious grin and his cavernous mouth. Since many of his films revolved around sports, his natural athletic ability, combined with the physical comedy, made them hits.

Hired for a non-comedy role in The Circus Kid (1928), he played a lion tamer whose fate is death.

In 1920 he debuted on Broadway in an all-star review called "Jim Jam Jems".

As he developed skits and comedy routines throughout the 1920s, he built up his confidence and his popularity soared. The same could not be said for his debut in movies.

Had four children: two sons, Don Evan (born December 25, 1916) and Joe L. Brown, and two daughters, Mary Katherine Ann (born 1930) and Kathryn Francis (born 1934). Both daughters were adopted as infants.

Joe E. Brown happily claimed that he was the only youngster in show business who ran away from home to join the circus with the blessings of his parents. In 1902, the ten-year-old Brown joined a circus tumbling act called the Five Marvellous Ashtons that toured various circuses and vaudeville theaters. Joe later began adding comedy bits into his vaudeville act and added more as it became popular.

Brown was a member of The Lambs, an actors club established in New York City in 1874. He joined The Lambs in 1924 and was later made a Life Member.