- Born
- Birth nameClarence John Brown III
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- A tall, wavy-haired US actor with a deep, resonant voice, Clancy Brown has proven himself a versatile performer with first-class contributions to theatre, feature films, television series and even animation.
Clarence J. Brown III was born in 1959 in Urbana, Ohio, to Joyce Helen (Eldridge), a concert pianist, conductor, and composer, and Clarence J. "Bud" Brown, Jr., who helped manage the Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper started by Clancy's grandfather, Clarence J. Brown. Clancy's father and grandfather were also Republican congressmen from the same Ohio district, and Clancy spent much of his youth in close proximity to Washington, D.C. He plied his dramatic talents in the Chicago theatre scene before moving onto feature film with a sinister debut performance bullying Sean Penn inside a youth reformatory in Bad Boys (1983). He portrayed Viktor the Monster in the unusual spin on the classic Frankenstein story in The Bride (1985), before scoring one of his best roles to date as the evil Kurgan hunting fellow immortals Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery across four centuries of time in Highlander (1986).
Brown played a corrupt American soldier in the Walter Hill-directed hyper-violent action film Extreme Prejudice (1987), another deranged killer in Shoot to Kill (1988) and a brutal prison guard, who eventually somewhat "befriends" wrongfully convicted banker Tim Robbins, in the moving The Shawshank Redemption (1994). His superb vocal talents were in demand, and he contributed voices to animated series, including Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1995), Street Sharks (1994), Gargoyles (1994) and Superman: The Animated Series (1996). Brown then landed two more plum roles, one as a "tough-as-nails" drill sergeant in the science fiction thriller Starship Troopers (1997), and the other alongside Robin Williams in the Disney comedy Flubber (1997).
The video gaming industry took notice of Clancy's vocal abilities, too, and he has contributed voices to several top selling video games, including Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (2001), Lands of Lore III (1999), Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2002) and Crash Nitro Kart (2003). His voice is also the character of cranky crustacean Mr. Eugene H. Krabs in the highly successful SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) animated series and films, and he contributed voices to The Batman (2004), Jackie Chan Adventures (2000) and Justice League (2001) animated series. A popular and friendly personality, Clancy Brown continues to remain busy both through his vocal and acting talents in Hollywood.- IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com
- SpouseJeanne Johnson(June 26, 1993 - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenRose Beth BrownJames Ransom Johnson-Brown
- ParentsJoyce Helen EldridgeClarence J. Brown Jr.
- RelativesCongressman Clarence J. Brown(Grandparent)Catherine Helen McKinney Brown(Sibling)Roy Eldridge Brown(Sibling)Elizabeth Ellen Brown(Sibling)
- Deep commanding voice
- Often plays menacing, sinister villains
- Towering height
- Due to his role of Kurgan in Highlander (1986), his voice was featured on the Queen song "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)". An alternate version appeared in the film itself, but samples of his voice are included on the 1986 studio album "A Kind of Magic".
- In 1999, he spearheaded a charity campaign to raise funds for J. Madison Wright, the young girl who played his screen daughter on the television series Earth 2 (1994). Madison, then aged 15, had developed cardiomyopathy and was in dire need of a heart transplant, a very costly operation which exceeded her family's lifetime health insurance policy. Clancy offered to assist the Wrights in their plight. He also bought young Madison a laptop computer for Christmas in 1999. Tragically, Madison died seven years later, in July 2006, of a heart attack.
- Both his grandfather (Clarence J. Brown) and father (Clarence J. Brown Jr.) were United States Representatives from the 7th District of Ohio. Clarence J. Brown served from 1939-65 and Clarence J. Brown Jr. from 1965-83. Both men also ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Ohio.
- Describes himself as an avid reader who particularly enjoys the works of Frank Herbert.
- Is a patron of the Beth Brown Memorial Fund, a scholarship programme designed to assist poorer students who wish to study in the field of paediatric healthcare. The charity is in honour of his elder sister who died in childhood of leukaemia in 1964. It has since expanded to also offer the Clarence J. Brown Scholarship for students interested in pursuing careers in government and public service as well as the Robert Townsley Scholarship for students of journalism.
- [on the making of Highlander (1986)] For the scene we did in the church there could have been a wonderful dialogue - "God, this doesn't compare to the Greek Orthodox Church", or "I liked it better when they did it in Latin", or any type of thing. There's all sorts of twists that could have been done. I like the little twists like that because they make the audience think. "Highlander" still has its action and everything, but that's really all we went for here, the good guy/bad guy, cops-and-robbers type of thing.
- [on The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)] I think it could have done well, but it got mixed up in one of those Hollywood studio game things, where they all change places. Buckaroo Banzai was just so strange that nobody really knew how to approach it. It really is way ahead of its time.
- All the movies where I play nice guys don't seem to do very well.
- I have a big voice so I do all the little boy cartoons.
- It used to be that a son could look at the father, and pretty much know what life was gonna be like as an adult. There was confidence in that, and comfort in that, and frustration also.
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