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IMDbPro

James Brown(1920-1992)

  • Actor
  • Soundtrack
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James Brown
Trailer for Route 66: The Complete Series
Play trailer0:47
Route 66 (1960–1964)
3 Videos
44 Photos
James Brown was born March 22, 1920 in the small town of Desdemona, Eastland County, Texas. He graduated from The Desdemona School (grades 1-12), which was built in 1922 (it closed in 1969). Very athletic, Brown became a tennis pro before there was any money in it. He entered films in 1941. Clearly a man of unlimited athletic prowess, he appeared in such rugged Hollywood productions as Wake Island (1942), Air Force (1943), Objective, Burma! (1945) and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). He had more sedate roles in Going My Way (1944), as romantic lead "Ted Haines" (Bing Crosby, who was the star of the film, was a priest and therefore out of the running for the leading lady) and then, in "Sands of Iwo Jima" (with John Wayne), Brown was a U.S. Marine, Pfc. Charlie Bass, a combat veteran and colleague of Wayne's character Sgt. Stryker. In The Pride of St. Louis (1952), a biopic about baseball star Dizzy Dean, Brown played a sidelined ballplayer, "Moose". In Flight Nurse (1953) he played a flight engineer on an aircraft flying a mercy mission. It wasn't long afterward that he began a television career as "Lt. Rip Masters" on TV's The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), which ran from 1954-1958. He then appeared in The Rounders (1966), a western comedy series--billed as James Bowen Brown--as "Luke". In 1976 the "Rin Tin Tin" series was re-released with new sepia-tinted beginnings and endings, with Brown reprising his role as Lt. Rip Masters. Unfortunately, few of his later movies are worth mentioning, though he had a few telling moments as the stern, rifle-toting father of the serial killer "protagonist" in Peter Bogdanovich's Targets (1968).

He retired from acting in the late 1960s to manage his successful body-building equipment concern, and then was appointed head of customer relations at Faberge, a cosmetics firm. When Faberge's filmmaking division, Brut Productions, put together a 1975 comedy titled Whiffs (1975), the producers persuaded Brown to return to acting in a supporting role.

James Brown passed away in 1992 after a long battle with lung cancer.
BornMarch 22, 1920
DiedApril 11, 1992(72)
BornMarch 22, 1920
DiedApril 11, 1992(72)
IMDbProStarmeter
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Photos44

James Brown, Jean Heather, and Gene Lockhart in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown, Jean Heather, and Gene Lockhart in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown and Jean Heather in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown and Jean Heather in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown and Jean Heather in Going My Way (1944)
Bing Crosby, James Brown, and Jean Heather in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown in Going My Way (1944)
Bing Crosby and James Brown in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown and Gene Lockhart in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown in Going My Way (1944)
James Brown, Penny Edwards, and John Gallaudet in Missing Women (1951)
James Brown, Charles Drake, Pat Gleason, Arthur Kennedy, John Ridgely, George Tobias, and Gig Young in Air Force (1943)

Known for

Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, and Risë Stevens in Going My Way (1944)
Going My Way
7.0
  • Ted Haines Jr.
  • 1944
John Wayne, John Agar, and Adele Mara in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Sands of Iwo Jima
7.0
  • Pfc. Charlie Bass
  • 1949
John Garfield, John Ridgely, and Gig Young in Air Force (1943)
Air Force
7.0
  • Lieut. Tex Rader - Pursuit Pilot - Passenger
  • 1943
James Brown, Noreen Nash, Grantland Rice, and Regis Toomey in The Big Fix (1947)
The Big Fix
4.9
  • Ken Williams
  • 1947

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Victoria Principal, Barbara Bel Geddes, Patrick Duffy, Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton, Jim Davis, Linda Gray, and Steve Kanaly in Dallas (1978)
    Dallas
    • ...
  • Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (1984)
    Murder, She Wrote
    • (as James L. Brown)
  • Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox in CHiPs (1977)
    CHiPs
    • (as James L. Brown)
  • Miracle on Ice (1981)
    Miracle on Ice
  • The Rebels (1979)
    The Rebels
  • Robert De Niro in The Swap (1979)
    The Swap
  • Sparrow
  • Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in Starsky and Hutch (1975)
    Starsky and Hutch
  • Edward Asner, Tim Conway, Gary Grimes, Don Knotts, Ronnie Schell, Dick Van Patten, and Louise Williams in Gus (1976)
    Gus
  • Diane Keaton and Elliott Gould in I Will... I Will... For Now (1976)
    I Will... I Will... For Now
  • Richard Pryor and Fred Williamson in Adiós Amigo (1975)
    Adiós Amigo
  • Mean Johnny Barrows (1975)
    Mean Johnny Barrows
  • Barbary Coast (1975)
    Barbary Coast
  • Whiffs (1975)
    Whiffs
  • Bearcats! (1971)
    Bearcats!
    • (as Jim L. Brown)

Soundtrack

  • Edward Burns in Public Morals (2015)
    Public Morals
  • Lee Aaker, James Brown, and Rin Tin Tin II in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954)
    The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
    • ...

Videos3

Blu-ray Trailer
Trailer 2:20
Blu-ray Trailer
Route 66: The Complete Series
Trailer 0:47
Route 66: The Complete Series
Objective, Burma!
Trailer 2:15
Objective, Burma!

Personal details

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    • March 22, 1920
    • Desdemona, Texas, USA
    • April 11, 1992
    • Woodland Hills, California, USA(lung cancer)
    • March 1992 - April 11, 1992 (his death)
  • Other works
    Unsold pilot: Co-starred in a pilot about the adventures of a mini-sub and its crew, called "The Venturers".

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Probably best known for his role as "Lt. Rip Masters" on the popular 1950s TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954). He also got some widespread recognition later in his career for his recurring role as J.R. Ewing's corrupt cop Harry McSween on the prime time series Dallas (1978).

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