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Tod Browning Poster

Tod Browning

Biography

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Jump to: Overview (4)  | Mini Bio (1)  | Spouse (2)  | Trivia (9)  | Salary (2)

Overview (4)

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Died in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA  (cancer)
Birth NameCharles Albert Browning
Height 5' 9¾" (1.77 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916). Working later on as a director, he had his first success with The Unholy Three (1925) (after about 25 unimportant pictures) which had his typical style of a mixture of fantasy, mystery and horror. His biggest hit was the classic Dracula (1931), in which he also appears as the voice of the harbor master.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm

Spouse (2)

Alice Wilson (9 June 1911 - 12 May 1944) ( her death)
Amy Louise Stevens (1906 - 1910) ( divorced)

Trivia (9)

First wife, Amy Louise Stevens, was William Collier Jr.'s aunt.
He grew up in Louisville. His father (Charles) was the brother of "Old" Pete Browning, who was a 3 time batting champ who stole 103 bases in 1887. Pete's commissioning of a bat provided the start of the Hillerich & Bradsby bat company, famous for their Louisville Slugger model. The eccentric Pete drank heavily, apparently due to a chronic mastoid infection, and his catchphrase was "I can't hit the ball, unless I hit the bottle.".
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 66-71. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Former circus contortionist.
Mentioned in David Bowie's song "Diamond Dogs", which was re-recorded by Beck and Timbaland for Moulin Rouge! (2001).
In the early morning hours of June 16, 1915, Browning was seriously injured when his car collided with a freight train in Downtown Los Angeles. The crash killed one of his passengers, actor Elmer Booth, and injured another, actor George Siegmann. An initial police investigation stated that the train operators claimed Browning was at fault for failing to observe the railway signals, but no legal action was taken.
In 1944, an obituary for Browning was mistakenly published in the trade paper "Variety". Browning had retired from films in 1939 and was living in seclusion, but to paraphrase author Mark Twain, reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. He died at 82 in 1962.
According to author Steve Massa, during the 'teens while under the supervision of D.W. Griffith at Reliance/Majestic, Browning was a knockabout comedian appearing in Komic Comedies.
He has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932).

Salary (2)

The Unholy Three (1925) $6,500
West of Zanzibar (1928) $45,000

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