Joe E. Brown

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Evans Brown (born July 28, 1891 in Holgate , Ohio - † July 6, 1973 in Brentwood , California ) was an American comedian , actor and baseball player . In the 1930s and 1940s, Brown was one of America's most popular comedians with his wide mouth as a trademark. He is especially popular with German-speaking audiences through the role of the lustful millionaire Osgood Fielding III. in Some Like It Hot remembered.

Joe E. Brown in Japan (1924)

life and career

1892–1928: Early life and theater career

Joe E. Brown was born in a small Midwestern town to Mathias and Anna Brown. He was the third of seven children. Brown's exact date of birth is disputed, while most sources originating from 1892, his grave stone called the year 1891. At the age of nine years, Joe E. Brown began show career by with the permission of his parents a showman group called Five Marvelous Ashton at a level of $ 1.50 per week. These appeared in both circuses and vaudeville theaters. During his travels, he witnessed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , but soon returned to his homeland in Ohio. Through a local amateur team, Brown was indirectly turned into a professional baseball player for a short time and is even said to have received an offer from the New York Yankees , which he turned down to continue his show career. However, he retained his athletic figure even after the end of his active career.

Brown continued his circus career as a member of the Bell-Prevost Trio consisting of Frank Prevost and Joseph Bell , but the rehearsals with the strict Bell were sometimes so hard that Brown broke his leg. On the advice of Frank Prevost, he embarked on a burlesque career, where he quickly received praise for his comedic talent. Brown married his childhood sweetheart Kathryn (1892–1977) on December 24, 1915 and had four children with her, including two sons of their own, Don Brown (1916–1942) and Joe L. Brown (1918–2010), long-time transfer manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates . They later adopted the girls Mary (* 1930) and Kathryn (* 1934) when they were infants. The couple's marriage turned out to be very happy, and they both renewed their vows in 1940. Their son Don was the groom of the bride, Joe the best man, and the two daughters the flower maids. After Brown had a family, he worked in a car factory as well as at a bowling alley. However, he found his way back into show business through advice from Frank Prevost.

He achieved his breakthrough around 1920 with the title role in the play Listen Lester . A second success with the piece Jim Jam Jems increased his fee to $ 1,000 a week by 1921. Other pieces with Brown - mostly musicals or comedies - were also successful.

1928–1939: Film career in Hollywood

Joe E. Brown made his first film appearance in 1928 in the short film Twinkle, twinkle from 1928, a film adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name with Brown. He decided to pursue a film career and initially appeared in a number of lavish musical films , for example Cilly with Marilyn Miller or Warner Brothers second color film On with the Show , both from 1929. He quickly became a popular leading actor in comedies and received at times $ 100,000 for a film. Brown mostly played lovable losers in his films - often average guys who have to face special challenges. Brown's trademark was his exceptionally wide mouth, which has also been parodied in cartoons such as Mother Goose Goes Hollywood . The actor relocated to California because of his film career.

He played basketball players in three films, namely Fireman, Save My Child (1932), Elmer the Great (1933) and Alibi Ike (1935), in the latter of which the young Olivia de Havilland starred in her first film that was released in theaters. In 1935 he played the role of the simple-minded Francis Flute in Max Reinhardt's film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream . Overall, Brown was considered one of America's most successful comedians in the 1930s and toured across the country. In 1932, 1935 and 1936 Brown was one of the ten most commercially successful film stars of the year. However, after some of his films became financial failures, his success waned and he made only smaller films.

In December 1939, Brown's daughter Kathryn fell from a horse and suffered a fractured skull base. Just three days later, Brown himself had a serious car accident. He overturned several times and fell eleven meters down an embankment. He suffered severe back injuries and his lungs collapsed. During the emergency surgery, his heart stopped beating and he was clinically dead for 40 seconds.

1939–1945: During World War II

Joe E. Brown (center, with a piece of cake) at Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday party (1945)

At the beginning of the Second World War, Brown campaigned for the rescue of 20,000 Jewish children from Germany; he himself adopted two of these children. While he was too old to go to war himself, his sons fought there. Brown's son Don E. Brown died during a flight exercise in Palm Springs in 1942 when his plane crashed.

Joe E. Brown was a busy entertainer in the American Army, and his travels have taken him to the Caribbean and Alaska, among other places. He was also a member of the Hollywood Canteen and other projects. After the war, he was one of only two civilians to be awarded the Bronze Star , a high military order, and was a welcome guest at celebrations in the White House .

The American General Douglas MacArthur said of the comedian's services: "No man, whether in the USA or abroad, has done more for our soldiers than Joe E. Brown."

1945–1973: Late career and death

Joe E. Brown received a Special Tony Award in 1948 for his portrayal of the title role in the Broadway hit My Friend Harvey , which was made into a film with James Stewart in 1950 . After a long period of abstinence from the screen, he started making films again in the early 1950s. Brown was one of the many stars with a cameo in the Oscar-winning adventure film Around the World in 80 Days from 1956, where he played a station master in Nebraska . In another star-studded film of this type, A total, total crazy world (1963), he also made a brief appearance as a speaker at a construction site. In addition, he starred in many television shows at the time.

He is especially popular with German audiences through the role of the lustful millionaire Osgood Fielding III. in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot known from 1959, who becomes engaged to Jack Lemmon, disguised as a woman, while dancing the tango. Brown also spoke the legendary final sentence of the classic film, Well, Nobody's perfect! (German: So what? Nobody is perfect! ). As "nobody is perfect" it has also become a saying in German. The casting for this role was more of a coincidence, the director Wilder met Brown, who is actually largely retired, at the season opening of the Los Angeles Dodgers and hired him.

Joe E. Brown was a member of the Freemasonry Association and his lodge was Rubicon No.237 in Toledo , Ohio. He was particularly involved with the Shriners in providing free medical care for children. He also became the first president of the nonprofit PONY Baseball and Softball , a charity for disadvantaged children in 1951 , and remained their club president until 1964. In the same year he also made his last of around 70 film and television appearances.

Joe E. Brown died in 1973 of arteriosclerosis after suffering a heart attack in 1968. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Celebrity Cemetery with his son Don and his wife.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : Joe E. Brown  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Joe E. Brown Page of Father Joe
  2. Joe E. Brown in Depauw
  3. Joe E. Brown Page of Father Joe
  4. ^ The Holocaust Chronicle. Publications International Ltd., 2000; P. 162.
  5. Capt. Don E. Brown In: Chicago Tribune Archives (English)
  6. Comedian Joe E. Brown Visits DePauw Campus at depauw.edu (English)
  7. Jump up ↑ Hellmuth Karasek: Billy Wilder - A close-up. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1992, updated and expanded new edition ibid. 2006, ISBN 3-455-09553-4 .
  8. ^ Alison Castle (ed.), Dan Auiler: Billy Wilder's Some like it hot. Taschen, August 2001.
  9. http://www.unitylodge.ca/home/index.php accessed on September 9, 2012 Masons in Hollywood (PDF file)  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.unitylodge.ca