JOHNNY MACK BROWN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Johnny Mack Brown, born September 1, 1904, was a successful American actor, typecast as a movie cowboy. While attending the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, which he got into due to a football scholarship, Brown helped his team win the 1926 NCAA Division I-A national football champions. Because of his achievements while on the team, and also his built physique and good looks, Brown was featured on Wheaties cereal boxes. This exposure, plus a request made by his college friend, led him to do motion picture screen tests, and thus he signed with Metro Goldwyn Meyer (MGM) in 1927.
His debut was in the baseball flick “Slide, Kelly, Slide” (1927) with William Haines. Following, Brown appeared in “The Bugle Call” (1927) starring Jackie Coogan. He then shifted his focus to silent films, in which he started to gain more recognition. He began actually starring in these films, alongside some of MGM’s greatest female actresses at the time like Greta Garbo in “A Woman of Affairs” (1928), “The Divine Woman” (1928), and “The Single Standard” (1929), Joan Crawford in “Our Dancing Daughters” (1928), “Montana Moon” (1930), and “Great Day” (1930), as well as Norma Shearer in “After Midnight” (1927) and “A Lady of Chance” (1928).
By 1930, however, Brown’s shine at MGM started to fade, for the executives believed his strong southern accent to be unsuitable for main speaking roles, and silent films were dying out. His accent did have a place though, Brown soon found out, for it proved to be useful in the western genre. In 1930, he nabbed the lead in his most notable film, the western “Billy the Kid”. In this adaptation of the Billy the Kid legend, Billy (Brown) tries to escape punishment for shooting a criminal. After this role, he went on to appear in several successful flicks, not limited to “The Secret Six” (1931) and “The Last Flight” (1931). In 1932, MGM let the actor go, for his contract had expired. Nonetheless, Brown continued to be seen in movies produced by Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal Studios up until 1935, but usually only in supporting roles. Some of his characters from that time include Alan Berry in “Saturday’s Millions” (1933) and Jim Warren in “Missouri Nightingale” (1934). Nevertheless, he still found his way as the lead in some films like confident young firefighter Charlie in “Flames” (1932) and victim/hero Kit Carson in “Fighting with Kit Carson” (1933).
By 1935, Brown was craving more screen time, and so he signed with the lower budget Supreme Pictures to do some more western flicks as the lead. Later on, in 1937, he signed with Universal, and then Monogram Pictures in 1943. He became so accustomed to the ‘wild west’ type of movie that he rarely appeared in any other genre. Eventually, he developed into one of the screen’s most notable grade-B movie cowboy stars, being involved in one hundred twenty seven western films over his entire career. Some of these westerners include “Rogue of the Range” (1936), “Guns in the Dark” (1937), and “Oklahoma Frontier” (1939). He also starred in a Universal movie series as the starring role, which was comprised of “Rustlers of Red Dog” (1935), “Wild West Days” (1937), “Flaming Frontiers” (1938), and “The Oregon Trail” (1939). Additionally, he was one of the top earning western film actors from 1942-50. The actors long career in the genre ended in 1953 with “The Marshal’s Daughter”, as the ‘B’ westerns were decreasing in popularity at the box office. Since his typecast role was not needed as much, he decided to dip his toes in television beginning in 1953 with “This is Your Life: Pat O’Brien” for one episode. He appeared on TV three more times in 1958, but never stayed with a show for more than one episode.
Brown did not act again until 1965 when he was in his final three westerners. He depicted secondary characters as Enkoff in “Requiem for a Gunfighter”, Sheriff Green in “The Bounty Killer”, and Sheriff Ben Hall in “Apache Uprising”.
The actor sadly met his demise on November 14, 1974 at age seventy due to heart failure. He died however with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to commemorate him for his contributions to the motion picture industry. Furthermore, in his hometown of Dothan, Alabama, a film festival is held annually to celebrate his achievements and life.
Filmography
1966 Apache Uprising
1965 The Bounty Killer
1965 Requiem for a Gunfighter
1958 Tales of Wells Fargo: Scapegoat
1958 Perry Mason: The Case of the Daring Decoy
1958 Official Detective: Hired Killer
1953 The Marshal's Daughter
1953 This is Your Life: Pat O’Brien
1952 Dead Man's Trail
1952 Canyon Ambush
1952 Texas City
1952 The Man from Black Hills
1951 Texas Lawmen
1951 Whistling Hills
1951 Oklahoma Justice
1951 Colorado Ambush
1951 Montana Desperado
1950 Outlaw Gold
1950 Over the Border
1950 Law of the Panhandle
1950 Short Grass
1950 West of Wyoming
1949 Trail's End
1949 West of El Dorado
1949 Hidden Danger
1949 Stampede
1949 Range Justice
1949 Western Renegades
1949 Law of the West
1948 Gunning for Justice
1948 Gun Talk
1948 Back Trail
1948 Frontier Agent
1948 The Fighting Ranger
1948 Crossed Trails
1947 Raiders of the South
1947 Prairie Express
1947 Land of the Lawless
1947 Code of the Saddle
1947 Flashing Guns
1946 Gentleman from Texas
1946 Border Bandits
1946 Under Arizona Skies
1946 Drifting Along
1945 The Lost Trail
1945 The Navajo Trail
1945 Forever Yours
1945 Flame of the West
1945 Frontier Feud
1944 Ghost Guns
1944 Land of the Outlaws
1944 The Texas Kid
1944 Partners of the Trail
1944 Range Law
1944 Raiders of the Border
1944 Law Men
1944 Law of the Valley
1943 The Lone Star Trail
1943 Outlaws of Stampede Pass
1943 The Stranger from Pecos
1943 Six-Gun Gospel
1943 Old Chisholm Trail
1943 Cheyenne Roundup
1943 Tenting Tonight On the Old Camp Ground
1943 Raiders of San Joaquin
1942 Ride 'Em Cowboy
1942 Little Joe, the Wrangler
1942 Boss of Hangtown Mesa
1942 Fighting Bill Fargo
1942 Stagecoach Buckaroo
1942 The Silver Bullet
1942 Deep in the Heart of Texas
1941 The Masked Rider
1941 Rawhide Rangers
1941 Law of the Range
1941 Man from Montana
1941 Boss of Bullion City
1941 Arizona Cyclone
1941 Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie
1940 Chip of the Flying U
1940 West of Carson City
1940 Law and Order
1940 Bad Man from Red Butte
1940 Riders of Pasco Basin
1940 Ragtime Cowboy Joe
1940 Pony Post
1940 Son of Roaring Dan
1939 Oklahoma Frontier
1939 Desperate Trails
1937 Wells Fargo
1937 Trail Of Vengeance
1937 A Lawman Is Born
1937 Lawless Land
1937 Boothill Brigade
1937 Desert Phantom
1937 Guns in the Dark
1937 Born To the West
1937 Bar Z Bad Men
1937 The Gambling Terror
1936 Undercover Man
1936 The Crooked Trail
1936 Everyman’s Law
1936 Rogue of the Range
1936 Desert Phantom
1936 Valley of the Lawless
1935 The Courageous Avenger
1935 Between Men
1935 Starlit Days at the Lido
1935 Branded a Coward
1935 The Rustlers of Red Dog
1934 Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
1934 Against the Law
1934 Belle of the Nineties
1934 Cross Streets
1934 Marrying Widows
1934 Missouri Nightingale
1934 Three on a Honeymoon
1933 Son of a Sailor
1933 Female
1933 Saturday's Millions
1933 Fighting with Kit Carson
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. A-9
1933 Malay Nights
1932 70,000 Witnesses
1932 The Vanishing Frontier
1932 Flames
1931 Hollywood Halfbacks
1931 Lasca of the Rio Grande
1931 The Last Flight
1931 The Secret Six
1931 The Great Meadow
1930 Billy the Kid
1930 The Voice of Hollywood No. 15
1930 The Voice of Hollywood No. 7
1930 The Voice of Hollywood No. 10
1930 Montana Moon
1930 Undertow
1930 Great Day
1929 Jazz Heaven
1929 Hurricane
1929 The Single Standard
1929 The Valiant
1929 Coquette
1928 A Woman of Affairs
1928 A Lady of Chance
1928 Annapolis
1928 Our Dancing Daughters
1928 The Play Girl
1928 Square Crooks
1928 Soft Living
1928 The Divine Woman
1927 The Fair Co-Ed
1927 After Midnight
1927 Mockery
1927 The Bugle Call
1927 Slide, Kelly, Slide
