Background:

“All the movies where I play nice guys don't seem to do very well.” Clancy Brown

Productive and versatile performer Clancy Brown was first noticed while playing Sean Penn’s toughest nemesis Viking Lofgren in the 1983 hit “Bad Boys” (1983). The 6' 3½” tall, intense, hulking actor was subsequently cast to portray such villain roles as Frankenstein's monster in “The Bride” (1985), Christopher Lambert’s enemy The Kurgan/Victor Kruger in the original “Highlander” movie (1986), a mountain-climbing psychopathic killer in “Shoot to Kill” ( a.k.a. “Deadly Pursuit,” 1988) and a psychotic murderer in “Blue Steel” (1989). From 2003 to 2005, TV viewers could catch him as the sinister preacher Brother Justin Crowe, Nick Stahl's ultimate nemesis, in the HBO series “Carnivàle.” Brown’s other notable roles include Rawhide in the cult classic “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension” (1984), Captain Byron Hadley in “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), Sgt. Zim in “Starship Troopers” (1997) and prison guard Jimmy Williams in “The Hurricane” (1999). His more recent and upcoming film credits include “The Guardian” (2006), “Pathfinder” (2007), “The Burrowers” (2008), “The Express” (2008), “The Informant!” (2009), “A Nightmare on Elm Street”  (2010), “Green Lantern” (2011), “Water & Power” (2012), “Sparks” (2012) and “Nothing to Fear” (2013). Possessing a deep, resonant voice, Brown also provided voice for Lex Luthor in “Superman: The Animated Series,” as Eugene Krabs in “SpongeBob SquarePants” (in both the series and the movie version), as Raiden in “Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm,” Gorrath in “Megas XLR” and Destro in “G.I. Joe: Renegades.”

Although he is often cast as a villain, Brown, the son and grandson of the former Ohio Congressmen, has been described as a very friendly man in real life. He has two children with his wife Jeanne Johnson.


Congressman Son

Childhood and Family:

The son and grandson of the former Ohio Congressmen (Clarence J. “Bud” Brown Jr. & Sr.; both of them were also candidates for governor of Ohio), Clarence J. Brown III was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, Ohio. His father served in Congress for eight terms, making young Clarence spent much of his formative years living near Washington, D.C. He graduated from prestigious St. Albans Prep School in Washington D.C. and earned a track scholarship as a discus hurler to Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he was in the theater program and graduated with a B.S. in Speech in 1981. He was also a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Clarence married Jeanne Johnson in 1993 and the couple have two children. A collector of animation art and an avid reader (he enjoys the works of Frank Herbert), Clarence is a patron of the Beth Brown Memorial Fund, a scholarship program designed to assist poorer students who wish to study in the field of pediatric healthcare. He is also the chairman of the board of Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper business started by his grandfather. He has served on the board since 1987.


On-Screen Enemies

Career:

Being introduced to acting by a neighbor who got him into Shakespeare at a young age, fresh-graduate Clancy Brown found job as a bartender in Chicago while working in local theater. During that time, he played such roles as Jean in August Strindberg's “Miss Julie,” Aaron in Shakespeare's “Titus Andronicus,” and Geisler in Glen DeCosta's “A Constant Wish.”

After several theatrical works, Brown eventually landed on his film debut in 1983 with a role as a menacing portrayal of Viking Lofgren, the toughest nemesis to Sean Penn’s character, in director Rick Rosenthal's juvenile delinquent melodrama “Bad Boys.” He followed it up with a guest role in an episode of CBS classic “The Dukes of Hazzard” and went to star as Rawhide, opposite Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin and Jeff Goldblum in W. D. Richter's science fiction movie, “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.” Clancy Brown (on filming “Buckaroo Banzai”).

In the following year, Brown received good reviews for portraying Viktor, Dr Frankenstein's male monster in “The Bride” (1985; starring Sting and Jennifer Beals), Franc Roddam's adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel “Frankenstein.” The same year, he also had a notable supporting role as Weasel in the J.S. Cardone drama film “Thunder Alley.” Brown delivered a terrifying opponent role as Christopher Lambert’s title role’s villain The Kurgan/Victor Kruger in “Highlander” (1986), director Russell Mulcahy's original saga of an immortal Scotsman.

Recalling the making of “Highlander,” Brown said, “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.”

After making making his first TV movie on CBS’ drama “The Room Upstairs” (1987), Brown played a mountain-climbing psychopathic killer hunted by Tom Berenger and Sidney Poitier's character in Roger Spottiswoode's adventure thriller movie “Shoot to Kill” (a.k.a. “Deadly Pursuit,” 1988) and as a psychotic murderer who romances a policewoman (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) in Kathryn Bigelow's psychological cop flick “Blue Steel” (1989). In 1991, he played a supporting turn as Natasha Richardson's protective co-worker and former boyfriend in “Past Midnight,” a theatrical film which debuted on the USA Network, and as Harry Bordon in the Emmy Award winning comedy film “Cast a Deadly Spell,” directed by Martin Campbell. He then was cast as an abusive stepfather and the resurrected sheriff in Mary Lambert's mean-spirited, gruesome horror “Pet Sematary II”, the sequel to the 1989 film “Pet Sematary” (based on the novel by Stephen King).

Brown had a regular role as John Danziger on the NBC science fiction series “Earth 2,” which ran for a season from November 6, 1994 to June 4, 1995. During that time, he offered a memorable turn as sadistic prison guard Captain Hadley in Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's novel, “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994, starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) and voiced the recurring character of the Viking captain Hakon/Wolf  in the acclaimed animated series “Gargoyles” (12 episodes, 1994-1996). He reteamed with Seann Penn, playing a state trooper in “Dead Man Walking” (1995), Tim Robbins’ crime drama based on Helen Prejean’s book of the same name, and lent his voice to character Lex Luther in The WB's animated series “Superman” (1996-2000) as well as to character Raiden in “Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm” (1996).

Next up for Brown, he co-starred as Sergeant Zim in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction movie loosely based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, “Starship Troopers” (1997), had a recurring role as  Dr. Ellis West on the hit NBC medical drama “ER” (1997-1998) and voiced Wild Bill Hickok, the legendary figure in the American Wild West and the title role's close friend, on the WB’s animated series “The Legend of Calamity Jane” (1997-1998). He starred opposite Dana Delaney in the CBS movie inspired by Ann Patchett's novel, “The Patron Saint of Liars” (1998), was cast as a prison guard in Norman Jewison’s biopic about 1960s world middleweight boxing champion Rubin Carter who was wrongly imprisoned for murder, “The Hurricane” (1999, starred Denzel Washington), and played Chief Hennessy in the HBO TV film “Vendetta” (1999).

In the new millennium, Brown appeared on HBO network in the movie “The Laramie Project” (2002), about the murder of Matthew Shepard, and the dramatic series set in the 1930s American Midwest, “Carnivàle,” where he played Nick Stahl's ultimate nemesis, the sinister preacher and the “creature of darkness” Brother Justin Crowe (2003-2005). He also played Mr. Krabs, the penny-pinching owner and founder of the fast food restaurant Krusty Krab, in “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” (2004), based on the Nickelodeon hit animated series. He provided the voice of Gorrath in the Cartoon Network series “Megas XLR” (2004-2005). In 2006, Brown portrayed a Coast Guard commander and a friend of Kevin Costner's character in the action/adventure film “The Guardian,” which was helmed by Andrew Davis. The film also starred Ashton Kutcher and Melissa Sagemiller, and lent his voice to character Long Feng in the TV series “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” He portrayed the Viking leader in “Pathfinder” (2007), a loose remake of an Oscar nominated 1987 Norwegian movie of the same name. Co-stars in the film included Karl Urban, Moon Bloodgood, Ralf Möller, Jay Tavare and Russell Means. His voice could also be heard in episodes of “Kim Possible,” “American Dragon: Jake Long,” “The Batman,” “Biker Mice from Mars” and “Wolverine and the X-Men,” “The Spectacular Spider-Man” and “Phineas and Ferb,” among other TV shows.  

Brown continued to have roles in such films as “The Burrowers” (2008), “The Express” (2008), “The Twenty” (2009), “The Informant!” (2009), a comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon, Tony Hale and Patton Oswalt, Samuel Bayer's horror/thriller, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010), where he portrayed Alan Smith, the Martin Campbell directed action/adventure  “Green Lantern” (2011, starred Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard) and Jon Favreau's action/thriller “Cowboys & Aliens” (2011, starred Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde). In 2010, he had a regular role as Hart Sterling, founding partner of fictional law firm Sterling, Huddle, Oppenheim & Craft in the short lived ABC series “The Deep End.” He also made guest appearances in “Leverage” (2010), “Medium” (2010) and “Aim High” (2011), while his voice could be heard in several animated series, like “American Dad!,” “ The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes,” “ G.I. Joe: Renegades,” “The Penguins of Madagascar,”  “Thundercats” (as Grune), “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Transformers Prime.”

Recently, Brown was cast as Dr. Albert Marconi in the comedy film “John Dies at the End,” opposite Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes and Paul Giamatti. The film premiered on the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2012.

Brown will be star in the upcoming films like the horror/thriller “Hellbenders” (2012, opposite Dan Fogler and Clifton Collins Jr.), the Richard Montoya crime/drama “Water & Power” (2012, with Enrique Murciano and Jacob Vargas), the action/thriller “Sparks” (2012, with Chase Williamson and Ashley Bell) and the horror “Nothing to Fear” (2013, opposite Anne Heche and Jennifer Stone).    
    

Awards:

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