Johnny Mack Brown 1904-1974
Arguably the first true sports film star, he was a star football player (American football, of course) at the University of Alabama, where he was known as "The Dothan Antelope" (strange nickname for a sports player from the south). He went on to help get his team to the 1925 Rose Bowl, which they won over the heavily favored Washington Huskies. Here in the south, it became known as "the game that changed the south." After being noticed by Hollywood in a box of Wheaties, he was approached to make films. Unsurprisingly his first films were sports related dramas. It is ironic that his film debut came in a baseball picture: MGM's Slide, Kelly, Slide in 1927. He would not be in another starring role, until he played the lead opposite Marion Davies (yes, that Marion Davies) in another sports film, this time centered around basketball--women's that is. The role as the coach of women's college basketball team in The Fair Co-Ed would be his last silent sports film. He was then moved into leading man roles in romances of various sorts (even playing opposite Joan Crawford in the film that made her a star Our Dancing Daughters); he was even type-cast a bit as a southerner, despite that there was no spoken dialog. His first all sound (talkie) picture came in a supporting role in the Paul Muni "death row drama" The Valiant. His southerner background was furthered in RKO's Jazz Heaven, released in November of 1929. Later in his acting career he was more known for his roles in westerns. His start in the genre came in the quite strange little MGM musical western Montana Moon in 1930; again, opposite Crawford--although the film was released in March of 1930, MGM actually released a silent version (not quite sure how "silent musicals" would be a thing....) Brown's last role was in Apache Uprising in 1965 before retirement. He passed away in Los Angeles on the 14th of November at the age of 70. His ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, along with those of one of his daughters. He has been inducted in a number of Halls of Fame as disparate from each other as the College Football Hall of Fame to the World Cowboy Gunspinning Hall of Fame.
List Of His Silent/Partial Silent Films
