European Film Star Postcards: Johnny Mack Brown

17 November 2024

Johnny Mack Brown

Johnny Mack Brown (1904-1974) was an American actor and American football player. The good-looking Brown became a fairly successful leading man at MGM for nearly five years, appearing opposite such famous actresses as Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. In 1935, he became the cowboy hero in numerous inexpensively produced Westerns. Between 1927 and 1966, he appeared in over 170 films and several television productions.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 849. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5102/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Johnny Mack Brown and Leila Hyams starred together in such films as Hurricane (Ralph Ince, 1929) and Saturday's Millions (Edward Sedgwick, 1933).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 37. Photo: Monogram.

National sports hero

John ‘Johnny’ Mack Brown was born in 1904 in Dothan, Alabama. He was the second of nine children of John Henry Brown and Hattie (McGillivray) Brown. At an early age, he became interested in hunting and fishing as well as playing high school sports. Brown graduated from Dothan High School in 1922. For the University of Alabama football team, he scored two of their three touchdowns against the favoured Washington Huskies in the 1926 Rose Bowl.

His outstanding performance made him a national sports hero. His physique and appearance attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who signed him in 1927. Brown debuted in Slide, Kelly, Slide (Edward Sedgwick, 1927) with William Haines in a film about - baseball. This was followed by The Bugle Call (Edward Sedgwick, 1927), which starred the fading Jackie Coogan. In 1928 he appeared in Norma Shearer’s last silent film, A Lady of Chance (Robert Z. Leonard, 1928).

For a few years, John Mack Brown, who was now usually referred to as Johnny Mack Brown in the film credits, was regarded by many as the next big film star. He was used in prestige productions in leading roles or larger supporting roles. In the same year, he was seen as Greta Garbo's co-star in The Divine Woman (Victor Sjöström, 1928) and A Woman of Affairs (Clarence Brown, 1928) and appeared alongside Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont, 1928). A year later, he appeared alongside Mary Pickford in her first sound film Coquette (Sam Taylor, 1929). Pickford received an Oscar for Best Actress for this film.

With the advent of the talkies at the end of the 1920s, Johnny Mack Brown's slow, southern drawl and strong Alabama accent became a handicap. He starred as Billy the Kid in King Vidor's monumental Western Billy the Kid (1930) with Wallace Beery as Sheriff Pat Garrett. While Vidor did not want him for the part to begin with, the picture was successful. However, Brown's career at MGM soon ended. His role alongside Joan Crawford in Laughing Sinners (Harry Beaumont, 1931) was cut after a disastrous preview and the film was almost completely reshot with Clark Gable. It was also Gable who in the future took on most of the roles which were intended for Brown.

MGM opted not to renew his contract. Having been a star at MGM, he was able to land some roles at other studios during the next four or five years. By the mid-1930s, Johnny Mack Brown needed some help. It arrived in the form of A. William Hackel, the Poverty Row producer and owner of Supreme Pictures plus a bit of good luck. Republic Pictures was formed in 1935 with the merger of Mascot Pictures, Monogram Pictures, and Consolidated Film Laboratories. The new startup company needed some Westerns to distribute, and they reached an agreement with Hackel for new Brown adventures which would carry the Republic Pictures logo. This gave a career boost to Johnny Mack Brown.

Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del Cine series, no. 159. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

British postcard in the Autograph Series, London, no. 6.

Among the top ten highest-grossing Western stars at the box office

Johnny Mack Brown began a long association with Universal. His first Western serial for the studio was Rustlers of Red Dog (12 chapters, Lew Landers, 1935). Three more followed: Wild West Days (13 chapters, Ford Beebe, Clifford Smith, 1937), Flaming Frontiers (15 chapters, Alan James, Ray Taylor, 1938), and The Oregon Trail (15 chapters, Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind, 1939). His other films from this period include Born to the West/Hell Town (Charles Barton, 1937), with John Wayne, and Wells Fargo (Frank Lloyd, 1937) with Joel McCrea. Mack Brown was practically never seen in films of other genres.

From 1939 to 1943, Mack Brown starred in 28 Westerns for Universal - six with Bob Baker, fifteen on his own, and a final seven with Tex Ritter as co-star. Nell O'Day, Jennifer Holt and Fuzzy Knight were among the most frequent cast members. From 1942 to 1950, he was continuously among the top ten highest-grossing Western stars at the box office.

During World War II years, Universal was going through a shift in priorities and its horror production unit was given new life. Little Monogram Pictures brought out the Rough Riders series in 1941-1942, which starred Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. But Jones had been killed in the November 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, and Colonel Tim McCoy was called back to Army duty for World War II.

Scott R. Dunlap, Monogram's production boss, needed a quick replacement and was looking for an already recognized star with box office following and signed Johnny Mack Brown. He remained on the Monogram payroll for about ten years. The decision to hire Brown turned out to be timely. Monogram’s other trio series, the Range Busters, concluded filming in late 1942. Monogram needed Johnny Mack Brown.

Brown's sidekick was Raymond Hatton and he portrayed 'Sandy Hopkins', the same role he played in the Rough Riders. He did 45 films with Brown which were released in 1943-1948. Brown's first Western for Monogram was The Ghost Rider (Wallace Fox, 1943). His character name in the early entries was 'Nevada Jack McKenzie'. The name soon changed to Johnny. As with most of the early cowboy stars, he was a hero to millions of young children. His last Western at Monogram was Canyon Ambush (Lewis D. Collins, 1952). In between, Brown had starred in more than 60 Westerns for Monogram Pictures. In 1953, the days of the ‘B’ Western came to an end.

After 1953, Brown increasingly withdrew from the film business. He made guest appearances in a few later Westerns, such as The Bounty Killer (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1965), Requiem for Gunfighter (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1965) with Rod Cameron, and Apache Uprising (R.G. Springsteen, 1966) starring Rory Calhoun. For his All-American exploits on the football field, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1957, and the Rose Bowl Hall Of Fame in 2001. Brown died in 1974 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. He was married to Cornelia ‘Connie’ Foster from 1926 until his death. The couple had four children, Jane Harriet (died 1997), Cynthia, Sally and John Lachlan (Locky). John Mack Brown is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, in the Court of Freedom, Columbarium of Heavenly Peace.