1987 passings: Clarence Brown

A lot happened in the year 1987, including the debut of a family-friendly TV sitcom set in San Francisco. The name of the show was Full House, and we’ll be doing a deep dive into this popular comedy over the coming weeks.

But first, to get a sense of the times and trends that helped shape this series, here’s a notable obituary from 1987 — Clarence Brown.

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Clarence Brown was an American film director. After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I, Brown was given his first co-directing credit (with Maurice Tourneur) for The Great Redeemer (1920). Later that year, he directed a major portion of The Last of the Mohicans after Tourneur was injured in a fall.

Brown moved to Universal in 1924, and then to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he remained until the mid-1950s. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their major female stars; he directed Joan Crawford six times and Greta Garbo seven.

Brown was nominated six times for an Academy Award as a director, but he never received an Oscar. However, he won Best Foreign Film for Anna Karenina, starring Garbo at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival.

Brown’s films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars. Brown himself received six Academy Award nominations and in 1949, he won the British Academy Award for the film version of William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.

In 1957, Brown was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, but refused to watch new movies, as he feared they might cause him to restart his career.

The Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor. He holds the record for most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director without a win, with six.

During the Academy Awards for 1929-1930, Brown was nominated for Best Director for Anna Christie and Romance, but ultimately lost to Lewis Milestone for All Quiet on the Western Front.  He was nominated for the same award during the 1930-1931 Academy Awards for A Free Soul, but lost to Norman Taurog for Skippy. Again, Brown was nominated in 1943 for The Human Comedy but lost to Michael Curtiz for Casablanca. He lost again in 1945, when he nominated for National Velvet; The winner for Best Director being Billy Wilder for The Lost Weekend. Finally, Brown was nominated for Best Director one last time in 1946 for The Yearling but lost to William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives.

Brown died at the Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California from kidney failure on August 17, 1987, at the age of 97. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. On February 8, 1960, Brown received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street, for his contributions to the motion pictures industry.