Clancy Brown

Early life

Clarence J. Brown III was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, Ohio, and had an older sister, Beth, who died in 1964. Their mother, Joyce Helen (née Eldridge), was a conductor, composer and concert pianist. The siblings' father, Clarence J. "Bud" Brown Jr., was a newspaper publisher who helped manage the Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper business started by Clancy's grandfather, Congressman Clarence J. Brown. From 1965 to 1983, Bud Brown also served as a congressman, in the same seat as his own father, and later as Chairman of the Board of Brown Publishing. The family continued to operate the business until 2010.

Brown graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and Northwestern University. At St. Albans, Brown performed the role of Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth in The Crucible.

Career

Live-action performances

thumb|upright|Brown in 2008 In Brown's first mainstream film, he was cast as Viking Lofgren alongside Sean Penn in the 1983 crime drama Bad Boys. He followed up as the sadistic Kurgan in the 1986 film Highlander, which failed in theaters but had more success on home video.

Brown has played prison officers in three films dealing with miscarriages of justice: the tyrannical Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, the sympathetic Lt. Williams in The Hurricane, and Lt. McMannis in Last Light. In 2001, he played a magical character credited as 'The granter of wishes' in the Hallmark version of Snow White. In 2007, he played the Viking leader opposite Karl Urban in Pathfinder.

He starred in several independent films in 2008: The Burrowers, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, and released in the United States on DVD in April 2009, and The Twenty. He appeared in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film The Informant! opposite Matt Damon in which he played an attorney. He also portrayed Alan Smith in Samuel Bayer's 2010 remake of the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. In 2011, he appeared in Cowboys & Aliens (directed by Jon Favreau) with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. He was cast as the voice of The Goon in the animated feature film. He also starred as Albert Marconi in the film adaptation of the David Wong novel John Dies at the End, directed by Don Coscarelli.

Brown was a series regular on the science fiction series Earth 2 from 1994 to 1995, playing the role of John Danziger. Brown was notable as the sinister preacher Brother Justin Crowe in the HBO series Carnivàle. Though the series only ran for two seasons, Carnivàle has attained a cult popularity and his performance was applauded by critics for showcasing a new side to his acting talents. He also starred in the Showtime production In the Company of Spies and the HBO film Cast a Deadly Spell. As conservative United States Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat, he was one of the primary antagonists in seasons three and four of the Showtime series Billions.

He has also made many guest appearances on various television series including ER, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Desert Crossing" as Zobral, Lost as Kelvin Joe Inman, and former baseball player (and investment scam mark) Rudy Blue on The Riches. Brown also appeared as the frontiersman Simon Kenton, the key to America's westward expansion, in the 2000 Kentucky Educational Television production "A Walk with Simon Kenton". Kenton resembled Brown in stature and is buried in Brown's hometown. Brown most recently appeared as Hart Sterling, founding partner of fictional law firm Sterling, Huddle, Oppenheim & Craft in ABC's The Deep End. He also guest starred on the Leverage series episode "The Gone Fishin Job" and on The Dukes of Hazzard sixth-season episode "Too Many Roscos". He appeared on The CW's TV production of The Flash in the recurring guest-star role of General Wade Eiling. He has also portrayed Ray Schoonover in the Daredevil episodes "Guilty as Sin" and "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" and The Punisher episode "Kandahar". He played Sheriff Joe Corbin in Sleepy Hollow. In 2022, Brown joined the cast of The Boys spin-off series Gen V as Richard "Rich Brink" Brinkerhoff.

Voice-over work

As a voice-over actor, Brown has appeared in various video games, usually playing an antagonistic character. He lends his voice to several of the crystallized dragons in the PlayStation game Spyro the Dragon. He voiced the corrupt Baron Praxis in the PlayStation 2 video game Jak II; Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka in a number of the Crash Bandicoot video games; Montross (a Mandalorian rival of Jango Fett) in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter; Hades in God of War III; Thrall in the cancelled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans; Scourgelord Tyrannus in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King; the conniving Alderman Richard Hughes in the Xbox 360 game Saints Row; and the cynical, foul-mouthed Lt. Anderson in Detroit: Become Human.

For animated television series, he voiced several characters (Hakon, Tomas Brod and Wolf) in the series Gargoyles; Tanuki Gonta in the English language dub of Pom Poko (1994); Raiden on the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm; a Hessian trooper in The Night of the Headless Horseman (1999); billionaire Maxmilian Speil in Godzilla: The Series; and five of the six members of Legion Ex Machina in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.

Since 1999, he has played the role of Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants (as well the films The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run). The show celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019. In celebration, a television special was aired, titled "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout". One scene includes each of the show's main characters' voice actors portraying live-action versions of their characters. While not the first Spongebob Squarepants episode that blended animated sequences with live-action characters, this the first time that the characters' voice actors have all played a live-action scene all together. From 2000 to 2005, he played several roles (Captain Black, Ratso and the animated moose doll Super Moose) on Jackie Chan Adventures. He also voiced Vice-Principal Pangborn in All Grown Up!, Barkmeat in Catscratch, Otto in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (which also stars fellow SpongeBob co-star Tom Kenny, who voices Gibson) and Gorrath in Megas XLR.

For Disney, he has played roles such as the Dark Dragon in American Dragon: Jake Long, the Ugly Bald Guy in the film Recess: School's Out, as well as Undertow in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, and he also made a guest appearance in the Kim Possible episode "Oh, No! Yono" where he played the titular character. He also voiced King Frederick in the Disney Channel series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure and the Disney Channel film Tangled: Before Ever After.

For Nickelodeon, Brown has voiced several characters in the Avatar franchise, such as corrupt Dai Li leader Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2006 and top gangster Yakone in The Legend of Korra in 2012. He guest-starred in Dungeon as the Demon Cat and the narrator for the opening and closing quotes in the episode "Ocean of Fear". Brown also voices Destro in G.I. Joe: Renegades; Jeff Fischer's biological father in American Dad!; Grune the Destroyer in the ThunderCats reboot; and the recurring role of Agent Silas in Transformers: Prime.

From 2011 to 2013, Brown voiced Savage Opress, Count Dooku's new apprentice and Darth Maul's brother, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He starred as Chris Bradford, Shredder's top henchman, in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series. From the third quarter of 2014, Brown began doing voice-overs as the main talent for Chevy truck national and regional television commercials. On March 21, 2016, Brown began voicing a new character to the series, Red Death, a parody of the Marvel villain Red Skull, in The Venture Brothers episode "Red Means Stop". He continued this role in season 7, and was signed to appear in season 8 before the show's cancellation.

DC Comics media

Brown is well known for voicing the villainous Lex Luthor in various animated media since 1996. He first voiced Luthor in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), starting with Superman: The Animated Series (where he had originally auditioned for the role of Superman) and reprised his role in the subsequent animated series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. He also voiced the character in the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips as well as The Batman cartoon series. Brown later again played Luthor in the 2009 animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. He also voiced a character under the name Rohtul (which is Luthor spelled backwards) in Batman: Brave and the Bold (while Kevin Michael Richardson provided the voice of the actual character). Brown once again voiced Lex in the video games Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and Lego DC Super-Villains. From all these vocal appearances, Brown has played Lex Luthor longer than any other actor in history, including his own Justice League co-star Michael Rosenbaum (in Smallville).

Brown is also known for his voice work as villains in various DC animated series, films, television shows, and video games: Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow on Batman Beyond, Trident on Teen Titans, Mr. Freeze and Bane on The Batman, Per Degaton in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Parallax in the live-action Green Lantern film, King Faraday in Young Justice, and Zartok in Green Lantern: The Animated Series. He appeared on The CW's The Flash recurring in the first season as General Wade Eiling, and on HBO's The Penguin as Sal Maroni.

Marvel Comics media

Brown has also voiced various Marvel characters in various animated projects: Sasquatch in The Incredible Hulk (1996), several characters (George Stacy, Rhino and Ox) in The Spectacular Spider-Man, Mister Sinister in Wolverine and the X-Men, Odin in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Red Hulk and Taskmaster in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Ultimate Spider-Man. In Daredevil and The Punisher, he plays Major Schoonover, Frank Castle's former commanding officer. In Thor: Ragnarok, he voices the fire demon Surtur.

Awards and nominations

Behind the Voice Actors Awards

• 2012 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series: Nominated for G.I. Joe: Renegades
• 2013 BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Winner for Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• 2013 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Children's/Educational: Nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants
• 2013 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Nominated for his work as Savage Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• 2013 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Male Vocal Performance in a Television Series in a Supporting Role - Action/Drama: Nominated
• 2014 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Nominated for work as Red Hulk in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
• 2014 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Nominated for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• 2015 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Nominated for work as Red Hulk in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
• 2015 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama: Nominated for Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
• 2016 BTVA Feature Film Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film: Nominated for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
• 2017 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series: Winner for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• 2018 BTVA Special/DVD Voice Acting Award-Best Vocal Ensemble in a TV Special/Direct-to-DVD Title or Short: Nominated for Tangled: Before Ever After

Other Awards

• 1992 Chainsaw Award-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated for Best supporting actor for his role in Pet Cemetery
• 1994 ACCA-Best Cast Ensemble: Nominated Shawshank Redemption
• 2018 IFJA Award-Best Ensemble Acting: Winner The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• 2020 Fright Meter Award-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated for his work in The Mortuary Collection
• 2021 Chainsaw Award-Best Supporting Performance: Winner for his work in The Mortuary Collection
• 2021 FilmQuest Cthulhu-Best Actor: Winner for work in work in The Mortuary Collection
• 2025 Astra TV Award-Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie: Nominated for work in The Penguin
• In 2025, Brown was nominated for a Logie Award for his work on the Stan TV series Good Cop/Bad Cop.

Union activism

On March 30, 2012, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) completed a merger of equals forming a new union SAG-AFTRA. As a result of this merger, a group of actors including Brown, fellow voice actors Michael Bell, Wendy Schaal, Schaal's former stepmother Valerie Harper, and other actors including former SAG President Edward Asner, Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, and Nancy Sinatra immediately sued against the current SAG President Ken Howard and several SAG Vice Presidents to overturn the merger and separate the (now merged) two unions because of their claims that the election was improper. The plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit several months later.

Personal life

Brown has been married to Jeanne Johnson since 1993. They have two children.

Brown is involved in charity organizations, Supporting the Beth Brown Memorial Fund named after his late sister, which offers scholarships to students who want to study pediatric healthcare. In 1999 he spearheaded a charity campaign to support J. Madison Wright, his on-screen daughter from Earth 2, who needed a heart transplant. He has also given back to his Alma mater the University of Iowa through benefit performances.

Filmography

Live-action

Film

Television

Voice roles

Film

Television

Video games

Documentaries

References

References

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10. (November 2, 2022). "Clancy Brown Cast In 'The Boys' Spin-Off 'Gen V' (Exclusive)".
11. (May 8, 2023). "Godolkin University {{!}} Gallery {{!}} Richard "Rich Brink" Brinkerhoff {{!}} ''Gen V''".
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