Johnny "Mack" Brown

Johnny "Mack" Brown (September 1, 1904 – November 14, 1974)

Brown was a college football player and film actor originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career. He played silent film star Mary Pickford's love interest in her first talkie, Coquette (1929), for which Pickford won an Oscar. He appeared in minor roles until 1930 when he was cast as the star in a Western entitled Billy the Kid and directed by King Vidor. Also in 1930, Brown played Joan Crawford's love interest in Montana Moon. Brown went on to make several more top-flight movies under the name John Mack Brown, including The Secret Six (1931) with Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, and Clark Gable, as well as the legendary Lost Generation celebration of alcohol, The Last Flight (1931), and was being groomed by MGM as a leading man until being abruptly replaced on Laughing Sinners in 1931, with all his scenes re-shot, substituting rising star Clark Gable in his place. Rechristened "Johnny Mack Brown" in the wake of this extremely serious career downturn, he made low-budget westerns for independent producers. Eventually he became one of the screen's top B-movie cowboys, and became a popular star at Universal Pictures in 1937. A fan of Mexican music, he showcased the talents of guitarist Francisco Mayorga and The Guadalajara Trio in films like Boss of Bullion City and The Masked Rider. He retired from films in 1952, but returned 10 years later, and made over 160 movies in total. Brown died in Woodland Hills, California, of heart failure at the age of 70. He is interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale.