Clarence Brown: Encyclopedia II - Clarence Brown - Biography

Clarence Brown - Biography

Born in Clinton, Massachusetts. Brown was educated as an engineer at the University of Tennessee before coming into the film industry as an assistant to Maurice Tourneur. He worked with Tourneur for seven years and they co-directed two of Brown's first three films. Brown moved to Universal in 1924 and then to MGM, where he stayed until the mid-1940s. At MGM he was one of the main director of their female stars – he directed Joan Crawford five times and Greta Garbo five times as well.

He worked across the introduction of sound and continued to use the silent films visual techniques throughout his career; he did not work particularly well with dialogue. His works can be regarded as considerate and atmospheric, but too often were conventional, placid and slow. Nevertheless, he was nominated seven times for an Academy Award (six times as a director, once as a producer) but never received the Oscar.

The Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki