Roscoe Lee Browne

Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director. He is perhaps best known for his many guest appearances on TV series from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as movies like The Cowboys with John Wayne, and The World's Greatest Athlete with John Amos and Jan-Michael Vincent, but his biggest roles were as narrator in Babe and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, which grossed $400 million combined.
He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film.

Early life and education

Born in Woodbury, New Jersey, Browne was the fourth son of Baptist minister Sylvanus S. Browne and his wife, Lovie Lee. He graduated from Woodbury Junior-Senior High School in 1939. Browne attended historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1946, his college career being interrupted by his wartime service.
During World War II, Browne served in Italy with the United States Army's 92nd Infantry Division and organized the Division's track and field team. After the war, he undertook postgraduate work under the GI Bill at Middlebury College, Columbia University, and the University of Florence. A middle-distance runner, he won two Amateur Athletic Union 1,000-yard national indoor championships.
He occasionally returned to Lincoln University between 1946–52 to teach English, French, and comparative literature. Upon leaving academia, he earned a living for several years selling wine for Schenley Import Corporation. In 1956, he left his job with Schenley to become a full-time professional actor.
In 1950 and 1951 he toured Europe with a USA Track and Field team.

Career

Acting

Browne was determined not to accept the stereotypical roles routinely offered to African-American actors. He also wanted to do more than act and narrate. Despite the apprehensions of his friends, in the summer of 1956, Browne managed to land the roles of The Soothsayer and Pindarus in Julius Caesar, and one of Petruchio's servants in The Taming of the Shrew directed by Stuart Vaughan and produced by Joseph Papp for New York City's first Shakespeare in the Park. More work with the NY Shakespeare Festival Theater followed.
Browne then voiced an offscreen part as camera operator J.J. Burden in The Connection, his first movie role.
His stage success brought him to the attention of producer Leland Hayward, and in 1964 he began a regular stint as a cast member on Hayward's satirical NBC-TV series That Was the Week That Was.
In 1966, he wrote and made his directorial stage debut with A Hand Is On The Gate, starring Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones, and Moses Gunn. A lifelong bachelor who coveted his privacy in the turbulent decades of the civil rights revolution, Browne avoided participation in public protests, preferring instead to be "more effective on stage with metaphor... than in the streets with an editorial".
Starting in the late 1960s, Browne was a frequent guest star on TV in both comedy and dramatic shows such as Mannix, All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, Sanford and Son, A Different World and dozens of others.
In The Cowboys, in a role as a camp cook, he led a group of young cowhands avenging the death of John Wayne's character in the movie.
Browne was much in demand for narration and voice-over parts in film and on commercial sound recordings. In 1977, Browne narrated a record album, The Story of Star Wars, which presented an abridged version of the events depicted in the first released film using the dialogue and sound effects. The recording was produced by George Lucas and Alan Livingston.
In 1980, he guest-starred in an episode of Benson with Robert Guillaume. Later that year, he joined the regular cast of Benson's parent show Soap where he played Saunders, the erudite butler who replaces Benson. Browne also appeared as Professor Foster on The Cosby Show in 1986, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.
He and fellow actor Anthony Zerbe toured the United States with their poetry performance piece Behind the Broken Words. It included readings of poetry, some of it written by Browne, as well as performances of comedy and dramatic works.
Browne found additional success performing in the plays of August Wilson, both on Broadway and at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. He was described as having "a baritone voice like a sable coat", speaking with a strong mid-Atlantic accent. To someone who once said he sounded "too white", Browne replied, "I'm sorry, I once had a white maid." Four years before his death, Browne narrated a series of WPA slave narratives in the HBO film, Unchained Memories.

Directing

Browne's directorial credits include a piece called An Evening of Negro Poetry and Folk Music at the Delacorte Theatre and the Public Theatre in New York City in 1966. It was also produced as A Hand Is on the Gate at the Longacre Theatre in New York City in 1966. The production was revived at the Afro-American Studio in New York City, running from 1976 to 1977.

Birth year

Some year-of-birth records, including the Social Security Death Index, state that Browne was born on May 2, 1922, while other sources claim that he was born three years later, on May 2, 1925. Those sources include The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Variety, the Associated Press and several others, including a Congressional Resolution.
In an interview with Camille Cosby for the National Visionary Leadership Project, Browne confirmed that he was born in 1922.

Death

Browne died of stomach cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on the morning of April 11, 2007, aged 84. He never married and had no children.

Awards and recognition

Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award – Best Actor Award, for his performance as "Makak" in Derek Walcott's The Dream on Monkey Mountain, 1970
Bronze Wrangler, the Western Heritage Award – a shared award with the production, for Theatrical Motion Picture, for "The Cowboys," a Warner Brothers film, 1972
Primetime Emmy Award nomination – Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series, for ABC's Barney Miller: The Escape Artist, 1976
Inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 1977
Primetime Emmy Award – Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series, for The Cosby Show: The Card Game, 1986
NAACP Image Award – Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series, for The Cosby Show, 1986
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award – Best Actor Award, for his performance as "Bynum Walker" in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, 1989
Soap Opera Digest Award nomination – Outstanding Villain: Prime Time, for Falcon Crest, 1989
Tony Award nomination – Best Featured Actor in a Play, for his performance as "Holloway" in August Wilson's Two Trains Running, directed by Lloyd Richards, 1992
Helen Hayes Award – Outstanding Supporting Performer, Non-Resident Production, for Two Trains Running, 1992
Daytime Emmy Award nomination – Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, for his performance as "The Kingpin" in Spider-Man, 1995
Inducted posthumously into the American Theater Hall of Fame, 2008

Theatre

The Taming of the Shrew, New York Shakespeare Festival, East River Park Amphitheater, New York City, 1956.

Soothsayer and Pindarus, Julius Caesar, New York Shakespeare Festival, East River Park Amphitheater, 1956.
Aaron, Titus Andronicus, New York Shakespeare Festival, Theatre of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, New York City, 1957.
Balthazar, Romeo and Juliet, New York Shakespeare Festival, New York City, 1957.
Cothurnus, Aria da Capo, Theatre Marquee, New York City, 1958.
Understudy for title role, Othello, New York Shakespeare Festival, Belvedere Lake Theatre, New York City, 1958.
Royal Baron, The Cool World, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, New York City, 1960.
Understudy for title role, Purlie Victorious, Cort Theatre, New York City, 1961.
Archibald Wellington, The Blacks: A Clown Show, St. Mark's Playhouse, New York City, 1961–62.
Corporal, General Seeger, Lyceum Theatre, New York City, 1962.
Deacon Sitter Morris, Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, Booth Theatre, New York City, 1962–63.
Fool, King Lear, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, New York City, 1962.Brecht on Brecht, Theatre de Lys, now Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City, 1962, then Arena Stage, Washington, DC, performed as a staged reading at Sheridan Square Playhouse, New York City, and at Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, all 1963.
Autolycus, The Winter's Tale, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, 1963.
Narrator, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Martin Beck Theatre, New York City, 1963.
Street singer, The Threepenny Opera, Arena Stage, 1963.
Babu, Benito Cereno, American Place Theatre, New York City, beginning 1963, later produced as part of a double-bill titled The Old Glory, Theatre of St. Clement's Church, New York City, 1964.Hell Is Other People, Theatre at Carnegie Hall, New York City, 1964.
Male lead, The Empty Room, Village South Theatre, New York City, 1964.
St. Just, Danton's Death, Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York City, 1965.
Ulysses, Troilus and Cressida, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, 1965.Beyond the Fringe, Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT, 1966.
Babu, Benito Cereno, Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati, OH, 1966.
The gardener, Sodom and Gomorrah, Playhouse in the Park, 1966.
Mendoza, Man and Superman, Playhouse in the Park, 1966.
Sheridan Whiteside, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT, 1966.An Evening of Negro Poetry and Folk Music, Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, 1966; produced as A Hand Is on the Gate, Longacre Theatre, New York City, 1966; revived at Afro-American Studio, New York City, 1976–77.
Mosca, Volpone, New York Shakespeare Festival, Mobile Theatre, New York City, 1967.
Makak, The Dream on Monkey Mountain, Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1970, then St. Mark's Playhouse, 1971.A Rap on Race, New Theatre for Now, Los Angeles, 1971–72.As You Like It, Pilgrimage Theatre, Los Angeles, 1973.
Ephraim Cabot, Desire Under the Elms, The Marshall Migatz Memorial Season, Academy Festival Theatre, Lake Forest, Illinois, 1974.Behind the Broken Words , With Anthony Zerbe. Washington Theatre Club, Washington, DC, 1974, revived at American Place Theatre, 1981, and Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, CO, 2002.
Babu, Benito Cereno, American Place Theatre, 1976.
Albert Perez Jordan, Remembrance, New York Shakespeare Festival, Other Stage, Public Theatre, New York City, 1979.Pantomime, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, 1981–82.
Right Reverend J. D. Montgomery, My One and Only, St. James Theatre, New York City, 1983–84.
M. Noirtier, The Count of Monte Cristo, Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, 1985.Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Los Angeles, 1989, then Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, 1989–90.
Holloway, Two Trains Running, Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 1991, then Walter Kerr Theatre, New York City, 1992.House of Flowers, as Roscoe Lee Brown. City Center Encores!, City Center Theatre, New York City, 2003.

Other work

Recordings

Enjoyment of Poetry: Memorial Program for Claude McKay, Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, 1967.The Story of Star Wars, 20th Century Fox Records, 1977Poems, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, 1968.Caribbean, Random House Audio, 1989.Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, Listening Library, 1989.Martin Luther King Edition: New Testament Value Pack, World Bible Publishing Company, 1991.Audio Bible, World Bible Publishing, 1991.Bible for Today, New Testament, 1992.The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with Joe Morton. Simon & Schuster Audio, 1992.M. C. Higgins, the Great, by Virginia Hamilton Recorded Books, 1993.Kwanzaa Folktales, by Gordon Lewis, Warner Adult, 1994.The Word Workout: 10 Easy Exercises for a Stronger Vocabulary, Dove Books Audio, 1995.The Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare: With A Lover's Complaint and Selected Songs, Dove Books Audio, 1996.The Poetry of Robert Frost, Dove Books Audio, 1996.Masterpieces of Modern Short Fiction, Audio Literature, 1998.The Haunting of Hill House, New Star Media, 1999.The Bible: Old Testament, King James Version, Audio Literature, 2001.The Poetry of Robert Frost, New Millennium Audio, 2001.The Poetry of Walt Whitman, New Millennium Audio, 2001.KJV on Cassette: New Testament, Nelson Bibles, 2003.
Narrated the Nativity Story on a Christmas card and cassette tape alongside Glenda Hayes who sung "Silent Night".

Radio appearances

Native villager, The Endless Road, CBS Radio Workshop, CBS, 1956.
Performer of Shakespearean roles for CBC Radio.

Writings

An Evening of Negro Poetry and Folk Music, Delacorte Theatre, Public Theatre, 1966, produced as A Hand Is on the Gate, Longacre Theatre, New York City, 1966, revived at Afro-American Studio, New York City, 1976–77.Behind the Broken Words, Washington Theatre Club, Washington, DC, 1974, revived at American Place Theatre, New York City, 1981, and Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 2002.