Biographie

hier eine ausfhrliche Biographie - nur in engl.

Born in Havana, Cuba on June 24, 1943, Georg Stanford Brown (he dropped the final "e" from his name), his parents, and sister moved to New York City when he was seven. In New York, Brown's father, who was born in Jamaica, worked as a private chauffeur, and Brown's mother, who was born in Cuba, worked as a domestic. The Brown family lived in a crowded apartment on 132nd Street in Harlem and later moved to a larger apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Though he grew up poor and spent a lot of time on the streets, Brown said that his mother "gave us a visiona feeling that there was more to the world than just where we were. A lot of the kids I ran around with then are in jail now or dead" (People, 1977).

Brown was an absentee student at William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx and was invited to drop out at the age of 16 by his teachers. When not in school, Brown sang with a singing group called "The Spin Tops" (note: TV Guide identified the group as "The Partheons" but in an interview on the "Mike Douglas Show" in 1975 or 1976, Brown called the group the "Spin Tops") that broke up right after making its first television appearance.

For the Hell of It
After leaving high school, Brown bummed around for awhile and then got a job delivering other peoples car's around the country. At the age of 19 he found himself jobless and broke in Los Angeles, and "for the hell of it" he took the entrance exam to Los Angeles City College. He was accepted and enrolled in its theatre arts program. "I took nothing seriously then...I just wanted to take something easy," Brown said, "but after a while I really got to like it" (TV Guide, 1974).

Bit by the acting bug, Brown returned to New York in 1964 to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, where he studied under Shakespeare and drama coach Philip Burton, mentor to the actor Richard Burton. It was at AMDA where Brown, who was working his way through school as the Academy janitor, met fellow student Tyne Daly, daughter of Broadway and television actor James Daly (best known as Dr. Lochner on TV's "Medical Center"). They dated for two years and married soon after graduation from AMDA, in June 1966.

Brown made his professional debut as a spear-carrier in a mob scene in a production at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare in the Park Festival. He then went on to small speaking parts in Shakespeare in the Park productions of All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Richard III, and Macbeth. In 1967, he made his film debut in the major supporting role of a Haitian painter turned revolutionary, in The Comedians starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Hoping to turn his stage credits into film and television work, Brown left New York for Hollywood in 1967. He found work in two weeks and sent for Tyne and their new daughter Alisabeth to join him.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's Brown found slow but steady film and television work, frequently getting type-cast as militants (The Comedians, Dayton's Devils, The Man, Black Jack) and doctors or scientists (Bullit, Colossus: The Forbin Project). He also appeared in episodes of "Medical Center," "The Bold Ones," Mission Impossible, It Takes a Thief and in theatre productions at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Don't Call Him Cop
Then in 1972 Aaron Spelling, producer of the hit series "The Mod Squad," began casting for a new action series and contacted Brown's agent. Despite telling both his agent and Aaron Spelling that he "didn't want to to do a police show," Brown was offered the role of Officer Terry Webster in a series pilot called "The Rookies." Brown explained his qualms about the police this way: "I'm from the streets and there's just no way to escape the policeman when you're in the streets. It's part of your survival. When I used to see them coming I'd respond a certain way. I just didn't like cops" (TV Guide, 1974). But after three weeks of "a lot of soul searching," he accepted the role because he said, "I simply discovered that it's very hard to be an actor without acting. You have to be doing it. You can't just talk about it" (TV Guide, 1974). "The Rookies" went on to become a hit show on ABC and ran for four full seasons from 1972 to 1976.

Though easy to dismiss "The Rookies" as a formula cops-and-robbers TV series, the role of Terry Webster was significant in the history of African Americans on television. "At the time, Brown's character was the most critical part for an Afro-American actor in the history of network detective shows. When few blacks had yet to be cast in the lead of serious police dramas, Brown portrayed a solid and professional law enforcement official. As such, Terry Webster was was more authentic than Linc Hayes, the hip undercover police officer enacted by Clarence Williams, III on the 'The Mod Squad'" (Blacks and White TV, p. 201).

It was during the third season of "The Rookies" that Brown made his directorial debut, directing the episode "Cliffy" written by and starring his friend, actor Mark Slade and co-starring his then-wife Tyne Daly. Brown directed three additional episodes in the fourth and final season of "The Rookies." (By the way, Daly appeared in four episodes of "The Rookies," including one in which she played Terry Webster's lover).

Part of Television History
Shortly after the cancellation of "The Rookies," Brown landed the choice starring role of Tom Harvey, Alex Haley's great-grandfather, in Episodes 7 and 8 of "Roots" (1977), the most watched dramatic television program in history. He has said of his participation in the historic mini-series: "It remains one of the best experiences I have had in my career. I don't recall another project that involved so many people of color, black people particularly, before and behind the camera to that extent. That is certainly something to be remembered" (Los Angeles Times, 1997).

In 1979, he continued the Harvey role in "Roots: The Next Generations" and also directed Episode 5 of the mini-series. Despite rave reviews for his performance in "Roots: The Next Generations" (the New York Times said: "Mr. Brown beautifully captures a quiet personality seething with social and racial resentments"), Brown was overlooked for an Emmy nomination. He also found to his dismay that the critical and commercial success of the two mini-series did not translate into more and better film and television roles for either himself or for other African American actors.

Although his acting credits since "Roots" have been few and limited to mostly supporting roles, Brown has given standout performances. In "The Jesse Owens Story "(1984) in which Brown portrayed Owens's probation officer, one reviewer wrote, "Since Mr. Brown's debut in 'The Rookies' he has smoldered his way through two kinds of TV roles: cop and angry young black. Here he combines the two, smoldering handsomely...scornfully he asks (Owens), 'what are you a hero or an Uncle Tom'" (Wall Street Journal, 1984). In a review of "North and South" (1985) in which he played a runaway slave opposite Kirstie Alley, Brown was said to have "nearly overwhelmed the part with his talent" (People, 1985). Brown also gave a riveting guest performance as an inmate awaiting execution in the short-lived series, "Paris," starring James Earl Jones. In 1981, he co-starred, again as an inmate (this time a gay one), in the comedy Stir Crazy starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.

What I Really Want to do is Direct...
With fewer acting roles being offered to him, Brown turned increasingly toward television directing, and by the mid-1980's he had become one of the busiest directors in television. He has directed over 200 hours of episodic television for such series as "Hills Street Blues", "Miami Vice," "Cagney & Lacey," "Charlie's Angels," and "Magnum P.I." He also directed the television movies "Grambling's White Tiger" (1981), "Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story" (1986), "Alone in the Neon Jungle" (1988), and "Fathers and Sons: Dangerous Relations" (1993).

Success also came in the form of formal recognition by his peers. In 1981 and again in 1985 he was nominated for Emmy Awards for best direction in a dramatic series for "Hill Street Blues." In 1986 he won an Emmy Award for best direction in a dramatic series for the "Cagney & Lacey" episode, "Parting Shots," which starred his then-wife Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey.

Following up on Brown's success as a director and Daly's success and popularity from "Cagney and Lacey," the couple formed an independent production company, Nexus Productions, Inc. in 1985. Nexus went on to produce four projects for television: "Vietnam War Story" for HBO (1987), "The Last POW? The Bobby Garwood Story," (1993), "Kids Like These" (1987), and "Stuck with Each Other" (1989). Brown executive-produced and directed all four projects and Daly starred in the latter two.

While the productions were well-regarded (for example, "Vietnam War Story" was nominated for three Cable ACE Awards, winning two), the production company ran into a bit of bad luck. "Stuck with Each Other" was originally scheduled to air on October 11, 1989the night of the San Francisco/Loma Prieta earthquakeand "The Last POW," the story of a Vietnam War prisoner of war which was filmed in 1990, had its airdate delayed by ABC-TV until 1993 because the network felt the movie was too controversial to air during the Persian Gulf War.

Feeling Rusty
After Brown's and Daly's 25-year, "close to perfect" (People, 1990) marriage ended in 1991, Brown curtailed his acting, directing, and producing duties for several years. He recently said, "I took time off to live my life. I had just gone through a divorce. I had a three-year old daughter. Mom was away, doing a lot of work. So I said, 'I'll stay home and just be dad'" (Biography, 1998).

In August 1998, Brown returned to series television acting for the first time in 22 years in the new Showtime ensemble comedy/drama series, "Linc's." Playing a conservative lobbyist with questionable ethics, Brown "lends the show fire...in a dynamic turn that makes you wonder why he doesn't work more in TV." (Variety, 1998). However, Brown said he "felt rusty" making his return to television as an actor. "I had to rely on some old training. I had to go back to the acting roots," he said. "Linc's presents Georg in a good platform. I've been out for awhile and wanted to come back. This says I'm back, and what a nice way to do it," he said (Jet, 1998).

Interviewers of Brown have described him variously as "shy," "intense," "quiet," "gentle," and "strong-willed." When asked by an interviewer if such "grim seriousness had always been part of his personality," Brown replied,"I've always been a quiet person. In my mother's picture album there are a lot of pictures of menot too many of them [of me] were smiling. I was a strange kid, I suppose" (Sepia, 1974).

Brown and Daly have three daughters together: Alisabeth, 30; Kathryne Dora Brown, 27, an actress (she most recently had a recurring role in the CBS series "Promised Land"); and Alyxandra, 13. Brown and Daly share custody of Alyxandra. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.