--- name: "Clarence Brown" canonical: "https://film.one/person/clarence-brown" roles: ["Director"] born: "10 May 1890" died: "17 August 1987" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "director" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T01:29:19.465461+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Clarence Brown Director. Born 10 May 1890 in Clinton, Massachusetts, USA. Died 17 August 1987. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 10 May 1890, Clinton, Massachusetts, USA - **Died:** 17 August 1987 - **Active:** 1943–1946 - **Also known as:** Clarence Leon Brown, Clarence L. Brown, Кларенс Браун - **Academy Awards:** 5 Oscar nominations - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as director, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Brown, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q435029, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113284/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/84034 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*The Yearling*](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md) (79) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Clarence Brown > Clarence Brown composed and lit his pictures with care, and directed children as he directed adults. When the material can bear that much light the warmth is earned; when it cannot, as in *The Human Comedy*, it is insisted upon. Watch what Clarence Brown does when a child is in the frame. In *The Human Comedy* (1943) small Ulysses, played by Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins, stands by the tracks and waves at a passing train, freckled and puzzled, and for whole minutes nobody asks him to mean anything. Then an adult walks in and the film goes back to telling us what the war is for. Brown could simply watch. The pictures he made at MGM did not often let him. He came to films sideways, with engineering degrees from the University of Tennessee and a spell in the motor trade, and in 1915 he became assistant to Maurice Tourneur, whom he treated as a master for the rest of his life. From Tourneur he took the look that marks his work: careful composition, careful light, a fondness for real exteriors. He directed solo features from 1923, joined MGM in the mid-1920s and stayed until the early 1950s, making more than fifty films there. Seven were with Greta Garbo, from *Flesh and the Devil* (1926) to *Anna Karenina* (1935); six were with Joan Crawford; at least ten were photographed by William Daniels. Actors spoke of a quiet, collaborative man who got what he wanted without raising his voice. He retired in 1953. The 1940s turned him towards American small towns and small performers. *National Velvet* (1944) and *The Yearling* (1946) are the ones people remember, and he said he directed children exactly as he directed adults, by trying to understand them and earn their trust. *Intruder in the Dust* (1949), shot on location from Faulkner, is often named as the late high point, and its handling of race is the reason. We have reviewed only *The Human Comedy*, and it shows both halves of him. When Mickey Rooney carries a telegram to a door and Brown says nothing at all, we were quietly undone; the shot does the whole job. Then Howard Estabrook's script explains it, and the feeling drains away as we are told what we have just felt. That is the case against him: that the MGM gloss and the studio's taste for reassurance softened a director who did not need softening, and that a long career as a loyal house man has cost him a reputation. There is something in it. A town waiting for casualty lists cannot bear the light he gives a horse or a fawn, and *The Human Comedy* proves it. Late in life he said he was a company man who shot the story he was assigned as well as he could and went on to the next thing. He undersold himself. The studio, on the whole, let him. ## Biography Clarence Brown was an American film director and producer. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, he graduated from the University of Tennessee with degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. After working in the automobile industry, he entered films as an assistant to director Maurice Tourneur and served as a fighter pilot and flight instructor during the First World War. Brown began directing in the silent era and joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the mid-1920s, remaining there until the mid-1950s. He directed Greta Garbo in seven films and Joan Crawford in six. His credits include *Flesh and the Devil* (1926), *Anna Karenina* (1935), *Anna Christie* (1930), *National Velvet* (1945), *The Yearling* (1946) and *Intruder in the Dust* (1949). He produced and directed *The Human Comedy* (1943). Brown received five Academy Award nominations for directing but did not win an Oscar. He won the award for best foreign film at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival for *Anna Karenina* and a British Academy Award for *Intruder in the Dust*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *The Yearling* (1946), Fi1m 79, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md) - *The Human Comedy* (1943), Fi1m 66, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) ## Complete filmography (65) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Dead Heat* (1988), as Harry Latham - *Fats Domino Live from Austin Texas* (1986), as Batterie - *The Twilight Zone* (1985), series, as (segment "Need to Know") - *Never Let Me Go* (1953), Producer - *Plymouth Adventure* (1952), Director - *When in Rome* (1952), Director - *It's a Big Country* (1951), Director - *Angels in the Outfield* (1951), Director, Producer - *To Please a Lady* (1950), Director, Producer - *Intruder in the Dust* (1949), Director, Producer - *The Secret Garden* (1949), Producer - *Song of Love* (1947), Director, Producer - *The Yearling* (1946), Director — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md) - *National Velvet* (1945), Director, Producer - *The White Cliffs of Dover* (1944), Director, Producer - *The Human Comedy* (1943), Producer, Director — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) - *They Met in Bombay* (1941), Director - *Come Live with Me* (1941), Director - *Edison, the Man* (1940), Director - *The Rains Came* (1939), Director - *Idiot's Delight* (1939), Director - *Of Human Hearts* (1938), Director - *Conquest* (1937), Director - *The Gorgeous Hussy* (1936), Director, Producer - *Wife vs. Secretary* (1936), Director, Producer - *Ah, Wilderness!* (1935), Director, Producer - *Anna Karenina* (1935), Director - *Chained* (1934), Director, Producer - *Sadie McKee* (1934), Director - *Night Flight* (1933), Director, Producer - *Looking Forward* (1933), Director, Producer - *The Son-Daughter* (1932), Director - *Letty Lynton* (1932), Director - *Emma* (1932), Director - *Possessed* (1931), as Man on Merry-Go-Round (uncredited) · Director, Producer - *A Free Soul* (1931), Director - *Inspiration* (1931), Director, Producer - *Romance* (1930), Director, Producer - *Anna Christie* (1930), Director - *Navy Blues* (1929), as Roller Coaster Rider · Producer, Director - *Wonder of Women* (1929), Director - *A Woman of Affairs* (1928), Director - *The Trail of '98* (1928), Director, Producer - *Flesh and the Devil* (1926), Director - *Kiki* (1926), Director, Producer - *Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ* (1925), as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited) - *The Eagle* (1925), Director - *The Goose Woman* (1925), Director - *Smouldering Fires* (1925), Director - *Butterfly* (1924), Director - *The Signal Tower* (1924), as Switch Man · Director - *The Acquittal* (1923), Director - *Don't Marry for Money* (1923), Director - *The Light in the Dark* (1922), Director, Writer - *The Foolish Matrons* (1921), Director - *The Last of the Mohicans* (1920), Co-Director - *The Great Redeemer* (1920), Director - *The Blue Bird* (1918), Editor - *A Girl's Folly* (1917), Editor - *The Pride of the Clan* (1917), Editor, Assistant Director - *The Velvet Paw* (1916), Editor, Assistant Director - *The Rail Rider* (1916), Editor, Assistant Director - *The Closed Road* (1916), Editor, Assistant Director - *The Hand of Peril* (1916), Editor - *The Cub* (1915), Editor ## Gallery - ![American film director and producer Clarence Brown (1928). Subjects: miscellaneous](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-41ef170020d4.jpg) American film director and producer Clarence Brown (1928). Subjects: miscellaneous — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Clarence_Brown_%28SAYRE_13096%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Film director Clarence Brown. Subjects (LCTGM): miscellaneous (1928)](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-cc16216627b6.jpg) Film director Clarence Brown. Subjects (LCTGM): miscellaneous (1928) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Film_director_Clarence_Brown_%28SAYRE_13096%29.jpg/1280px-Film_director_Clarence_Brown_%28SAYRE_13096%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clarence Brown](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-96d999ff5a9d.jpg) Clarence Brown — Freulich (?), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Clarence_Brown_1921.jpg/1280px-Clarence_Brown_1921.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Film director Clarence Brown. Subjects (LCTGM): miscellaneous (1926)](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-21efef8cbc1f.jpg) Film director Clarence Brown. Subjects (LCTGM): miscellaneous (1926) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Film_director_Clarence_Brown_%28SAYRE_13612%29.jpg/1280px-Film_director_Clarence_Brown_%28SAYRE_13612%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clarence Brown](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-534429d6790b.jpg) Clarence Brown — Image via TMDB - ![Clarence Brown with Vilma Banky, and Rudolph Valentino on the set of The Eagle (1925), Exhibitor's Trade Review](https://film.one/media/person/1233717/gallery-668433ac8966.jpg) Clarence Brown with Vilma Banky, and Rudolph Valentino on the set of The Eagle (1925), Exhibitor's Trade Review — United Artists, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Clarence_Brown_with_Vilma_Banky_%26_Rudolph_Valentino_on_the_set_of_The_Eagle.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 5 nominated - 1947: Best Director (nominated), for *The Yearling* - 1946: Best Director (nominated), for *National Velvet* - 1944: Best Director (nominated), for *The Human Comedy* - 1931: Best Director (nominated), for *A Free Soul* - 1930: Best Director (nominated), for *Romance* ### Other awards — 1 won - star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1960: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/clarence-brown