Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922[2] – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and
director. 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. 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 (1972) with John Wayne.
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.[10]
In 1950 and 1951 he toured Europe (as a half-miler) with a USA Track and Field team.[14]
Career
Acting
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.[15] Browne voiced an offscreen part as camera operator J.J. Burden in The Connection (1961), his first movie role.[16] In The Cowboys (1972), 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.[17][18][19][20][21]
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. 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".[22]
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.[15]
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 the King's English with a strong
mid-Atlantic accent. To someone who once said Browne sounded "too white", he replied, "I'm sorry, I once had a white maid."[23] Four years before his death, Browne narrated a series of
WPA slave narratives in the
HBO film, Unchained Memories (2003).[24]
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.[25]
In an undated videotaped interview with
Camille Cosby for the National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP), Browne said: "I was born, Camille, so they say, May 2, 1922, in Woodbury, New Jersey."[33]
We mourn the loss of our long-time Trustee and faithful friend. He was always to be counted upon to be supportive of the aims and purposes of the Society. He filled our lives with the soft sound of poetry as only he could recite it. Now the stage is empty and the lights are low.[16]
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.
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.
Ephraim Cabot, Desire Under the Elms, The Marshall Migatz Memorial Season, Academy Festival Theatre, Lake Forest, Illinois, 1974.
Behind the Broken Words (poetry reading), 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.
^Browne's year of birth was cited as 1925 through much of his career and at the time of his death. Since then evidence has emerged that he was actually born three years earlier, the most notable of which would be the
Social Security Death Index: Roscoe Lee Browne [Roscoe L Browne] Gender: Male Race: Black Birth Date: 2 May 1922 Birth Place: Woodbury, New Jersey Father Name: Sylvanus Browne Mother Name: Louie [sic] L Usher Death Date: 11 Apr 2007 Type of Claim: Original SSN. Notes: Jul 1940: Name listed as ROSCOE LEE BROWNE; 21 Apr 2007: Name listed as ROSCOE L BROWNE Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index. Other websites and census data also confirm 1922, as well as a
YouTube video in which the actor gives 1922 as his year of birth. However, obituaries in
the New York Times,
The Guardian and
the Los Angeles Times, as well as his profile at
IBDb, cite 1925.
^Nash, Margo.
"Jersey Footlights", The New York Times, November 14, 2004. Accessed September 6, 2009. "Roscoe Lee Browne has acted in many movies, from Cool Hand Luke to The Matrix.... And, by the way, he 'made a good shepherd' in the French class play at Woodbury High School, according to the Woodbury High yearbook in 1939, the year Mr. Brown graduated."