Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) 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 (1972) with John Wayne, and The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) 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. He was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy and a NAACP Image Award, and was nominated for a Tony Award.
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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 (Usher). He graduated from Woodbury Junior-Senior High School in 1939. Browne attended historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American for the Lincoln Lions track and field team. 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 (as a half-miler) 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 (1961), 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 (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.
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.
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 (NVLP), 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.
Filmography
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 (revue), 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.
Other work
Recordings
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 (readings), 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 (poetry reading), Washington Theatre Club, Washington, DC, 1974, revived at American Place Theatre, New York City, 1981, and Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 2002.
