Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American film, television and voice actor.
He is known for his live-action roles as Captain Byron Hadley in the The Shawshank Redemption;
The Kurgan in Highlander; Brother Justin Crowe in Carnivàle and Career Sergeant Zim in Starship
Troopers.
Brown is also known for providing the voices of animated characters such as Mr. Eugene
H. Krabs in the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants; Lex Luthor throughout various
DC projects; Captain Black and Ratso in Jackie Chan Adventures; Otto in Super Robot Monkey
Team Hyperforce Go!; Dr. Neo Cortex in the original Crash Bandicoot video games and Savage
Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Early life Brown was born in Urbana, Ohio in 1959 and
had an older sister Beth.
Their mother Joyce was a conductor, composer, and concert pianist.
Their father Clarence J. "Bud" Brown, Jr. helped manage the Brown Publishing Company,
the family-owned newspaper business started by Clancy's grandfather, Congressman Clarence
J. Brown.
From 1965 to 1983 Bud Brown also served as a US Congressman, and later as chairman of
the board of Brown Publishing.
The family operated the business until 2010.
Brown graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., as his family lived there
much of the time when his father served in Congress.
He earned a scholarship to Northwestern University, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi
Fraternity.
Career Brown is often cast in roles of villains or
authority figures.
His career has tended to alternate among mainstream TV/cable; major-studio and independent-studio
movies; and a large repertoire of voice work for animated and video game roles.
Movie roles Brown's role as the Kurgan in Highlander helped
give him fame.
Other well-known roles include Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption; Viking
Lofgren in the drama movie Bad Boys; Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across
the Eighth Dimension; Frankenstein's monster in The Bride; Army mercenary Larry McRose
in Extreme Prejudice; vicious killer Steve in Shoot to Kill; the police officer in Michael
Jackson's short movie Speed Demon; Dead Man Walking; Sheriff Gus Gilbert in Pet Sematary
Two; Career Sergeant Zim in Starship Troopers; and Captain William Hadley in The Guardian.
He also played a role in Flubber as one of the evil henchmen that get harmed by uncontrollably
bouncing sports equipment.
In 1989, he appeared in the action thriller Blue Steel.
Brown has three times played senior prison officers in movies dealing with miscarriages
of justice: the tyrannical Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption; the sympathetic
Lt. Williams in The Hurricane; and Lt. McMannis in Last Light.
In 2001, he played the wisher man in the Hallmark version of Snow White.
In 2007, he played the Viking leader opposite Karl Urban in Pathfinder.
He starred in several independent films in 2008: The Burrowers, screened at the Toronto
Film Festival in 2008, and released in the United States on DVD in April 2009, and The
Twenty.
He appeared in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film The Informant!
opposite Matt Damon in which he played an attorney.
He also portrayed Alan Smith in Samuel Bayer's 2010 remake of the horror film A Nightmare
on Elm Street.
In 2011, he starred in Cowboys & Aliens alongside Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde.
He is cast as the voice of The Goon in the upcoming animated feature film.
He also stars as Albert Marconi in the film adaptation of the David Wong novel directed
by Don Coscarelli.
Television roles Brown was a series regular on the science
fiction series Earth 2 from 1994 to 1995, playing the role of John Danziger.
Brown was notable as the sinister preacher Brother Justin Crowe in the HBO series Carnivàle.
Though the series only ran for two seasons, Carnivàle has attained a cult popularity
and his pivotal performance was applauded by critics for showcasing a new side to his
acting talents.
He also starred in the Showtime production In the Company of Spies.
He has also made many guest appearances on various television series including ER, the
Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Desert Crossing" as Zobral, Lost as Kelvin Joe Inman, and former
baseball player Rudy Blue on The Riches.
"A Walk with Simon Kenton", a 2000 Kentucky Educational Television production on the frontiersman
figure key to America's westward expansion who resembles Brown in stature and is buried
in his hometown.
Brown most recently appeared as Hart Sterling, founding partner of fictional law firm Sterling,
Huddle, Oppenheim & Craft in ABC's The Deep End.
He also guest starred on the series Leverage episode "The Gone Fishin Job" and on The Dukes
of Hazzard sixth season episode "Too Many Roscos".
Voice roles As a voice-over actor, Brown has appeared
in several video games, usually playing an antagonistic character.
He voiced the corrupt Baron Praxis in the PlayStation 2 video game Jak II; Doctor Neo
Cortex and Uka Uka in a number of the Crash Bandicoot video games from Crash Bandicoot
2: Cortex Strikes Back to Crash Nitro Kart; Montross in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter; Hades
in God of War III; Thrall in the cancelled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the
Clans; Scourgelord Tyrannus in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King; and the conniving
Alderman Richard Hughes in the Xbox 360 game Saints Row.
For animated television series, he voiced Hakon, Tomas Brod, and Wolf in the series
Gargoyles; Tanuki Gonta in the English language dub of Pom Poko; Raiden on the animated series
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm; a Hessian trooper in The Night of the Headless Horseman;
billionaire Maxmilian Speil in Godzilla: The Series; and five of the six members of Legion
Ex Machina in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
Since 1999, he has played the role of Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants.
From 2000 to 2005, he played the roles of Captain Black, Ratso and the talisman-animated
moose doll known as "Super Moose" on Jackie Chan Adventures.
He also voiced Vice-Principal Pangborn in All Grown Up, Barkmeat in Catscratch, Otto
in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Gorrath in the animated series Megas XLR.
For Disney series, he has played roles such as the Dark Dragon in American Dragon: Jake
Long, the Ugly Bald Guy in the movie Recess: School's Out, as well as Undertow in The Little
Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, and he also made a guest appearance in the Kim Possible
episode "Oh, No!
Yono", where he played the titular character.
In the Avatar franchise, Brown voiced corrupt Dai Li leader Long Feng in Avatar: The Last
Airbender in 2006 and top gangster Yakone in The Legend of Korra in 2012.
He guest starred in The Penguins of Madagascar episodes "The Red Squirrel" and "Our Man in
Grrfurjiclestan" as the Rockhopper Penguin.
He also guest starred in Duck Dodgers as the voice of Archduke Zag.
He makes a few guest appearances in the Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb, most notably
as Santa Claus, the Regurgitator, and the Warden at Smile Away Reformatory School.
In 2010, he played various characters on Adventure Time including the Demon Cat in "Dungeon"
and the narrator for the opening and closing quotes in the episode "Ocean of Fear".
Brown also voices Destro in G.I.
Joe: Renegades; (Jeff Fischer's biological father Henry Fischer in a 2007 episode of
American Dad!; Grune the Destroyer in the ThunderCats reboot; and the recurring role
of Agent Silas in Transformers: Prime.
From 2011 to 2013, Brown played the role of Savage Opress, Count Dooku's new apprentice
and Darth Maul's brother in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
He starred as Chris "Dogpound" Bradford, Shredder's top henchman, in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles television series, and as The Red Hulk in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..
DC universe roles Brown is well known for his voice work as
villains from various DC animated series, movies and video games.
He played Mr. Freeze in The Batman, and Trident on Teen Titans; Parallax in the 2011 live-action
film Green Lantern; King Faraday in the Young Justice episode "Performance"; and General
Zartok in the Green Lantern: The Animated Series episode "Lost Planet".
However, his best-known role was in the DCAU as the villainous Lex Luthor, a role that
he played for over twelve years.
He first appeared as Lex vocally in Bruce Timm's Superman: The Animated Series.
He has reprised his role as Luthor in subsequent animated series Justice League and Justice
League Unlimited as well as the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips and the non
DCAU show The Batman.
Although he was absent from the movie Superman: Brainiac Attacks with Lex played by Brown's
Justice League Unlimited co-star Powers Boothe, Brown again played Luthor in Superman/Batman:
Public Enemies.
He also reprised the role under the name Rohtul in the television series Batman: Brave and
the Bold episode "The Super-Batman of Planet X!".
Brown once again voiced Lex in the video game Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and its sequel
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
From all these vocal appearances, Brown has played Lex Luthor longer than any other actor
in history, including Gene Hackman and Justice League co-star Michael Rosenbaum.
Marvel Universe roles Brown has also played characters from Marvel
Comics.
He played Sasquatch in The Incredible Hulk; Police Captain George Stacy and Supervillain
Rhino in The Spectacular Spider-Man; villainous Mr. Sinister on Wolverine and the X-Men; Odin
in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes; Taskmaster in Ultimate Spider-Man; and Red Hulk in Hulk
and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..
Personal life Brown has been married to Jeanne Johnson since
1993; they have a son and daughter.
Filmography Television
Video games References
Further reading Voisin, Scott, Character Kings: Hollywood's
Familiar Faces Discuss the Art and Business of Acting BearManor Media, 2009.
ISBN 978-1-59393-342-5 External links
Official website Clancy Brown at the Internet Movie Database
Clancy Brown at the TCM Movie Database Clancy Brown at AllMovie
Clancy Brown at Memory Alpha