John Brown

Biography

Brown had major roles in several popular radio shows: He was "John Doe" in the Texaco Star Theater's version of Fred Allen's Allen's Alley,[2] played Irma's love interest Al in My Friend Irma, both "Gillis" and Digby "Digger" O'Dell in The Life of Riley, (a role he reprised for the first incarnation of the television show), "Broadway" in The Damon Runyon Theatre, and "Thorny" the neighbor on the radio version of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Perhaps his most memorable piece of work is the ‘Broadway’ role; once heard, many find it impossible to think of the narrator of Damon Runyon’s stories as anyone else. It was a measure of Brown’s talent that this quintessentially American character was portrayed by an Englishman. Brown appeared in some notable films: as the inebriated professor in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, uncredited), and The Wild One (1953); he supplied the voice of "Ro-Man" in the 1953 cult science fiction B-film Robot Monster.

Known For

Strangers on a Train

as Prof. Collins

The Day the Earth Stood Still

as George Barley, boarder

The Stranger

as Passport Photographer (uncredited)

The Wild One

as Bill Hannegan

I Love Lucy

as Mr. Murdoch

The Bigamist

Robot Monster

as Ro-Man / Great Guidance (voice)

Hans Christian Andersen

as Schoolmaster

Symphony in Slang

as The Hipster / Noah Webster (voice) (uncredited)

The Horn Blows at Midnight

as Lou the waiter (uncredited)