John Brown (actor)

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,^[3] both "Gillis" and Digby "Digger" O'Dell in The Life of Riley,^[4] (a role he reprised for the first incarnation of the television show), "Broadway" in The Damon Runyon Theatre,^[5] 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 reportedly find it impossible to think of the narrator of Damon Runyon’s stories as anyone else.^[6]

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.

In early television, Brown was the second actor (after Hal March) to play "Harry Morton", the next-door neighbor of George Burns and Gracie Allen in their situation comedy show, opposite Bea Benaderet; his tenure on the series lasted six months, and he was replaced by Fred Clark in June 1951.

In 1952, Brown was placed on the Hollywood blacklist.^[7]

Brown died of a heart attack on May 16, 1957, in West Hollywood, California, while en route to his doctor's office.^[1][8]