Georg Stanford Brown (born June 24, 1943) is an American actor and director, perhaps best known as one of the stars of the ABC police

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

'' The Rookies'' from 1972 to 1976. On the show, Brown played the character of Officer Terry Webster.

Personal life

Brown was seven years old when his family moved from

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

, NY. At 15, he formed the singing group 'The Parthenons', which had a single TV appearance shortly before breaking up.http://www.fandango.com/georgstanfordbrown/biography/p83220 Brown quit high school at 16, after being invited to do so by a few frustrated teachers. He left New York to move to Los Angeles at 17. After a few years of not being sure what he wanted to do, he decided to go back to school. He passed the college entrance exam and was admitted to

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campu ...

where he majored in Theater Arts to "take something easy". He ended up really enjoying it and returned to New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He worked as a school janitor to pay his tuition. He met his wife Tyne Daly while at AMDA, where they both studied under Philip Burton,

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

's mentor. They were married for 24 years, from 1966 to 1990. They have three daughters.

Early career

Brown says he feels acting is just something he "fell into". Six months out of school, he appeared in

Joseph Papp Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a ...

's New York Shakespeare Festival (now called Shakespeare in the Park), and next in '' The Comedians'' with

and

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

. His work then took him to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

for four and a half months,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, then Southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. And a chance meeting with

Alex Haley Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...

who was on his way to Africa to work on a story he was writing (which turned out to be ''

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

'').

Career

During the 1960s, Brown had a variety of roles in films, including Henri Philipot in '' The Comedians'' (1967), Theon Gibson in '' Dayton's Devils'' (1968), and Dr. Willard in ''

Bullitt ''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleine ...

'' (1968). His 1970s films included '' Colossus: The Forbin Project'' (1970), '' The Man'' (1972), and '' Wild in the Sky'' (1972), co-starring Brandon deWilde, as anti-war, anti-establishment guerrillas, who devise a scheme to destroy

Fort Knox Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold re ...

with an atomic bomb. Brown later played Tom Harvey (son of Chicken George, great-grandson of Kunta Kinte, and great-grandfather of

) in the 1977 television miniseries ''

,'' and 1979's '' Roots: The Next Generations.'' In 1980, he starred in the TV movie ''The Night the City Screamed'', and in '' Stir Crazy'' opposite

Gene Wilder Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...

and

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

. Later in 1984 he starred in the TV movie '' The Jesse Owens Story'' in the role of Lew Gilbert. He then went on to a supporting role in yet another miniseries '' North & South'' in 1985 as the character Garrison Grady. In 1986, he won a

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is presented to the best directing of a television drama series, usually for a particular episode.Though this category is the dominant one in which dramatic directing has been ...

for directing the final episode ("Parting Shots") in season 5 of ''

Cagney & Lacey ''Cagney & Lacey'' is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very di ...

''. His directing career continued with the

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

''Alone in the Neon Jungle'' (also known by its earlier name ''Command in Hell''), which was network premiered by CBS on Sunday January 17, 1988. It was characterised in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' by

Tom Shales Thomas William Shales (born November 3, 1944) is an American writer and retired critic of television programming and operations. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which Shales received the Pulitzer Pr ...

as 'a stupefyingly preposterous bungle, but only in its better moments', while a marginally more favourable assessment praised 'cop characters that are humanized with humor and the realistically gritty feel that comes with filming on location in Pittsburgh instead of Hollywood'.Joan Hanauer,
TV Movie Dud of the Year
, ''United Press International'' (13 January 1988). Brown co-starred in the comedy sequel ''

House Party 2 ''House Party 2'' is a 1991 American comedy film and the sequel to the 1990 film ''House Party'' released by New Line Cinema. The film returns most of the cast of the first film such as Kid 'n Play and Full Force, along with new cast members ...

'' in 1991, and the Showtime television show ''

Linc's ''Linc's'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Tim Reid and Susan Fales-Hill. The series starred Steven Williams, Pam Grier and Golden Brooks, and was set in a bar in Washington, D.C. It aired on Showtime for two seasons f ...

'' from 1998 thru 2000. Brown also directed several second-season episodes of the television series ''

Hill Street Blues ''Hill Street Blues'' is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes. The show chronicles the lives of the staff of a single police station loca ...

.'' More recently, Brown had a recurring role on the FX drama series ''

Nip/Tuck ''Nip/Tuck'' is an American medical drama television series created by Ryan Murphy that aired on FX in the United States from July 22, 2003, to March 3, 2010. The series, which also incorporates elements of crime drama, black comedy, family dra ...

.''

Filmography

As Actor

Film

Television

Video Games

As Director

Television

As Producer

Television

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Georg Stanford 1943 births African-American male actors American male television actors American television directors Cuban emigrants to the United States Living people Los Angeles City College alumni People from Havana 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people American Musical and Dramatic Academy alumni