NFL Legend, star of ‘Dirty Dozen’ was 87 – The Hollywood Reporter
Jim Brown, the incomparable Cleveland Browns linebacker who left the NFL at the peak of his career to become a Hollywood hero in movies like Dirty scoresAnd zebra ice station And 100 rifles, He died. He was 87 years old.
A staunch advocate for civil rights, he died at his Los Angeles home Thursday night with his wife, Monique, at his side, his family spokesman told the Associated Press.
In a statement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell praised Brown’s skills on the field, as well as calling him “a cultural figure who helped promote change.” The letter continued, “During his nine-year NFL career, which coincided with the Civil Rights Movement here at home, he became a pioneer and role model for athletes participating in social initiatives outside of their sport. He inspired fellow athletes to make a difference, especially in the communities in which they live.
A combination of speed, strength, poise, determination, and intelligence—a combination of skills not seen before or since in a single player—the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Brown played nine seasons (1957-1965) in the NFL , all with Brown. He won a quick eight league titles, three MVP awards, and never missed a game due to injury.
After his ninth season—in which he led the NFL in rushing with 1,544 yards, scored 21 touchdowns and won Most Valuable Player honors—Brown was thrown into his sophomore season. Dirty scores (1967) directed by Robert Aldrich Starring Lee Marvin.
He portrayed Robert Jefferson, one of the 12 military criminals sent on a suicide mission during World War II to assassinate German officers prior to the D-Day invasion. Jefferson, a graduate of the college, was sentenced to death for killing a racist white soldier who had assaulted him.
When asked about his acting abilities, Marvin replied, “Well, Brown is a better actor than Sir Laurence Olivier would be a member of the Cleveland Browns.”
When production on the movie lasted a long time, he was the owner of Browns Art model He told his star player that he would be fined $100 a day for being late to training camp. Brown, who had one year left on his contract, then chose to retire as the league’s best ever player, and announced an announcement from Dirty set It is set in London while in an army uniform.
He was only 30 years old.
“My original goal was to try and get into the 1966 NFL season, but because of the circumstances, that’s impossible,” he said.
Brown later signed with MGM and portrayed the tough Marines captain. Leslie Anders vs. Rock Hudson and Ernest Bergen In the movie The Hit Action Adventure 1968 zebra ice station. And in the West 100 rifles (1969), he breaks taboos when he shares a smoldering love scene with a white actress (Raquel Welch).
The muscular Brown also played the role of a mercenary in the Congo group Sun darkness (1968), engineered a robbery at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the middle of a Rams V game division (1968) depicting a black sheriff in the South … tick … tick … (1970). He sought revenge on the mob as an ex-Green Beret on slaughter (1972) and a 1973 sequel and as a nightclub owner in Black Gun (1972).
Along the way, Brown opened doors for other black actors, and his Hollywood career spanned five decades, more than thirty films and dozens of TV appearances. (Portrayed by Aldis Hodge in the 2020 film Regina King One night in Miami.)
“I had great respect for Harry Belafonte and sydney [Poitier] and Sammy Davis [Jr.] V said Football life NFL Films documentary that premiered in November 2016. “But I was a physical actor, I was a hero… We needed that as African Americans.”
Later on, Brown acted in movies like Three the hard way (1974), fingers (1978), running guy (1987), I I will do silly person You soca (1988), Mars Attacks! (1996), creative gangs (1996), He’s got a game (1998), Little soldiers (1998), Any Sunday (1999) and draft day (2014).
He also served as talent manager for groups incl Earth, wind and fire.
mosques Nathaniel Brown was born on February 17, 1936, on the secluded St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia. His father was an award fighter and his mother was a homemaker. At the age of seven, he moved in with his divorced mother on Long Island in New York and attended Manhasset High school where he starred in five sports and earned 13 letters.
Brown received athletic scholarship offers from 42 schools and chose Syracuse University. There, he was a sensation on the football field, and also excelled on the track, basketball, and lacrosse teams (he was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1984, 13 years after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame).
Brown scored six touchdowns and kicked seven extra points in his final game of the regular season at Syracuse and was named a consensus All-American. He finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting and was selected sixth in the NFL Draft by the Browns.
In his ninth game as a pro, Brown broke an NFL record when he rushed for 237 yards against the Rams on his way to being named Rookie of the Year. In 1964, the Browns propelled the NFL championship, Cleveland’s last championship in a major sport until lebron James and the Cavaliers were crowned NBA champions in 2016.
Brown made his acting debut prior to the 1964 NFL season as Leather Soldier in the West Rio conchos. “Trust me, work that excites you both on the pedestrian and on screen requires hard work and precise timing,” he said in a promotional clip for the 1964 Fox film. Here Richard Boone and I blast a trolley of gunpowder destined for the Apache Indians. ”
“Have you ever been to any Negro theater with a Negro movie in it? Well, you can just feel the nervousness of this audience, and you get this guy to do something good, something to give them a little bit of pride,” Brown told Alex Haley in February 1968. play boy interview. “That is why I am so satisfied that Negroes are finally beginning to play roles that other Negroes feel, who watch, feel proud and responsive and sympathetic to, and feel real about, rather than being squashed by some on-screen Uncle Tom making a fool of himself.”
Brown said that one of the reasons he left the NFL was a desire to “have a hand in the conflict going on in our country.” He organized the National Negro Economic and Industrial Union, and on June 4, 1967, participated in a press conference in Cleveland in support of boxer Muhammad Ali’s refusal to join the service. In a now-famous photo, he is seen with Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics, Lou Alcindor (Now cream Abdul-Jabbar) from UCLA and NFL superstars such as Bobby Mitchell and Willie Davis.
“I’ve been dealing with race since I was born,” Brown said. Football life documentary. “In me, my strength was inexhaustible when it came to accepting that racial discrimination. I wouldn’t let anyone make me feel like I wasn’t a big boss. That was an uphill battle, and I could use a lot of it on the field.”
Brown has had some run-ins with the law and has been accused of violence against women several times. In his 1989 memoirs, Out of boundsHe admitted slapping women but wrote “I don’t think any man should slap anyone” and that he “should have been more in control of myself, stronger, more adult”.
In 1988, he founded Brown American program, working with gang members to enable them to “take charge of their lives and realize their full potential”. He drew up the organization’s pamphlet, which he said combined Malcolm X’s self-determination, the capitalism of Ronald Reagan and the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery plan.
Duane Berg Contribute to this report.