Phil Brown
Acting • Born 1916-04-30 – Died 2006-02-09
Biography
Philip Brown was an American actor. Brown was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After majoring in dramatics at Stanford University where he was a Brother of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, Brown played some of his earliest stage roles as part of New York's Group Theater. When it folded, he and other Group Theatre veterans headed to Hollywood, where Brown worked in motion pictures and helped found the fabled Actors' Laboratory. In 1946, he played Ernest Hemingway's famous protagonist Nick Adams in Robert Siodmak's version of The Killers, alongside William Conrad and Charles McGraw as the titular "killers". His association with the Lab came back to haunt him later in the decade, when its members fell under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although he was not a communist, Brown was blacklisted in 1952, and was eventually compelled to relocate with his family to England between 1953 and 1993. Overseas he was able to resume acting on stage, TV and films; he also directed for the stage and TV. He was best known for his role as Luke Skywalker's uncle, Owen Lars, in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). He returned to the United States in the 1990s and in later years made the rounds of autograph shows. Phil Brown died of pneumonia on February 9, 2006 at the age of 89.
Filmography
57 credits
Star Wars
Movie • 1977
Uncle Owen
Calling Dr. Gillespie
Movie • 1942
Roy Todwell
The Bedford Incident
Movie • 1965
Chief Hospitalman Mckinley - Sick Bay
State Fair
Movie • 1945
Harry Ware
Obsession
Movie • 1949
Bill Kronin
Weird Woman
Movie • 1944
David Jennings
Johnny O'Clock
Movie • 1947
Phil, Hotel Clerk
Ooh...You Are Awful
Movie • 1972
American Man
Over 21
Movie • 1945
Frank MacDougal
Togetherness
Movie • 1970
Everett
The Camp on Blood Island
Movie • 1958
Lt. Peter Bellamy
Scalawag
Movie • 1973
Sandy
The Impatient Years
Movie • 1944
Henry Fairchild
The Luck of the Irish
Movie • 1948
Tom Higginbotham
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
Movie • 1941
Joe Bingham
The Jungle Captive
Movie • 1945
Don Young
Land Raiders
Movie • 1969
Sheriff John Mayfield
A King in New York
Movie • 1957
Headmaster
Bomber Harris
Movie • 1989
Lord Beaverbrook
Twilight's Last Gleaming
Movie • 1977
Rev. Cartwright
The Adding Machine
Movie • 1969
Don
Chaplin
Movie • 1992
Projectionist
Maneaters Are Loose!
Movie • 1978
Kevin Pennington
The Curse of a Faithful Wife
Movie • 1972
Moonrise
Movie • 1948
Elmer - Soda Jerk
The Killers
Movie • 1946
Nick Adams (uncredited)
Pierre of the Plains
Movie • 1942
Val Denton
The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Movie • 1972
Clark
If You Knew Susie
Movie • 1948
Joe Collins
Superman
Movie • 1978
State Senator
Hello, Annapolis
Movie • 1942
Kansas City
Operation Cross Eagles
Movie • 1968
Sgt. Turley
The Romantic Englishwoman
Movie • 1975
Mr. Wilson
Bomb at 10:10
Movie • 1967
Professor Pilich / Profesor Pilić
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Movie • 1976
Virginia Senator
Tropic of Cancer
Movie • 1970
Van Norden
Starwoids
Movie • 2001
Self
Valdez Is Coming
Movie • 1971
Malson
John Paul Jones
Movie • 1959
Sentry
The Counterfeit Traitor
Movie • 1962
Harold Murray (uncredited)
I Wanted Wings
Movie • 1941
Jimmy Masters
The Martian Chronicles
Movie • 1980
Narrator
Tales of the Unexpected
TV • 1979
F. Milton Willis
The Martian Chronicles
TV • 1980
Narrator
The Protectors
TV • 1972
Adam Markos
Oppenheimer
TV • 1980
Lewis Strauss
Interpol Calling
TV • 1959
Brownley
Journey to the Unknown
TV • 1968
White Hunter
TV • 1957
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
TV • 1981
Colonel March of Scotland Yard
TV • 1956
Dr. Bryan Hayes
The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel
TV • 1955
Frank Rawlinson
Dial 999
TV • 1958
Colonel March of Scotland Yard
TV • 1956
Gordon
The Professionals
TV • 1977
Callahan
The Fortunate Pilgrim
TV • 1988
O
Theatre Night
TV • 1957
Sam Grassman