Clarence Brown

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 63-66. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Clarence Leon Brown was the son of Larkin Harry and Catherine Ann (Gaw) Brown of Clinton, Massachusetts. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was 12 years old. He graduated from Knoxville High School in 1905 and from the University of Tennessee with a B. A.

Graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1910 at age 19 with a double degree in mechanical and electrical engineering.

in mechanical and electrical engineering in 1912. After graduation Brown settled in Alabama, where he operated a Stevens Duryea dealership called the Brown Motor Car Co. He soon tired of the car business and, fascinated by the movies, moved to New Jersey to study with French director Maurice Tourneur at Peerless Productions in Fort Lee. During his career Brown directed or produced more than 50 widely-acclaimed full-length films--many during his long association with prestigious MGM--and worked with many of the industry's most illustrious performers.

Had one daughter, Adrienne (sometimes given as Arabella), by his first wife in 1917.

He has directed three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Last of the Mohicans (1920), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and National Velvet (1944). He has also edited one film that is in the registry: The Blue Bird (1918).

At six, he holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Director without a win. He was nominated for Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), A Free Soul (1931), The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1944) and The Yearling (1946).

The governor of Tennessee declared May 27, 1970, as Clarence Brown Day with the start of the inaugural film festival in the 626 Clarence Brown Theater on the campus of the University of Tennessee.