Comments on: Roscoe Lee Browne. RIP, Mr. Nightlinger.

Roscoe Lee Browne. RIP, Mr. Nightlinger.

loosemouth — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:34:43 -0800

Roscoe Lee Browne, class act from beginning to end. The first time I ever noticed him was in The Cowboys, a western I've watched many times just to hear him speak.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:00:04 -0800

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:41:25 -0800

. There's also a scene of him jumping out a window onto an awning in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz. I also remember as the butler who replaced Benson on Soap after Robert Guillaume got his own spinoff.

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:42:37 -0800

Thanks for posting this. Great voice-overs and narration. Distinguished and poised. Great actor. One of a kind. Will be missed. Thanks Mr Browne.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:24:32 -0800

aww, His deep, warm voice gave Babe such a wonderful narrative, especially contrated with the squeaky mice chorus. Rest in peace Roscoe Lee Browne.

By: ObscureReferenceMan

ObscureReferenceMan — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:02:00 -0800

Great actor, beautiful voice! I actually met him (well, bumped into him) in NYC one morning. Nice guy. My favorite appearance of his: on All in the Family, where Archie is in the hospital, and can only talk to him separated by a curtain. Classic TV moment. RIP Mr. Browne.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:08:30 -0800

My favorite Browne moment: on The Cosby Show, as Cliff and Claire's old English professor. Roped into their weekly pinochle game, he says in that wonderful Shakespearean voice of his, "No matter how dumb the dealer looks, always cut the cards."

By: allaboutgeorge

allaboutgeorge — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:15:06 -0800

ObscureReferenceMan: Good on you, you've given me a new favorite. My old favorite? "Ay, there's the rub." * Sleep, dear Mr. Browne, perchance to dream. .

By: allaboutgeorge

allaboutgeorge — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:30:36 -0800

[...] In an interview with Times film writer Kevin Thomas in 1969, Browne noted in his wry manner that his voice had always been a cause for comment. While he was on location in Tennessee in the late 1960s for "The Liberation of L.B. Jones," a policeman came up to him and said, "You don't sound like the others" — to which Brown replied, "It's my native tongue." He also recalled that early in his career, a director told him that his speech sounded "white." Browne's response was simple and to the point: "We had a white maid." [...]

By: mike3k

mike3k — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:06:35 -0800

By: breezeway

breezeway — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:34:54 -0800

Great actor. I'll miss him. I've heard so many stories of people running into him, recognizing him, and he responds by sitting down with them to eat, buying them dinner, or ordering a drink and sitting and talking for awhile. A complete gentleman. RIP, Mr. Browne.

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:38:02 -0800

I worked with him once. He did the voiceover for a trailer that I cut. He was a nice guy, and a real gentleman. .

By: mer2113

mer2113 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:16:53 -0800

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:04:05 -0800

Aw, damn. I knew this day was going too well. Browne had a two-man show with Anthony Zerbe he used to take around. I was hoping he'd head back to Nebraska with it again. Man, I loved him in "The Cowboys". And he was in a clever episode of "Magnum PI" that still tickles me. Sure wish some of his Shakespeare stuff had been taped. Saw stills of him as Autolycus that really got my interest. What quiet dignity and versatility he had. Damn.

By: Megafly

Megafly — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:29:42 -0800

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:59:29 -0800

My special memories of Roscoe all entail him half-listening to me sing jazz as he was groggily attached to the bar at the old Money Tree in Toluca Lake, where he spent more than a few of his evenings over the last decade. There he always seemed to be, this effeminate and elegant Shakespearean-voiced icon, tossing 'em back as the resident "Norm" in a bar whose booths featured godawful etched glass portraits of the kids from Our Gang. He rarely cited poetry on those occasions. Instead I will always remember his voice laughing as he was ordering another round. I never knew he was the voice of the movie Babe, it makes me want to watch it again. He was an odd, insanely talented duck.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:14:29 -0800

[FWIW, I'm NOT outing the dear Mr. Brown here on Metafilter. In describing his manner as effeminately eccentric, I'm just recalling my personal experiences & interchanges with him. That I recall, he always entered and left the bar alone.]

By: retronic

retronic — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 02:53:31 -0800

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:49:01 -0800

As a tough but beloved professor on the Cosby Show, he was one of my earliest inspirations to be a professor.