RIP Roscoe Lee Browne (1925-2007)

Character actor and Woodbury NJ native Roscoe Lee Browne has passed away...Browne's career spanned some 40 years. His distinctive presence made everything he did seem that much more special. He could do it all Movies TV and the Stage--in any genre. He will be sorely missed

Here is an extended excerpt from the obituary written by Jon Thurber of The LA Times

...the Emmy-award winning actor with the mellifluous baritone that he used to give voice to roles as varied as Shakespeare's plays and the popular animal film "Babe," died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81.

The cause of death was cancer, said publicist Alan Nierob.

A classically trained actor with a commanding presence, Browne worked for some of the leading directors in film, including Alfred Hitchcock in "Topaz" and Jules Dassin in "Up Tight!" and starring in William Wyler's last film, "The Liberation of L.B. Jones."

Gifted in comedy as well as drama, Browne won his Emmy in 1986 for a guest appearance as Professor Foster in an episode of "The Cosby Show."

"He was one of the most remarkable presences on stage, on film, on television," Sidney Poitier, who directed Browne in the 1974 comedy "Uptown Saturday Night" and knew him for about 40 years, told The Times on Wednesday. "However, when he was in person, he was particularly impactful."

One of Browne's real loves was poetry, which he wrote as well as read...

"This is the only person I know who could recite, without anything written in front of him, hundreds of poems," Poitier said. "He was a connoisseur of poetry. He made his living partially visiting places where poetry is revered, and he would perform, he would read, he would discuss, he would analyze poetry. He was a remarkable person in that regard, in addition to being a consummate actor."

The son of a Baptist minister, Browne was born on May 2, 1925. After serving in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II, he graduated from historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he later taught French and comparative literature.

A gifted runner, he won the 1951 world championship in the 800-yard dash.

For much of his career, television provided Browne with steady employment.

When Robert Guillaume's character Benson left to star in his own series, Browne replaced him in 1980 as the butler to the Tate family on the ABC series "Soap." He also appeared as Rosemont on the CBS prime-time drama on "Falcon Crest."

One of his more memorable guest appearances on television came in a 1972 episode of "All in the Family " when Browne, playing a snobbish attorney, got stuck in an elevator with Archie Bunker and a pregnant woman.

Film roles ranged widely, from the story of the Harlem drug dealer in "Superfly T.N.T." to the John Wayne film "The Cowboys."

Browne described working with Wayne as "delightful" and said he had "never worked with anyone who was more professional or generous of spirit."

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 tounge"