Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born | Clarence J. Brown III |
Clarence J. Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. He is known for his role as The Kurgan (also known as Victor Kruger) in the original Highlander movie, as Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants, and Dr. Neo Cortex for six years in the Crash Bandicoot series of games.
Biography
Early life
Brown was born in Urbana, Ohio. His mother, Joyce, was a concert pianist, while his father, Clarence J. "Bud" Brown Jr., was Ohio Congressman and chairman of the board of Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper business started by his grandfather, Congressman Clarence J. Brown. Brown graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and earned a scholarship to Northwestern University where he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He was inspired as a youth by a neighbor who showed him Shakespeare's works.
Career
At 6' 3½" tall (1.92 m) and possessing a deep voice, he is often typecast in roles of villains, such as Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series and later in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Other well-known roles include Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, Viking Lofgren in the 1983 hit drama movie Bad Boys, Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984), Career Sergeant Zim in Starship Troopers, the sinister preacher Brother Justin Crowe in the HBO series Carnivàle, and the antagonist, The Kurgan, in the first Highlander.
He has voiced the corrupt Baron Praxis in the PlayStation 2 video game, Jak II, the psychopathic Doctor Neo Cortex and destructive Uka Uka in a number of the Crash Bandicoot video games until Crash Twinsanity (in which he was replaced by Lex Lang and Alex Fernandez), Montross, rival of Jango Fett, in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and the aggressive alien villain Gorrath in the animated series Megas XLR. Brown was also the voice of Thrall in the cancelled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. In the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Brown voiced Raiden, a character that had been played by Christopher Lambert in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. He also gave his voice to various dragons Spyro rescues in Spyro the Dragon, as well the conniving Alderman Richard Hughes in the Xbox 360 game Saints Row.
Brown has also had many guest appearances on various television shows including Star Trek: Enterprise and a recent appearance on Lost as Kelvin Inman, an American officer during Desert Storm who convinced Sayid, a soldier of the Republican Guard, to torture his commanding officer — and was later found to be a member of the The DHARMA Initiative stationed at "The Swan" with Desmond. His best known starring television role before Carnivàle was that of John Danzinger on Earth 2. He played former baseball player (and investment scam mark) Rudy Blue on The Riches.
Brown supplied the voice of Mister Freeze in The Batman. Beginning in 2000, he regularly played the roles of Captain Black and Ratso on Jackie Chan Adventures and occasionally took on the role of the talisman animated moose doll known as Super Moose. He has also voiced Principal Pangborn in All Grown Up, and Barkmeat in Catscratch and starred in Disney shows, playing roles such as Otto in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Alexander Paine in A.T.O.M. and the Dark Dragon in American Dragon: Jake Long. He also plays Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender. He is the commercial spokesman for the Home Depot.
Personal life
Brown is married to Jeanne Johnson, with whom he has two children. He is a collector of animation art and loves to read. Unlike The Kurgan, his signature role, Brown is reputed to be a warm, sensitive, and kind individual by all those who associate with him, professionally or casually.