Whatever happened to Joe E. Brown? I saw most of his pictures and loved every one. - B.S., East Lake, Ohio.
STATS: Born July 28, 1892, in Holgate, Ohio, as Joe Evans Brown. He attended public schools. He's married with two sons and two adopted daughters.IN EARLY YEARS: At 9, he joined the circus with an acrobatic troupe. When they broke up in 1906, he went into baseball. His clowning on the field led to a switch to vaudeville in 1914. In 1918, he made his Broadway debut, and in 1922 made his movie debut in "Crooks Can't Win." He made 75 movies in his long career and retired from movies in 1943. During World War II, he toured war zones, entertaining troops by giving nearly 800 shows, and wrote about it in a book, "Your Kids and Mine." One of his sons was killed in the war.
FAMOUS FOR: Brown's rubber face and big mouth were fixtures in low-budget comedies for 25 years.
IN RECENT YEARS: After the war, he returned to the theater, worked in TV and did several features: "The Tender Years," "Show Boat" and "Some Like It Hot." In 1959, he published his autobiography, "Laughter Is a Wonderful Thing." Brown died in 1973.
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