Former American football champion turned comedian, Jim Brown has died at the age of 87. He had distinguished himself in “Les Douze Bastards”, “Mars Attacks” or “Sunday Hell”, as well as in several Blaxploitation productions.
He was considered the first major African-American action star in Hollywood. Legend of the American football fields of the NFL, who then became an actor in several films of the Blaxploitation and significant works such as The Twelve Bastards, Mars Attacks, The Hell of Sunday or He Got Game, Jim Brown died on May 18 in Los Angeles. He was 87 years old.
James “Jim” Nathaniel Brown was born to a professional boxer father and a housekeeper mother. During his childhood and adolescence, he dabbled in several sports before setting his sights on American football, which he played at university.
An excellent player, among other things for his exceptional speed, he turned professional and played for the Cleveland Browns. He subsequently won numerous titles including those of the Best player in the league in 1957, 1958 and 1965 and is considered one of the best footballers of all time, as this tribute from the NFL on Twitter reminds us.
After quitting the sport, Jim Brown changed course and devoted himself to cinema. One of his first screen appearances was in the cult film The Dirty Dozen, in which twelve criminals are offered a suicide mission in exchange for amnesty during World War II. In this action film with a four-star cast, he plays Robert T. Jefferson, the only African-American in the group.
Building on this success, Jim Brown continues in the 1960s with Le Crime, c’est notre business, Le Dernier train du Katanga, Destination Zebra, polar station and Les 100 fusils. In the 1970s, his notoriety increased when he appeared in several films related to the Blaxploitation, like Massacre, Black Gunn or Les Démolisseurs.
During this decade, the actor with an imposing build also played a robber seeking to get out of prison to get his hands on his loot in The Penitentiary, a prisoner again wanting to escape in Escape from Devil’s Island, a man having to deliver a large sum of money in the western La Chevauchée terrible as well as a disturbing pimp alongside Harvey Keitel in Mélodie pour un tueur.
From the 1980s, Jim Brown plays an assassin in the action and science fiction film Running Man led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and participates in several films eyeing the side of action and the police (Killing American Style, Pour la mort d’un cop, Twisted Justice).
During the 1990s, the actor was much rarer on the screens, despite his ex-boxer characters in the science fiction comedy Mars Attacks and ex-glory of American football in Sunday Hell. He also turns twice under the direction of Spike Lee, via two small roles, in He Got Game (1998) and She Hate Me (2004). At the same time, the actor is a commentator (from 1993 to 1996) at the Ultimate Fighting Championships.
More and more withdrawn from the trays, Jim Brown is, in the 2000s, on the poster of the unknown Animal, DreamStreet and Draft Day, a film starring Kevin Costner as a manager of the Buffalo Bills football club. Brown plays his own part in it. This is his last film appearance.