Johnny Brown

June 11, 1937 – March 2, 2022

 A nightclub promoter and performer, his early best role was as a regular cast member of the television series Laugh-in. Brown is mostly remembered for his portly physique, beautiful smile, mobile facial expressions, and easy, pleasant joking style.

Brown made appearences on The Flip Wilson Show, The Jeffersons, Family Matters, Sister, Sister, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Wayans Bros, and Martin. He had a small role in the 1970 film The Out-of-Towners starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as a waiter on a railroad dining car. Brown went to school with Walter Dean Myers when he lived in Harlem, New York City as a boy.

Brown also appeared in several television commercials, including ads for Hunt's Manwich and the Write Brothers pen, a short-lived product of the Papermate pen company in the 1970s. The commercial consisted of an elaborate musical number, "Write On, Brothers, Write On", led by Brown as a schoolteacher who encourages his chorus line of students to use this pen for their school assignments.

In 1997, Brown contributed his voice to the introduction of the compilation album Comedy Stew: The Best of Redd Foxx. In the introduction, Brown tells of how Norman Lear had considered Brown to play the role of Lamont in Sanford and Son, but was unavailable to do so because of his prior commitment to Laugh-In, leading Lear to give the role to Demond Wilson instead.

In 1999, Brown appeared on two episodes of the Nickelodeon children's sitcom Kenan & Kel.

Good Night Mr. Brown

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Tony Figueroa