Clarence James Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
His film roles include Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), Frankenstein's monster in The Bride (1985), the Kurgan in Highlander (1986), Sheriff Gus Gilbert in Pet Sematary Two (1992), Capt. Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Sgt. Charles Zim in Starship Troopers (1997), Stanley Thomas in Promising Young Woman (2020), and the Harbinger in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023). On television, he has played Brother Justin Crowe on the HBO series Carnivàle (2003–2005), Waylon "Jock" Jeffcoat on the Showtime series Billions (2018–2019, 2023), Kurt Caldwell on the Showtime series Dexter: New Blood (2021–2022), and Sal Maroni in The Penguin (2024).
Brown has voiced Lex Luthor in various DC Comics animated media since 1996 and Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants since 1999. His other voice roles include Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2006), Savage Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011–2013), Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and General Kregg in Invincible (2021–2026). In video games, he voiced Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot franchise (1997–2003) and performed the motion capture and voice of Hank Anderson in Detroit: Become Human (2018).
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Early life
Clarence James Brown III was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, Ohio, and had an older sister, Beth, who died in 1964. Their mother, Joyce Helen (née Eldridge), was a conductor, composer and concert pianist. The siblings' father, Clarence J. "Bud" Brown Jr., was a newspaper publisher who helped manage the Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper business started by Clancy's grandfather, Congressman Clarence J. Brown. From 1965 to 1983, Bud Brown also served as a congressman, in the same seat as his own father, and later as Chairman of the Board of Brown Publishing. The family continued to operate the business until 2010.
Brown graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and Northwestern University. At St. Albans, Brown performed the role of Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth in The Crucible.
Career
Live-action performances
In Brown's first mainstream film, he was cast as Viking Lofgren alongside Sean Penn in the 1983 crime drama Bad Boys. He followed up as the sadistic Kurgan in the 1986 film Highlander, which failed in theaters but had more success on home video. Other eighties roles included Army mercenary Larry McRose in Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice, killer Steve in Roger Spottiswoode's Shoot to Kill and Detective Nick Mann in Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel.
Brown has played prison officers in three films dealing with miscarriages of justice: the tyrannical Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, the sympathetic Lt. Williams in The Hurricane, and Lt. McMannis in Last Light. In 2001, he played a magical character credited as 'The granter of wishes' in the Hallmark version of Snow White. In 2007, he played the Viking leader opposite Karl Urban in Pathfinder.
He starred in several independent films in 2008: The Burrowers, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, and released in the United States on DVD in April 2009, and The Twenty. He appeared in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film The Informant! opposite Matt Damon in which he played an attorney. He also portrayed Alan Smith in Samuel Bayer's 2010 remake of the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. In 2011, he appeared in Cowboys & Aliens (directed by Jon Favreau) with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. He was cast as the voice of The Goon in the animated feature film. He also starred as Albert Marconi in the film adaptation of the David Wong novel John Dies at the End, directed by Don Coscarelli.
Brown was a series regular on the science fiction series Earth 2 from 1994 to 1995, playing the role of John Danziger. Brown was notable as the sinister preacher Brother Justin Crowe in the HBO series Carnivàle. Though the series only ran for two seasons, Carnivàle has attained a cult popularity and his performance was applauded by critics for showcasing a new side to his acting talents. He also starred in the Showtime production In the Company of Spies and the HBO film Cast a Deadly Spell. As conservative United States Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat, he was one of the primary antagonists in seasons three and four of the Showtime series Billions.
He has also made many guest appearances on various television series including ER, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Desert Crossing" as Zobral, Lost as Kelvin Joe Inman, and former baseball player (and investment scam mark) Rudy Blue on The Riches. Brown also appeared as the frontiersman Simon Kenton, the key to America's westward expansion, in the 2000 Kentucky Educational Television production "A Walk with Simon Kenton". Kenton resembled Brown in stature and is buried in Brown's hometown. Brown most recently appeared as Hart Sterling, founding partner of fictional law firm Sterling, Huddle, Oppenheim & Craft in ABC's The Deep End. He also guest starred on the Leverage series episode "The Gone Fishin Job" and on The Dukes of Hazzard sixth-season episode "Too Many Roscos". He appeared on The CW's TV production of The Flash in the recurring guest-star role of General Wade Eiling. He has also portrayed Ray Schoonover in the Daredevil episodes "Guilty as Sin" and "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" and The Punisher episode "Kandahar". He played Sheriff Joe Corbin in Sleepy Hollow. In January 2021, it was announced Brown had been cast in Showtime's Dexter revival Dexter: New Blood with a leading role as Kurt Caldwell. In 2022, Brown joined the cast of The Boys spin-off series Gen V as Richard "Rich Brink" Brinkerhoff. In 2025, Brown was cast as Big Hank Hickman in The CW’s series Good Cop/Bad Cop.
Voice-over work
As a voice-over actor, Brown has appeared in various video games, usually playing an antagonistic character. He lends his voice to several of the crystallized dragons in the PlayStation game Spyro the Dragon.He voiced Paladin Rhombus in Fallout (1997). He voiced the corrupt Baron Praxis in the PlayStation 2 video game Jak II; Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka in a number of the Crash Bandicoot video games; Montross (a Mandalorian rival of Jango Fett) in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter; Hades in God of War III; Thrall in the cancelled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans; Scourgelord Tyrannus in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King; the conniving Alderman Richard Hughes in the Xbox 360 game Saints Row; and the cynical, foul-mouthed Lt. Anderson in Detroit: Become Human.
For animated television series, he voiced several characters (Hakon, Tomas Brod and Wolf) in the series Gargoyles; Tanuki Gonta in the English language dub of Pom Poko (1994); Raiden on the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm; a Hessian trooper in The Night of the Headless Horseman (1999); billionaire Maxmilian Speil in Godzilla: The Series; and five of the six members of Legion Ex Machina in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
Since 1999, he has played the role of Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants (as well the spinoffs and films The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run). The show celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019. In celebration, a television special was aired, titled "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout". One scene includes each of the show's main characters' voice actors portraying live-action versions of their characters. While not the first Spongebob Squarepants episode that blended animated sequences with live-action characters, this was the first time that the characters' voice actors have all played a live-action scene all together. From 2000 to 2005, he played several roles (Captain Black, Ratso and the animated moose doll Super Moose) on Jackie Chan Adventures. He also voiced Vice-Principal Pangborn in All Grown Up!, Barkmeat in Catscratch, Otto in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (which also stars fellow SpongeBob co-star Tom Kenny, who voices Gibson) and Gorrath in Megas XLR.
For Disney, he has played roles such as the Dark Dragon in American Dragon: Jake Long, the Ugly Bald Guy in the film Recess: School's Out, as well as Undertow in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, and he also made a guest appearance in the Kim Possible episode "Oh, No! Yono" where he played the titular character. He also voiced King Frederick in the Disney Channel series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure and the Disney Channel film Tangled: Before Ever After.
Activism
On March 30, 2012, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) completed a merger of equals forming a new union SAG-AFTRA. As a result of this merger, a group of actors including Brown, fellow voice actors Michael Bell, Wendy Schaal, Schaal's former stepmother Valerie Harper, and other actors including former SAG President Edward Asner, Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, and Nancy Sinatra immediately sued against the current SAG President Ken Howard and several SAG Vice Presidents to overturn the merger and separate the (now merged) two unions because of their claims that the election was improper. The plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit several months later.
Personal life
Brown has been married to Jeanne Johnson since 1993. They have two children.
Brown is involved in charity organizations, supporting the Beth Brown Memorial Fund named after his late sister, which offers scholarships to students who want to study pediatric healthcare. In 1999 he spearheaded a charity campaign to support J. Madison Wright, his on-screen daughter from Earth 2, who needed a heart transplant. He has also given back to his Alma mater the Northwestern University through benefit performances.
In a 2023 interview with NPR, Brown said that he came from a "very long legacy of Republican ideology - back when they had an ideology." His father, Bud Brown, had passed from COVID-19 complications the previous year.