Biography for
Tod Browning More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

12 July 1880, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Date of Death

6 October 1962, Hollywood, California, USA (cancer)

Birth Name

Charles Albert Browning

Mini Biography

Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916). Working later on as a director, he had his first success with The Unholy Three (1925) (after about 25 unimportant pictures) which had his typical style of a mixture of fantasy, mystery and horror. His biggest hit was the classic Dracula (1931), in which he also appears as the voice of the harbor master.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm

Spouse

Alice Browning	(9 June 1911 - 12 May 1944) (her death)
Amy Louise Stevens	(1906 - 1910) (divorced)

Trivia

First wife, Amy Louise Stevens, was William Collier Jr.'s aunt.

Grew up in Louisville with his cousin, "Old" Pete Browning, a 3 time batting champ, who stole 103 bases in 1887. Pete's commissioning of a bat provided the start of the Hillerich & Bradsby bat company, famous for their Louisville Slugger model. The eccentric Pete drank heavily, apparently due to a chronic mastoid infection, and his catchphrase was "I can't hit the ball, unless I hit the bottle."

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 66-71. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Former circus contortionist.

Mentioned in David Bowie's song "Diamond Dogs", which was re-recorded by Beck and Timbaland for Moulin Rouge! (2001).

Salary

West of Zanzibar (1928)	$45,000
The Unholy Three (1925)	$6,500

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