Joe E. Brown Net Worth

#Fact1He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1680 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.2Brown was a member of The Lambs, an actors club established in New York City in 1874. He joined The Lambs in 1924 and was later made a Life Member.3He was one of only two civilians awarded the Bronze Star during World War II. At his own expense, he would travel frequently to Europe and the Pacific to entertain the troops, performing in all weather conditions and frequently in hospitals. He was even known to have done his entire routine for dying soldiers, or just one injured man, so he wouldn't be left out. On each trip back to the United States, he would bring sacks of mail from the servicemen to deliver to their families.4An ardent opponent of the Nazi regime, in 1939 Brown testified before the House Immigration Committee in support of a bill that would allow 20,000 German-Jewish refugee children into the United States. He would later adopt two German-Jewish refugee girls himself, naming them Mary Katherine Ann (born 1930) and Kathryn Francis (born 1934).5Joe E. Brown's son Joe L. Brown became a baseball executive and is best known for being the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the period when they won the World Series in 1960.6The cartoon characters Lippy the Lion and Peter Potamus was modeled after Brown.7His son Don Evan, a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps, died in World War II in a plane crash.8When his oldest son was born, Brown got sick and passed out in the delivery room.9In December 1939, his daughter Kathryn suffered a skull fracture when she was thrown from a horse. Three days later, Brown was in a car accident in where his car rolled over several times and fell down a 35 foot embankment. He ended up breaking his back and collapsing a lung. His heart stopped during surgery and he was clinically dead for 40 seconds.10In 1944, his daughter Mary Katherine was injured in a car accident and near death. There were so many other car accidents that night that there were not enough doctors at the hospital to care for her. Brown ran around the hospital trying to find someone to help him until finally a doctor, tired and ready to go home, recognized Brown and agreed to help his doctor. He treated her for seven hours, saving her life.11He and his wife renewed their wedding vows on December 24, 1940. His oldest son Don gave away the bride, second son Joe was best man, and the daughters were flower girls. Daughter-in-law Virginia Newport Brown was the maid of honor.12His sons were both athletes at the University of California, Los Angeles.13Had four children: two sons, Don Evan (born December 25, 1916) and Joe L. Brown, and two daughters, Mary Katherine Ann (born 1930) and Kathryn Francis (born 1934). Both daughters were adopted as infants.14Playing the flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Brown ad-libbed, "I won't play any more" when thrown into a lake. It always got a good laugh, but it is said to be the only non-Shakespeare bit of dialogue in the film.15His comical face and satchel-sized mouth seemed to overshadow the fact that Brown was a remarkably gifted athlete and had an almost deceptively ripped physique, which he maintained throughout his entire life.16OH-18 in Holgate, Ohio, his birthplace, is renamed Joe E. Brown Avenue. Toledo, Ohio has a city park named Joe E. Brown Park, 150 W Oakland Street.17In 1948, he won a special Tony Award for the touring production of "Harvey", cited for "spreading theater to the country while the original performs in New York".18Bowling Green State University dedicated one of its three theaters to him (the one in which he appeared in "Harvey" in the 1950s) as The Joe E. Brown Theatre.19Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy", by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 68-69. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 081602338720Joe Evans Brown passed away on July 6, 1973, only three weeks away from what would have been his 81st birthday on July 28.21Following his death, he was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Specific interment location: Sunrise Slope, just south of the Great Mausoleum.