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Neville Brand
1966 publicity photo
BornLawrence Neville Brand
(1920-08-13)August 13, 1920
Griswold, Iowa, U.S.
DiedApril 16, 1992(1992-04-16) (aged 71)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Cause of deathEmphysema
Resting placeEast Lawn Memorial Park
NationalityAmerican
OccupationActor
Years active1949–1985
Spouse Mae Brand ​(m. 1957⁠–⁠1992)​
Children3

Neville Brand (born Lawrence Neville Brand; August 13, 1920 – April 16, 1992) was an American television and movie actor.

Early life

Neville Brand was born in Griswold, Iowa to Leo Thomas Brand (June 24, 1892 – April 18, 1985) and the former Helen Louise Davis (August 4, 1900 – October 23, 1991) as one of seven children. His father had worked as an electrician and bridge building steel worker in Detroit. Neville was raised in Kewanee, Illinois, where he attended high school. After his schooling, he helped support the family employed as a soda jerk, waiter, and shoe salesman in Kewanee.

He entered the Illinois Army National Guard on October 23, 1939 as a private in Company F, 129th Infantry Regiment. He was enlisted in the United States Army as Corporal Neville L. Brand, infantryman on March 5, 1941.

World War II

He trained at Fort Carson, and served in World War II seeing action with the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division (Thunderbolt Division) in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. Brand, a Sergeant and platoon leader, was wounded in action along the Weser River on April 7, 1945. His upper right arm was hit by a bullet, and he nearly bled to death. His official military records indicate that he participated in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns, and received the Silver Star while convalescing at the 21st General Hospital for gallantry in combat. His other awards and decorations are the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Ribbon, the European/African/Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with three Battle Stars, one Overseas Service Bar, one Service Stripe, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge. In a 1966 interview he explained the Silver Star. Withering fire from German machine guns in a hunting lodge kept him and his unit pinned down. "I must have flipped my lid," he said. "I decided to go into that lodge." He was discharged from service in October 1945.

He worked on a 1946 U.S. Army Signal Corps film with Charlton Heston, and next settled in Greenwich Village and enrolled at the American Theater Wing, working off Broadway, including Jean-Paul Sartre's The Victors. He also attended the Geller Drama School in Los Angeles on the G.I. Bill.

Acting career

Brand started his big screen career in D.O.A. (1950) as a henchman named Chester. He became well known as a villain when he killed the character played by Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender. He has the distinction of being the first actor to portray outlaw Butch Cassidy in the film Three Outlaws, opposite Alan Hale, Jr. as the Sundance Kid. Though not the big-budget romp the later Paul Newman–Robert Redford film was, both Brand's Cassidy and Hale's Kid are played as likable outlaws, a rare change from Brand's typecasting as a murderous psycho.

However, Brand played a romantic lead in the movie Return from the Sea with Jan Sterling and a heartwarming character who was brain damaged and misunderstood in an episode of the TV show Daniel Boone. He played Hoss Cartwright's (Dan Blocker) Swedish uncle "Gunnar Borgstrom" on Bonanza in the episode "The Last Viking". He also played U.S. Navy Lieutenant Kaminsky, ignored as he tried to warn his commander of the opening skirmish in Tora! Tora! Tora!.

Of the hundreds of roles he played, he is probably most well known as Al Capone in the TV show The Untouchables and again in the movie The George Raft Story. The characterization caused an outcry from the Italian American community over stereotypes.He also portrayed a prison guard of Birdman of Alcatraz, and as the antagonistic and untrusting, yet dedicated POW, "Duke", in Stalag 17.

Brand was also known for his roles in Westerns. He appeared in The Virginian, and then went on to star as Reese Bennet in the television series, Laredo. Brand co-starred with George Takei in "The Encounter", an episode of the original Twilight Zone series. Brand, a genuine decorated veteran, portrays a phony war hero, a coward who obtained his prize trophy (a Japanese soldier's sword) by murdering a Japanese officer after he had surrendered.

Personal life

Brand was also an insatiable reader, who amassed a collection of 30,000 books over the years, many of which were destroyed in a 1978 fire at his Malibu home.

Death

Brand died from emphysema at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento, California on April 16, 1992. After a private funeral service, Brand was cremated and his remains are interred in a niche of the Morning Glory Room at East Lawn Memorial Park in Sacramento. Brand was survived by his wife, Mae, and three daughters.

Selected filmography

Films

Footnotes

  1. "Death takes tough-guy actor Neville Brand, 71". The Bulletin. April 19, 1992. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  2. "Private Service Planned for Neville Brand". The Los Angeles Times. April 19, 1992. p. 13. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  3. "Capital's Elite Address Residents Treasure "Fabulous Forties"". The Sacramento Bee. August 8, 1993. p. B1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. Lambert, Bruce (April 19, 1992). "Neville Brand, 71, Craggy Actor Known for Many Roles as Villains". The New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  5. TCM screening

References

  • Hannsberry, Karen Burroughs. Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2003.
  • Horner, William R. Bad at the Bijou. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 1982.
  • Wise, James E., Jr. and Paul W. Wilderson III. Stars in Khaki. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000.

External links

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