Today In Pop Culture: Better To Kurgan Out, Than To Fade Away

By Less Lee Moore

Today is actor Clancy Brown’s birthday. Some readers might wonder, “Who the heck is Clancy Brown?” Some folks might actually be insulted, for example, the Clancy Brown uberfan I met at Toronto’s Suspect Video a few years back (the same lady who referred to Mr. Brown as a “tall drink of water”). How could someone not know about the existence of Clancy Brown! Fear not, gentle reader. We’re here to help.

Like many others in my age range, I first became aware of Clancy Brown for his creepy role as The Kurgan in the 1986 film, Highlander, starring Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod (remember Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan?) and Sean Connery (a.k.a. The Spanish Peacock).

Looking like a slightly cleaned up GG Allin, or a more murderous version of Suicide from Return of the Living Dead, The Kurgan was Connor MacLeod’s nemesis, or more accurately one of several, all vying to be the last of an ancient race of immortal warriors.

It was difficult to get past the allure of Brown portraying such an iconic character, but he kept on picking diverse roles and intriguing me over the years, and with 241 credits in IMDB, it seems a pity that he doesn’t get more love from the world of pop culture.

Clancy Brown’s first role was actually in 1983’s Bad Boys with Sean Penn and before he was in Highlander, he was Viktor in The Bride, that not-very-good version of Frankenstein starring Sting and Jennifer Beals. Remember Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis? And Starship Troopers? What about Flubber? Clancy Brown was in all of those movies. Most folks probably recall Brown as Captain Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, a movie that single-handedly allowed TNT to exist as a basic cable channel for most of the 1990s.

If you don’t recognize Brown’s imposing 6 foot 3 frame, you’ll likely recognize his distinctive voice, which he has leant to many animated TV productions over the years, including, but not limited to: Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, G.I. Joe: Renegades, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Justice League, The Batman, The Spectacular Spider-Man, All Grown Up!, Transformers: Prime, Adventure Time, and of course, Mr. Eugene H. Krabs from SpongeBob Squarepants.

He also played Sherriff August Corbin in Sleepy Hollow. Now do you know who Clancy Brown is? I thought so.

When I was super into the TV show E.R., I was thrilled to see Brown as Dr. Ellis West, the love interest of Dr. Kerry Weaver. Later, he showed up for two episodes of LOST, which was also exciting. More recently, I adored his turn as Dr. Albert Marconi in the excellent John Dies At The End, directed by Don Coscarelli of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep fame.

Next, Clancy Brown will be in the new Coen Brothers movie, Hail Caesar!, which will be out sometime this year (and should not in any way be confused with the abysmal Anthony Michael Hall movie of the same name). He will also be lending his voice talents to the upcoming season of The Venture Bros., premiering January 31 on Adult Swim.

Happy Birthday, Clancy Brown!