The bestClancy Brownmovies and TV shows include early roles in fantasy and science fiction films and TV shows and later as one of the most prolific voice actors in the world. Fans from the 1980s got to know him well thanks to his role as the scary and dangerous Kurgan in the originalHighlandermovie, starring Christopher Lambert. This led to several other genre roles in films like the Stephen King sequelPet Sematary 2and the science fiction classicStarship Troopers.
He also took on some prestigious parts,including in the Oscar-nominatedThe Shawshank Redemptionas one of the prison guards and later in the HBO television seriesCarnivale. However, his most prominent roles have been in animated films and TV shows, with voice roles stretching out for decades. He voiced Lex Luthor in the DCAU for many years, and that is one of over a dozen characters he lent his voice to in Marvel and DC movies and TV shows. He even added live-action to his comic roles,with an appearance in HBO’sThe Penguin.
In 2021, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) was back on Showtime in a sequel series, 10 years after he faked his own death in the crime dramaDexter. In this series, fans saw how Dexter was living in the years since he faked his death, and then turned his entire life upside down when his son Harrison Morgan (Jack Alscott) found him and was worried he had inherited the “Dark Passenger” that plagued his dad’s life for so many years. This, of course, led to the arrival of another serial killer.
Clancy Brown played that serial killer,a truck-stop diner owner named Kurt Caldwell,a murderer who targets women. He and Dexter cross paths when Dexter kills his son Matt, a stockbroker who once killed five people and got away with it thanks to his family’s wealth. When he finds out Dexter is responsible, he influences Harrison in his attempt at revenge. While not the bestDexterserial killer character, Brown brings his imposing stature and menacing demeanor to make him a true threat.
Most of Clancy Brown’s roles have been in fantasy, science fiction, superhero, action, and other genre movies and TV shows. However, one of his more surprisingly great roles came in a series in none of those genres.Billionsis a drama series about a United States Attorney in New York named Chuck Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti) setting his sights on a hedge fund billionaire named Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), who he knows is involved in major white collar criminal activities.
He was a perfect villain, one of the “good guys” who swayed cases to help him get wealthier while quoting Bible scripture the entire time.
However, there is always someone worse. In the final seasons, Corey Stoll proved even more dangerous and crooked than Axe. Another person, on the other side, who was alsocriminally complicit was Waylon “Jock” Jeffcoat, the Attorney General of the United States, played by Clancy Brown. He was a perfect villain, one of the “good guys” who swayed cases to help him get wealthier while quoting Bible scripture the entire time.
InJohn Wick: Chapter 4, John Wick sets out to gain revenge against the people who tried to kill him, and he isn’t letting anyone who was involved off. However, he also ends up forced to face one of the high table’s most powerful members, the Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård). To get there, he has to fight his way through endless assassins and is almost exhausted when he arrives. When there,the fight with the Marquis is presided over by a man known as the Harbinger.
Clancy Brown plays the Harbinger, who is a high-ranking operative of the High Table. His only role is to oversee the rules set by the High Table and keep the criminal underworld under control. He is necessary to settle the disputes and hostilities between different members of the Table as well, making him one of the most powerful characters in the entire John Wick universe. He oversees the duel between John Wick and Caine (substituting for Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont).
In 2020, Clancy Brown took on a role in a revenge movie about a young woman who seeks revenge against a group of very bad men. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie Thomas, a 30-year-old woman whose best friend Nina was raped and died by suicide when the man responsible was cleared of all charges. When Cassie learns that the man who raped Nina is now getting married and has found great success while her friend is dead, she sets up a plan of revenge against everyone responsible.
Clancy Brown plays Stanley, Cassie’s father, while Jennifer Coolidge plays her mom, Susan. They are there in small supporting roles as they want their daughter to move on from Nina’s death and her obsession with revenge. It’s a minor role in the film, but an important one as it shows Cassie in her home life, which contrasts with the life of the rapists.Promising Young Womanwon Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress (Mulligan).
During one of the best eras in HBO history,Carnivalewas one of several incredible TV shows that aired on the prestigious cable network. Most of these shows were canceled before their time, thanks to a turnover behind the scenes. Carnivale was set in the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression in the 1930s and tracks the lives of people in a traveling carnival. The story follows several mythological themes and motifs and was critically acclaimed, with five Primetime Emmy Awards in 15 nominations.
Clancy Brown was one of the main characters in the series' two seasons.He played Brother Justin Crowe, the main bad guy inCarnivale.He actually has superhuman powers to manipulate and control those around him through sheer force of will. He is a Methodist minister who is told he needs to kill a man named Henry Scudder. He is based on an Avataric Creature of Dark, and he is the main nemesis of Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl).
InInvincible, Clancy Brown took on a few voice roles in the series as he voices three characters: Damien Darkblood, Kregg, and Ka-Hor. Based on the Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) series from Image Comics,Invincibleis based onthe titular hero who learns that his father is an alienwho came to Earth years earlier to prepare it for an invasion by his people and then stands up to defend his new home planet from the invading aliens and his own father at any cost.
There have been three seasons of the show, and it remains one of Prime Video’s most beloved series. As for Clancy’s three roles, he voices Damien Darkblood, a demon detective who seeks justice so he can redeem his soul. He voices Ka-Hor, an original character for the series, who is a mummified being who is never able to leave his tomb (a recurring joke). Finally, he voices Kregg, one of the major villains inInvincible, a high-ranking Viltrumite warrior who wants to establish his empire as the only one in the universe.
In 2007, Paul Verhoeven took Robert A. Heinlein’s fascist-positiveStarship Troopersnovel and created a satire that made fun of the entire fascist governing system. The movie is about a military unit whose goal is to fight and destroy a bug-like alien race. The film was misunderstood when it was released, with many slamming it because they believed it was pro-Fascism and Heinlein fans praising it for that exact same reason. However, over time, it has gained fans who understand that it was making fun of Fascists.
The cast was impressive, andClancy Brown played the important role of Sergeant Zim, Rico’s (Casper Van Dien) drill sergeant during training at the Mobile Infantry. His entire purpose in the movie was to weed out the weak recruits and ensure that only the strongest remained. Brown was supposed to return in the sequel, but he was already working onCarnivaleand had to pass on the return.
In 2024, Max brought DC fans the streaming seriesThe Penguin, set in the world of the Robert PattinsonThe Batmanmovie. Coin Farrell reprises his role as Oz Cobb, the Penguin, as he tries to fill in the hole left by the murder of Carmine Falcone (which happened inThe Batman). Joining Farrell in the series is Clancy Brown,who plays Salvatore Maroni, one of Gotham City’s most notorious crime bossesbefore he ended up imprisoned after Carmine betrayed him in the past.
Character(s)
Marvel Animation
Sasquatch, Red Hulk, Mister Sinister, Rhino, George Stacy, Ox, Taskmaster, Odin, Ben Parker, Phantom Rider, The Watcher, Black Bolt, Supreme Intelligence
DCAU
Lex Luthor, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Per Degaton, Rohtul, King Faraday, General Zartok Negative Man, General Immortus, Trident
The Penguin
Salvatore Maroni
InThe Penguin, Oz Cobb visits Maroni in prison during the series' first episode. He played an important role in the first season, with Oz trying to work with him as an ally and later as an enemy, when Sal tried to finally end Oz’s reign of terror before a heart attack fell him. This was one of many roles that Clancy Brown played in comic book movies and TV shows. His longest-running role was voicing Lex Luthor in the DCAU movies, which lasted around a decade.
Clancy Brown started his movie career in 1983 and had a couple of interesting roles early on, including as Rawhide inThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimensionand as Viktor in the Frankenstein storyThe Bride. However, his true breakout role came in the 1986 fantasy series,Highlander,where he played Victor Kruger, also known as The Kurgan. InHighlander, several immortals live across the world, and they all await the day when there are only a handful remaining for the Gathering.
The Kurgan is the main villain here, and Brown made him into a truly frightening character…
The only way to kill an immortal is by beheading them, and when one immortal beheads another, the dead victim’s power goes into the victor. While many immortals just live in peace, such as the movie lead Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), others want to kill as many as possible to get to the Gathering, and Kurgan is one of these killers. The Kurgan is the main villain here, and Brown made him into a truly frightening character and one of the most memorable in the entire franchise.
The best movie that Clancy Brown ever appeared in wasThe ShawshankRedemption. Based on Stephen King’s story, this is one of King’s non-horror prison-based stories, directed by Frank Darabont. The movie stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a man falsely convicted of killing his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He meets a man named Red (Morgan Freeman) and begins to find his place in the prison, which includes several violent prison guards and an illegal presence in the guards themselves.
Clancy Brown plays one of the main villains, the head prison guard who abuses and assaults prisoners on a regular basis and is even responsible for killing the man who really killed Andy’s wife to prevent the truth from being uncovered. The movie was hugely successful, with seven Oscar nominations, and Andy was made even more sympathetic thanks to the evil performance byClancy Brown. The Library of Congress addedThe Shawshank Redemptionto the National Film Registry in 2015.
