Johnny Brown, the actor, comedian, and singer best known for his role as housing project superintendent Nathan Bookman on Good Times, has died. He was 84.
Brown’s daughter Sharon announced the news on Instagram Friday, writing, “Our family is devastated… He was literally snatched out of our lives. It’s not real for us yet. So there will be more to say but not now. Dad was the absolute best. We love him so very much.”
A cause of death and other details were not immediately available.
Brown spent three seasons on the sketch comedy show Laugh-In in the early 1970s; writer Allan Manings later became a producer on Good Times and brought Brown over to the CBS sitcom. The actor joined the Norman Lear–produced show in 1975, midway through its second season, playing the oft-ridiculed superintendent Bookman.
Brown was born in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1937 and raised in Harlem, where he soon discovered his talent for singing, dancing, and acting. Known as a versatile performer, an animated actor, and a skilled impressionist, Brown got his start as a nightclub performer and later appeared on Broadway, performed with bands, and recorded songs before landing his first TV role, all with little formal training.
“As the years went by, being around certain venues, you pick up things,” Brown recalled in a 1996 interview. “When I did my first Broadway show, I had never been to a Broadway show… I had no aspirations of being in a Broadway show, but I had good timing from my nightclub experience.”
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Johnny Brown, who played superintendent Nathan Bookman on the hit sitcom ‘Good Times’
Brown got his first Broadway gig through Sammy Davis Jr., who became an “inspiration” and mentor to him over the next 30 years. “In retrospect, I guess Sammy was my idol, because he did all the things I wanted to do,” Brown said. “I wanted to be a well-rounded, complete entertainer; I didn’t just want to sing or tell a joke.”
Brown met the legendary entertainer while working in the Catskills, and Davis later secured him a job as an understudy in the musical Golden Boy in 1964. Brown ended up taking over a key role when star Godfrey Cambridge was fired. Four years later, he appeared on Broadway again in Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights, directed by Sidney Poitier, but the comedy closed after just a week of performances.
Brown came to Los Angeles at the request of writer Neil Simon to play a small role in the 1970 film The Out-of-Towners. While there, he met with a CBS casting director, which led to a role on The Leslie Uggams Show. From there, he appeared in numerous TV shows, including Maude, Night Gallery, and The Jeffersons, among many others. He was also considered to play Lamont in Sanford and Son, but was unable to do so because of his Laugh-In contract.
Brown is survived by June, his wife of 61 years; his daughter; and a son, John Jr., along with two grandchildren.
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