What is Robert Brown doing now?

[Atl 1996]

I had his autographed picture when I was about 12 or 13 (was so mad when my mom acidentally threw it out!!)

[Penny Lane]

As far as I know he is still acting.The last time I saw him was on "In The Heat Of The Night". he was very white haired but looked the same! Do you realize that he is now 74 years old!
I had a big crush on him when I was 17 years old! What a hunk he was!I always preferred him over the younger actors on the show!

[Pitooey]

Talk about MANLY............ What a hunk of man!!!

[Fan of old shows]

damn why would you throw it out?

[Atl 1996]

I had it in a drawer and I was at summer camp and it was gone when I came home!! <sob>!!

[AB]

I haven't been able to find out much information on him. Does anyone know
a really good web-site for him?

[AB]

I received a note and a autographed picture of him today in the mail. I have
his P.O. box address if anyone is interested. He is still a really nice person.

[Lisa K]

Originally Posted by AB

I received a note and a autographed picture of him today in the mail. I have
his P.O. box address if anyone is interested. He is still a really nice person.

How weird is it that I'ved joined on Christmas day? I don't know if your offer is still valid, but I'd be interested in having his address if it is. Thank you, Lisa

[blacksheepone]

Hi, all,

For anyone who is presently reading this thread on Here Come The Brides
(surely there are fans looking! ) and are interested, I have some
information on Robert Brown. I assume as of 2014 he is still living.

First, I have purchased both seasons of Here Come The Brides on DVD.
Season 1 from Sony, Season 2 from Shout Factory. Other than the fact
that Season 1 came with the instrumental version of the theme song
Seattle (whereas Season 2 subsequently had the vocal version), I am
very satisfied with the overall quality of the total 52 episodes.

I also did not pay over $100 for either one of them. LOL. (Reference
to the first post). More like around $ 40 or thereabouts. I didn't mind.
Always when you buy these DVD sets, get them on sale.
Do not pay full retail price unless you absolutely positively have to.
More on that later.

Now to the matter of Robert Brown, AKA Jason Bolt.

Mr.Brown is, as the fans might imagine, now retired from acting and
has been for quite some time. In the early 2000's, I was curious
about whatever became of him, so I did some research on him
and his career, noticing that there were several Robert Browns,
most notable of which was a Scotland-born actor by the same
name who played "M" James Bond 007's superior in the Roger Moore
Bond movies mainly. Which BTW was not the Robert Brown of Brides.
His biography in a TV reference book stated he was born in 1918 in
Scotland, which turned out to be incorrect. He was actually born
in 1927 in the Hebrides Islands of Scotland where his mother was from.

I found a fan web site at that time for Here Come The Brides which
I assume no longer exists. On that site there was the "Robert Brown
Page" detailing his current whereabouts and activities. A fan should
they so desired could write him a letter through the web site.

At the time, it said that Robert was retired, but in recent years had
mainly done voice-overs for commercials like Iams pet food, Stouffer
TV dinners, etc. and stage work. He had been mostly traveling with
his wife who was an artist. At one time he was living in Ojai, CA but
I don't know if that is still the case or not.

Out of curiosity, I decided to write him a letter. This was in 2002.
I explained I was a fan, had been doing research on him, and
wondered what had ever happened to him since his days on
Here Come The Brides.

I told him that I used to watch the show in the early 70's when it
aired in reruns on a local Montgomery, AL TV station on Sunday
mornings before I had to go to church services. My favorite of
the characters was Jason Bolt and when I heard the theme song
Seattle--either vocal or instrumental--immediately I thought of him.
I also informed him of what I had found out about the differences
in the birthdate and birthplace information as stated in TV reference
books and that I enjoyed the show a great deal.

Lastly, I reminded him of how in the pilot episode, Jason Bolt needed
financing to get the 100 brides to Seattle from New Bedford, MA and
asked sawmill owner Aaron Stemple for help. They made a wager.
Aaron agreed to finance the trip provided Jason put up the mountain
he and his brothers Josh and Jeremy had inherited from their deceased
parents--Bridal Veil Mountain--for collateral. There was a catch:
Jason had to get all 100 brides married off in one year or he would
lose the mountain to Aaron.

I told Robert "I always wondered if Jason ever won his bet with Aaron."

Two weeks later, I received a letter back from him postmarked Ojai CA
with no return address. Robert wrote me a typed letter in response to
mine. He thanked me for my letter, which he said (paraphrasing here)
"warmed his heart knowing someone cared enough to look into his past".

He said that he was born in 1928, and told me about his parents.
He confided that early on he thought about changing his name to
Browning (being aware of the other English actor with the same name)
but decided to keep it as is to honor his parents as it was their family
name.

The other Robert Brown could not act in the U.S. it turned out,
because HCTB Robert was already there. I would later learn that the
late actor Robert Lansing (1928-1994) of Twelve O'Clock High, the
60's World War II drama) was originally Robert Howell Brown but had
to change his name to Lansing because Robert Brown already had
that name in the U.S. as an actor which I found interesting.

At the end of the letter, Robert wrote a P.S. in regards to the bet
Jason Bolt had with Aaron Stemple in the pilot episode.

This is in his exact words (that I remember vividly like it was yesterday):

"I have completely forgotten who it was who won that bet.
I hope I did."

Robert Brown like Jason definitely had a good sense of humor.
Very nice man. I hope he is still very much with us.
Robert, wherever you are, you are still not forgotten.

Has anyone who's a Trekker ever read the paperback book Ishmael
published in the 80's? It was a crossover with Here Come The Brides.
Somehow Spock went back into time to stop the Klingons from killing
Aaron Stemple (Mark Lenard) who was the great-grandfather of his
mother Amanda Grayson, whose maiden name had been Stemple.
The timeline was preserved. Unfortunately, the people who owned
the rights to Here Come The Brides I heard sued the publisher for
copyright infringement (don't know how it turned out). They had
the permission of Paramount for the Star Trek characters but not
for Here Come The Brides. I used to have the book once upon a time.
Fun story and very good. (If Spock had been unsuccessful, he would
have never existed, and perhaps not even the Federation/Starfleet,
or so the story went at the time).

Also according to an autobiography written by Bobby Sherman (Jeremy)
in the 80's, supposedly Robert Brown was upset by the fact that Bobby
and David Soul (Josh) being teen idols of the era got more fan mail
than he did. They indeed got more mail but Robert was not mad about it
according to him. He was supposed to be the "star" of the show, you see.
Jason was my personal favorite of the Bolt brothers.

Hope this information was of interest to the fans.

Thanks for listening.

P.S. Oh--almost forgot. The highest I ever paid for a classic TV series on
DVD was for Paramount's mid-2000's remastered original 60's Star Trek
Seasons 1-3 at $130 (sale price). Full retail originally was $299. That
was after it was released. I have heard the Trek fans are not happy
with the new version. To me it was a big improvement over the VHS
tapes from Columbia House (bad quality prints and cheap tape)--all
79 episodes--at $19.99 per tape by subscription. I did the math and
spent well over $900 (nearly $1000) for those; talk about a rip-off.
This was in the early 2000's. I found out later they also had the
slightly better quality DVD's (film prints improved) at the same time.
I could have bought the DVD version instead of the VHS and saved
my money. Also, I paid full retail for CBS first 3 seasons of Have
Gun--Will Travel (Richard Boone) because they were not on sale.
So I learned my lesson after that. From then on, I paid sale price.
To quote Sean Connery of The Untouchables movie remake,
"Thus endeth the lesson."

[AB]

Originally Posted by Lisa K

How weird is it that I'ved joined on Christmas day? I don't know if your offer is still valid, but I'd be interested in having his address if it is. Thank you, Lisa

The address is from 2007, and I don't know if it's still valid but you can try it and see. I wrote him a short note telling him how much I liked his acting on Here Come The Brides and his guest role on an episode of Bewitched. He was kind enough to send me a note & an autographed picture from his days on Here Come The Brides.

The address from 2007:

Robert A. Brown
P.O. Box 1214
Ojai, CA. 93024

[blacksheepone]

Originally Posted by AB

The address is from 2007, and I don't know if it's still valid but you can try it and see. I wrote him a short note telling him how much I liked his acting on Here Come The Brides and his guest role on an episode of Bewitched. He was kind enough to send me a note & an autographed picture from his days on Here Come The Brides.

The address from 2007:

Robert A. Brown
P.O. Box 1214
Ojai, CA. 93024

Hi, AB,

Thanks for listing Robert Brown's address.
When I wrote him originally, it was in 2002. He was 74 back then
and I was really surprised he wrote back (and at his expense).
He would be 86 now if I figured his age correctly (being born in 1928
as he stated in the reply to my letter). If he's like the other actors
of the 50's/60's era, I would imagine he is probably no longer accepting
fan mail. Then again, he might be still taking it. Whether you would get
a reply at this stage is anyone's guess (depends on his health I suppose
and how much he continues to like to have contact with fans of the show).

In my personal past experience of writing actors from the 50's and 60's
(and 80's in one case) here's who I have written and gotten responses
from:

Robert Conrad (James West, Wild Wild West) 1998 Received signed card
with handwritten note. Signed Robert. (Sent at his expense)

Robert Brown 2002 Typed letter. Signed Robert. (Sent at his expense)

Don Durant (Johnny Ringo, 1959-1960 TV Western series)
2004. Handwritten letter signed Don Durant. He died in 2005.
(Sent at his expense)

Richard Dean Anderson (the one and only MacGyver!)
2004. Autographed photo from Stargate SG-1 as
Jack O' Neill. Signed, Richard Dean Anderson.
Returned in SASE I sent with my letter.

Chances are now today in our celebrity stalker-
obsessed fan overkill climate fans would probably
not receive replies from any of these folks since
they are retired from acting unless they were
appearing at Hollywood Collector Autograph Shows
or TV Western film festivals, Star Trek conventions,
etc. and then be prepared to pay a fee for a signed
photo a-la William Shatner (who charged $ 75 for
just an autograph and has never replied to fan mail
according to Autograph Collector Magazine).
But the older actors are not much in demand
these days overall unfortunately.

Two TV Western actors I wrote and did not
get replies from:

Stuart Whitman (Cimarron Strip) 2005 Outdated address.
The letter was not even returned by USPS.

Hugh O'Brian (Life & Legend Of Wyatt Earp) 2005.
Letter sent care of Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation,
Beverly Hills, CA. Letter was not returned either.

I figure they either:
(1) were never delivered;
(2) went into the trash unread.
(3) were received by the actors in question
but they no longer took fan mail and did not
read them or read them but chose not to
answer for whatever reason (health, etc.)
Or as I like to call it, they went into the
postal equivalent of the Twilight Zone.

All of the above by the way were nice,
complimentary letters.

So if you write an actor from a past era,
by snail-mail, be prepared to not get a reply.
If by some chance you do, it will be a miracle.
I speak from experience. You can try, but
it's been so long and the address is so old
(especially in the case of a PO Box as I
have learned with ordinary people I wrote
and didn't get replies from the hard way)
don't count on a response or expect to
get your letter returned. That sort of
thing just doesn't happen any more sadly.

Thanks for listening.

[caladon]

Interesting story about the HCTB and Star Trek book; inasmuch as Mark Lenard also played Spock's father.

BTW, the bet was that all of the 100 brides had to stay in Seattle for at least a year in order for the Bolt Brothers to win the bet - which they did BTW.

On a side note, I met Bobby Sherman many years ago (back in the 80's) and happened to ask about Mr. Brown. I mentioned that I thought that he had an amazing speaking voice and he agreed and said that he was doing a lot of voice work because of it.

[blacksheepone]

Hi, caladon,

Have you read the book about Here Come The Brides written by Jonathan
Etter published by Bear Manor Media a few years ago? I bought it and it
was a well thoroughly researched book, well worth the price I paid for it
(I forget now how much that was). It goes with the Seasons 1 and 2
of the series I have on DVD from Sony and Shout Factory respectively.

I mention the book because Bobby Sherman apparently declined to
participate in the interviews the author did with the other actors who
were in the cast, Robert Brown included. The late Richard Dawson
(Hogan's Heroes) who was reportedly a recluse likewise declined to
participate in books written on both that series and the game show
Family Feud he once hosted in the late 70's/early 80's according to
the author of the Hogan's Heroes book.

[Hazel Anyday]

Pushing up daisies.

[Black Sheep One]

Actually, for those who are interested, as of 2019 Robert Brown is still alive, retired from acting and living in Ojai, CA. He is 93. Sadly he lost his wife not too long ago. I will always treasure the personal letter he sent me back in 2002. I would imagine he won't be with us too much longer. He's not pushing up daisies, at least not yet anyway....