PETER BROWN
BIOGRAPHY

You may wanna get funky with him, but he's not the Peter Brown who wrote the song. Sheet music for  Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me written by Peter Brown

He's not the Peter Brown who wrote the Beatles biography and whose name is mentioned in The Ballad of John & Yoko

Nor is he the Peter Brown known as host of the One-on-One sports radio show.  And not the Peter Brown who, as Princess Di's bodyguard, caused a scandal by leaving his family after an affair with one of Di's female retinue but who redeemed himself by later saving Prince Charles from angry Cypriots. And also not Peter Brown, the handsome Canadian playboy & brokerage poobah. Finally, he's not the Canadian actor whose credit for a tiny part in an episode of Babylon 5 mistakenly ended up on Peter's IMDb credits list.

To be honest, we are more interested in an actor's work than his personal life.  What interest we have in the latter, is mainly in the context of how it effects his work.  We include a few personal facts here because we've been asked questions by visitors to our sites.  And just for the fun of it we've included some gossip pages; Peter never attracted scandal or vicious gossip.  The impression we get from reading about Peter in a sampling of celebrity and soap magazines over the last few decades is of a person who is extraordinarily organized, who prepares himself for every role in an exemplary manner, who keeps himself in exceptional physical condition and who practices positive thinking.

Although technically born a few years too early to be labeled a baby boomer, Peter's  genetic heritage and physical conditioning put his biological age pretty much on par with the middle of the boomer crowd.  In any event, the image created in the magazines is of Peter as a true baby boomer product of the 1960's and 70's.   That is, Peter is portrayed as a person searching for self-awareness through meditation, the study of Oriental philosophies, metaphysics and other roads to enlightenment but who is also part of the sexual revolution.  He's been married four or five times with a number of extended relationships in between.  He has a friendship with Hugh Hefner,  a key to the Playboy Mansion and photo layout in Oui.  With Peter there was never a hint of any drug abuse or the kind of alcohol excesses that Edd Byrnes, one of his friends in the early TV years,  talked about in his autobiography, but it is suggested that he led an active social life.  [And of course, as baby boomers ourselves, we would greet with disbelief any claim of abstention from the then ubiquitous social use of marijuana.]

The facts below are what we think we know.   We'd prefer Peter  write his own bio [following the pretty decent  autobiographical example of his long time friend Ann-Margret and  not the fairly unreadable  example set by Edd Byrnes] but he hasn't so we'll just lay any inaccuracies at his door.

Born:  October 5, 1935.  Hair:  Dark brown    Eyes:  Hazel   Height:  6 ft  [Totally irrelevant note: according to the recent census, October 5 is the most common birthday in the United States.]

Peter was born in New York as Pierre de Lappe, the second of four brothers, Philip, Pierre [Peter], Michael and Paul.  He took the name Brown from his stepfather Albert "Bud" Brown.  (His biological father died when he was four.)   Peter's first model in show business was his mother,  Mina Reaume, a radio and stage actress.  Between the ages of seven and nine, he appeared on children's radio shows, playing small parts as elves, fairies, etc.  His family relocated to the West coast, where he spent a significant portion of his youth involved in sports including horseback riding.

Peter became involved in acting as an adult while stationed  in Alaska with the Second Infantry Division from 1954 to 1956.  USO shows were infrequent so Peter organized a drama group which put on a couple of dozen shows during his stay.   Peter performed as an actor in all of the plays and directed some of them.

After his discharge from the army in June of 1956, Peter enrolled in a summer session as a drama student at UCLA.   He planned to enter an Eastern drama school but was advised by a teacher that he had the talent, the looks and the drive to warrant staying on in Los Angeles for at least a year to try his luck in films.  After a couple of parts in plays put on at the Horseshoe Theater [Desire Under the Elms] and the Gallery Theater [Teach Me How to Cry], he was hired by Albert McCleery to appear in four productions of NBC Matinee Theater.

While pursuing acting work, Peter got a night job at a gas station on the Sunset Strip.  He had a polite but enthusiastic spiel he used on anyone who might have a movie or TV connection.  One evening Jack Warner came in for gas.  According to Peter, when he saw the credit card with the name Jack L. Warner, he asked him, "Are you one of the Warner brothers?"  He responded, "I'm the only one left."  Whatever pitch Peter made to him apparently worked.  Solly Baiano, the head of new talent at Warner Bros. called Peter at the gas station the next day and said, "I don't know who you know, but I have orders to give you a screen test."

Peter was signed as a Warner's contract player on the strength of the test and shortly thereafter  landed a very nice role in the Warner Bros. film Darby's Rangers (1958). However, according to Peter he actually got his SAG card (Screen Actors Guild) in the 1957 Warner Bros/Jack Webb/Defense Dept. propaganda film Red Nightmare (a cult favorite under the title The Commies Are Coming, The Commies Are Coming).  Peter made multiple appearances in several of the Warner's TV Westerns [see our Peter Brown Westerns Index].  A part as a sailor in the 1958 film Onionhead impressed producer Jules Schermer.  The part was cut out of the movie [he does not appear at all in the video version we have despite the fact that his name appears fairly prominently in the credits].  However,  when Schermer was given his pick of young contract players for the youthful Deputy Johnny McKay in Lawman, Peter got the job.  Lawman debuted on Peter's 23rd birthday on October 5, 1958 and ran for four seasons.

Peter credits Lawman costar John Russell and the show itself with giving him much of his education in television acting.  By all accounts, it was the dedication of the two stars which made Lawman the superior show that it was.  Warner Bros. was not known for extravagant spending on its TV productions.  Everything was filmed on the back lot  Sometimes the filming of the  many western productions almost overlapped as they used and reused the same sets.  Scripts written for one show were rewritten and reused for other shows.  It took determination on the part of the actors to maintain the integrity of the characters in the face of constantly changing writers and directors.  Apparently the two stars decided early on to present a united front when it came to protecting the quality of the show.  Peter especially  was recognized for his dedication to his craft.  He diligently honed his skills, not only in acting but in gun handling and riding.  [For more on Lawman see our Lawman home page and illustrated episode guide.]

Warners squeezed everything it could out of its actors -- personal appearances [for which Warners reportedly took half the recompense] , recordings [for Warners only], photo dates with [Warners] starlets, etc.  Peter as the youngest and most attractive of the Warners western stars had a special appeal to young females from preteens on up.  He made personal appearances all over the country and received a goodly amount of fan mail.  In her autobiography, Ann-Margret, who dated Peter when she first came to Hollywood, said that one of the things she always remembered and admired about him was how wonderful he was to his fans.  [Ann-Margret also credited Peter with giving her her "first introduction to the glitter and hoopla of Hollywood" by taking her to Hollywood parties and premieres.  Later, it was Peter who introduced her to Roger Smith, the man who was later to become her husband in one of the most successful marriages in Hollywood.]  Peter did not join other Warners stars such as Clint Walker, Edd Byrnes, James Garner and Wayde Preston who staged job actions of various kinds, although anyone familiar with the treatment Warners accorded its stars would not have blamed him had he done so.

It was just before Lawman debuted that Peter married his first wife, actress Diane Jergens on September 6, 1958.  The marriage lasted less than two years, which left Peter free to introduce Ann-Margret to the glitter of Hollywood when she made her entrance into the acting world.

When Lawman ended in 1962, Peter finished out his Warners contract with guest appearances in Warners series like Cheyenne, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and The Gallant Men and an excellent  Warners movie Merrill's Marauders.  He then made a couple of  Disney movies, a surfer flick, and the infamous Kitten with a Whip with old friend Ann-Margaret.  The Universal contract that would place Peter as a star of Laredo in 1965, led him first to multiple guest appearances on Universal shows like The Virginian, Wagon Train, and Kraft Suspense Theater.

The Universal series Laredo lasted only two seasons but is fondly remembered by many Westerns fans.  [See our Laredo home page and illustrated episode guide.]  At some point around the Laredo years Peter married cover-girl Sandra Edmundson with whom he had his first son, Matthew in 1966.

After Laredo ended in 1967, Peter made a number of appearances in TV series, TV Movies and feature films before embarking on a successful career in daytime drama.  Peter starred in five soaps, starting with Days of Our Lives in 1971 and ending with The Bold & The Beautiful in 1992.  [See our Peter Brown Soap Index Page.]  During that time, Peter continued to take roles in feature films and guest spots on nighttime series.

On November 14, 1971, during the beginning of his run in Days of Our Lives Peter married model Yvette Safargy.  They honeymooned in Venezuela where Peter was filming a movie with Laredo costar William Smith.  [Working title Caribe, released as Piranha, Piranha!]  Yvette and Peter were divorced about two years later.  In addition to his acting roles, Peter turned producer for the movie Gentle Savage (1973) which starred William Smith.

According to the Internet Movie Data Base information, Peter had a relationship with Amber Karlson  from 1974-1979  We don't know if they got married  but a 1991 article in Soap Opera Digest refers to his most recent ex- wife as his fifth wife.  Bt we could have missed one somewere along the line

In 1986, Peter married his fifth wife Mary whom he met at the Michael Landon Tennis Tournament two years earlier.  Mary is the same age as Peter's son Matthew, creating a significant chronological disparity in their ages.  However, Peter has kept himself in great shape, which combined with obvious genetic blessings in the aging department. makes them a better match than would appear by comparing birth certificates.  They are both very athletic with a love for horses, the outdoors and sports such as tennis.  This marriage ended sometime in 1998 or 1999, but given the length of the average marriage in this country, we'd still have to count the marriage as a successful one.  [And stay tuned.  As noted above, Peter practices positive thinking and it appears he's one of those men who insists on being optimistic about marriage.]

According to a February 2001 interview in Soap Opera Digest, Peter has three children and three grandchildren.  We don't know who the children [other than Matthew] and grandchildren are connected to.  Peter's hard to keep up with on that front.

At present, Peter has his own production company and also continues to make appearances in both prime time TV [most recently in a spring 2000 episode of JAG] and films.  He makes fairly frequent appearances at collectors shows, particularly those oriented to Westerns fans.  [No baby boomer Westerns fan can do better than catching Peter at a show with long-time buddies Robert Fuller and William Smith.  And we note that he's just as gracious to fans now as Ann-Margaret found him to be 40 years ago]  Peter continues to be involved in celebrity charity sporting events [tennis, golf and rodeo] and travels a lot.

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