Melville W. Brown

Brown was born on March 10, 1887, to John and Fannie Brown of Portland, Oregon. He began his career in show business in local vaudeville productions and stock companies, such as the Baker Stock Company in Spokane, Washington. In 1916, at the suggestion of Charlie Chaplin, he moved to Hollywood to start a film career. ==Career==

His first known credit is as a screenwriter, on the 1919 silent film, The Pest, produced by Goldwyn Pictures, and directed by Christy Cabanne. Over the next several years he would continue to write screenplays, including the critically acclaimed The Goose Woman, which he adapted from a story by Rex Beach, and directed by Clarence Brown (no relation). He would move into the directing field in 1926, with the film, Her Big Night, which he also wrote the screenplay for. In 1935, he left Hollywood and went to England, where he directed several films over the next two years, the last of which, Mad About Money, was released after his death. He returned from England in late 1937, and was working on a screenplay when he was stricken by a heart attack and died on January 31, 1938, at the age of 50. ==Filmography==