Biography
The son of stage actors, Pennsylvania-born Karl Brown was far more intrigued by the technical end of show business; while in his teens he became a lab assistant, then a still photographer. Brown's celebrated association with D.W. Griffith began when the director cast him as a juvenile player in 1914. Before long, Brown was made the assistant of Griffith's trusted cameraman
Billy Bitzer, and in 1916 Brown distinguished himself by concocting the special effects for the crucifixion scenes in Griffith's
Intolerance (1916). As a cinematographer in his own right, Brown became a close associate of director
James Cruze, cranking the camera for Cruze's money-making epic
The Covered Wagon. Brown himself turned director in the mid 1920s, but outside of
Stark Love (1927), a remarkable semi-documentary account of North Carolina mountain folk, his films were unmemorable. He also wrote several screenplays, among them the above-average
Boris Karloff "mad doctor" quickie The Man With 9 Lives (1939). As work opportunities dwindled, Brown lived on the fringes of poverty, all but forgotten until he was rediscovered by film historians anxious to pick Brown's brain about the Griffith years. Karl Brown assembled many of these reminiscences in a book, Adventures with D. W. Griffith, which was not published until six years after Brown's death in 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide