Johnny Brown, R.I.P.

Sorry to hear of the passing of Johnny Brown, who's remembered mainly for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Good Times, but who had an impressive career on the Broadway stage and just about everywhere else. This obit will tell you some (just some) of the other things he did.

I knew Johnny Brown very, very briefly a long, long time ago. How long ago? I was hired to help him with some material he performed from the guest chair of another Johnny named Carson, back in the days when The Tonight Show emanated from New York. Mr. Brown struck me as one of those fellows who's glad to see you — glad to see everyone — and you could never catch him not being happy or smiling or just lighting up whatever room he was in at the moment.

I was never around him after that, more than a half-century ago, but I'd like to think he was that way all the time. And I'd like to think he remained that way to his dying day at age 84 last Wednesday. He was always good in everything he did.