
An All-American halfback while attending the University of Alabama, Johnny Mack Brown chose the silver screen over the green grass of the football field when he graduated. Signed to a contract with MGM in 1926, Brown debuted in Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) with William Haines in a film about - baseball. This was followed by The Bugle Call (1927), which starred the fading Jackie Coogan. In 1928 he appeared in the last Norma Shearer silent film, A Lady of Chance (1928). After that, he worked with Greta Garbo, Marion Davies and Mary Pickford. His muscular good looks only carried him so far in films, however, and by 1930 he had yet to find his place. At MGM Clark Gable was taking the roles that Brown was up for, so he went into a western for director King Vidor, Billy the Kid (1930). While Vidor did not want him for the part to begin with, the picture was successful; however, Brown's career at MGM soon ended. By 1933 he was still making westerns, but they were for low-rung studios like Mascot. More westerns at even lower-rung Supreme Pictures followed, as well as serials like Wild West Days (1937) at Universal. In 1943 Brown took his boots over to Monogram Pictures, where he made over 60 westerns. He started off as "Nevada Jack McKenzie" in the Rough Riders series, but the name soon changed to Johnny. As with most of the early cowboy stars, he was a hero to millions of young children and consistently among the top ten money-makers in westerns from 1942-50. The bubble burst, though, just as it did for Allan Lane, in 1953, as the days of the "B" western came to an end.

Stranger from Santa Fe

Six Gun Mesa

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

The Oregon Trail

Rustlers of Red Dog

Perry Mason

After Midnight

The Masked Rider

The Old Chisholm Trail

It's Showtime

The Divine Woman

Mockery

The Last Flight

A Woman of Affairs

This Is Your Life

A Lady of Chance

Texas City

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Female

Apache Uprising

Fighting With Kit Carson

The Valiant

Short Grass

Hurricane

Whistling Hills

Border Bandits

Requiem for a Gunfighter

Little Joe, the Wrangler

Raiders of San Joaquin

Fighting Bill Fargo

Flame of the West

West of Wyoming

Ride 'Em Cowboy

Belle of the Nineties

Cross Streets

Branded a Coward

The Bounty Killer

Ghost Guns

Coquette

The Secret Six

Stampede

The Single Standard

The Fair Co-Ed

Guns in the Dark

The Gambling Terror

Undercover Man

Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove

Bad Man from Red Butte

Wells Fargo

Rawhide Rangers

Stagecoach Buckaroo

Between Men

The Great Meadow

Jazz Heaven

Law of the Range

Son of a Sailor

The Lone Star Trail

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Boss of Bullion City

Law Men

Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie

Canyon Ambush

Law of the Valley

Frontier Feud

Raiders of the South

The Law Comes to Gunsight

Western Renegades

Saturday's Millions

Starlit Days at the Lido

70,000 Witnesses

Crazy House

Flaming Frontiers

The Crooked Trail

The Texas Kid

Lawless Land

Boothill Brigade

Gun Smoke

Born to the West

The Courageous Avenger

Desperate Trails

Six Gun Gospel

Montana Moon

Billy the Kid

The Silver Bullet

Arizona Cyclone

Cheyenne Roundup

Outlaws of Stampede Pass

Partners of the Trail

The Marshal's Daughter

Flames

Against the Law

A Lawman Is Born

Undertow

Annapolis

Rogue of the Range

Bar-Z Bad Men

West of Carson City

Riders of Pasco Basin

Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs

Slide, Kelly, Slide

Legends of the West

Soft Living

Texas Lawmen

Desert Phantom

St. Louis Woman

Pony Post

Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground

Chip of the Flying U

Land of Liberty

Wild West Days

The Vanishing Frontier

The Navajo Trail

Man from Montana

The Gentleman from Texas

Prairie Express

Oklahoma Justice

Blazing Bullets

Son of Roaring Dan

Overland Trails

Shadows on the Range

Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her

Trigger Fingers

Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Valley of the Lawless

Dead Man's Trail

Over the Border

Triggerman

Valley of Fear

West of El Dorado

Trail of Vengeance

The Lost Trail

Crossed Trails

Outlaw Gold

Man from Sonora

Everyman's Law

Forever Yours

Oklahoma Frontier

Law and Order

Silver Range

Flashing Guns

The Play Girl

Colorado Ambush

Montana Desperado

Law of the Panhandle

Man from the Black Hills

Boss of Hangtown Mesa

The Stranger From Pecos

The Ghost Rider

Land of the Outlaws

Raiders of the Border

Range Law

West of the Rio Grande

Under Arizona Skies

Drifting Along

The Haunted Mine

Gun Talk

Trailing Danger

Code of the Saddle

Land of the Lawless

Law of the West

Range Justice

Back Trail

Gunning for Justice

Frontier Agent

The Fighting Ranger

Hidden Danger

The Sheriff of Medicine Bow

Trails End

Three on a Honeymoon

The Bugle Call

Marrying Widows

Hell Town