Background:

American character actor W. Earl Brown is best recognized for his role as Dan Dority on the HBO series “Deadwood” (2004-2006). The series brought him a Screen Actors Guild nomination and a Writers Guild of America nomination. He is also known for his appearances in the Wes Craven films “New Nightmare” (1994), “Vampire in Brooklyn” (1995) and “Scream” (1996), as well as for playing  Warren in “There's Something About Mary” (1998). Brown wrote, produced and starred in the drama film “Bloodworth” (2010).

Apart from acting, Brown co-founded the country band Sacred Cowboys  with Peter Spirer (the director of “Dunsmore”), Jeff Robertson, Stephen Quadros, Tony Cavazo, Ralph Stevens, and Mike “Rhinestone” Johnstone (who he met on the set of “Deadwood”). He plays guitar and sings the lead for the band.

Currently, Brown lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Carrie Paschall, and his daughter.


William

Childhood and Family:

William Earl Brown, who would later be popular as W. Earl Brown, was born on September 7, 1963, in Murray, Kentucky. He graduated from Calloway County High School in Murray and then from Murray State University, from which he received a Bachelor's degree in Theater. He went on to pursue a MFA degree at The Theatre School of DePaul in Chicago, with classmates  John C. Reilly and Gillian Anderson. He left Chicago in 1993 when he decided to give Los Angeles a try.

Earl married his high school sweetheart Carrie Paschall on July 1, 1989. They have one daughter together.   


Scream

Career:

 W. Earl Brown started working in theater, film and television in the Chicago area, including “A View From The Bridge” at the Steppenwolf Theatre and roles in Ron Howard's “Backdraft” (1991), where he made a brief appearance as a paramedic, while also having a major off-screen job as a dialogue coach, Arthur Hiller's “The Babe” (1992), Jon Hess' “Excessive Force” (1993) and Daniel Stern's “Rookie of the Year” (1993).        

After moving to Los Angeles, Brown landed a bit part as Morgue attendant on the Wes Craven film “New Nightmare” (1994), which marked their first of three films together. The two would reunite in “Vampire in Brooklyn” (1995) and the highly successful slasher movie “Scream” (1996), where he played Courteney Cox's cameraman, Kenny. Brown also appeared in other films like “Without Evidence” (1995), Gary Fleder's “Kiss the Girls” (1997, starred Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes), Mimi Leder's “Deep Impact” (1998, starred Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni and Elijah Wood) and Spike Jonze's “Being John Malkovich” (1999). He also had a high profile role as Warren, the mentally challenged brother of Cameron Diaz, on the Farrelly brothers sleeper hit “There's Something About Mary” (1998).

Brown also took on a number of television roles during this period. He made guest appearances in “Seinfeld” (1994), “Murder, She Wrote” (1994), “Ellen” (1995), “The Single Guy” (1995), “Nowhere Man” (1995), “Caroline in the City” (1996), “Diagnosis Murder” (1997), “Smart Guy” (1997), “Profiler” (1998) and “Martial Law” (1999). Besides, he appeared in a string of the made for television films, such as “Murder Between Friends” (1994),  “Dead Air” (1994), “Lily in Winter” (1994), “Project: ALF” (1996), “Wiseguy” (1996), “A Season in Purgatory” (1996), “The Cherokee Kid” (1996) and “Bella Mafia” (1997).

Brown portrayed the singer/actor Meat Loaf in the television movie “Meatloaf: To Hell and Back,” based on the autobiography of the same name written by Meat Loaf, with David Dalton. The TV movie version was directed by Jim McBride and aired on VH1's Rock and Roll Picture Show on July 26, 2000. The same year, he also co-starred with Charlotte Ayanna and Daryl Hannah in Michael Radford's drama film “Dancing at the Blue Iguana” (played Bobby), was cast opposite Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin and Sarah Wynter in Janusz Kaminski's “Lost Souls” and appeared in episodes of the television shows “Chicago Hope,” “FreakyLinks” and “Angel.”

For the next three years, Brown filled in his resume with guest spots in such television shows as “Charmed,” “Dead Last,” “Wolf Lake” (all 2001), “Philly,” “The X-Files” “Six Feet Under” (all 2002) and “NYPD Blue” (2003) as well as with a recurring role as Shadrach in the short lived mystery series “Push, Nevada” (2002), co-created by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. He added his film credits with appearances in Francine McDougall's “Sugar & Spice” (2001, as Hank 'Terminator' Rogers), Cameron Crowe's “Vanilla Sky” (2001, as Barman), Pauly Shore's “Pauly Shore Is Dead” (2003, starred Ashley L. Anderson, Pamela Anderson and Camille Anderson) and Peter Spirer's “Dunsmore” (2003, played Ronny Roy Pritcher).   

Brown's big breakthrough came in 2004 when he landed the regular role of Dan Dority, henchman to Al Swearengen at the Gem, on the HBO Western drama “Deadwood,” opposite Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, John Hawkes and Jim Beaver, among other actors. He remained with the David Milch created show throughout its three seasons run from March 21, 2004 to August 27, 2006, and jointly netted a Screen Actors Guild nomination in the category of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2007 for his performance. Brown also co-wrote the 2006   episode “A Constant Throb,” for which she shared a Writers Guild of America nomination for Dramatic Series.

While working on “Deadwood,” Brown maintained his presence on the big screen with roles on  John Lee Hancock's “The Alamo” (2004), a    war film about the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution, the film adaptation of Clyde Edgerton's novel, “Killer Diller” (2004), where he co-starred with William Lee Scott, Lucas Black and Fred Willard, “The Last Shot” (2004), a comedy film starring Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Toni Collette, Tim Blake Nelson, Mark Mylod's “The Big White” (2005, opposite Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Giovanni Ribisi, Woody Harrelson, Tim Blake Nelson and Alison Lohman.) and Josh Stolberg's “Kids in America” (2005). He also made guest appearances in “Cold Case” (2004, as Victor Lake) and “CSI: Miami” (2005, as Jesse Kramer).  

After “Deadwood” departed the airwaves, Brown appeared in episodes of “Standoff” (2006), “Numb3rs” (2007), “Psych” (2007), “The Mentalist” (2008), “Hawthorne” (2009), “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2009), “Justified” (2010), “Miami Medical” (2010), “Breakout Kings” (2011), “Burn Notice” (2011), “American Horror Story” (2011), and in films like “The Minister of Divine” (2007, TV), “Suspect” (2007, TV), “Waiting” (2007), “1%” (2008, TV), “Bloodworth” (2010), which he also wrote and produce, “Pickin' & Grinnin'” (2010) and “The Last Rites of Ransom Pride” (2010).  

Recently, in 2012, Brown appeared in the Ben Lewis drama film “The Sessions,” playing Rod, was cast opposite Sara Paxton, Justin Bruening and Angela Arimento in the made for television film “Blue-Eyed Butcher” and appeared in two episodes of “Luck.” He has completed filming the supporting role of Turner Monroe in the drama “Brother's Keeper,” which is slated for October 2012 release. Brown also will play roles in other upcoming films like “Knights of Badassdom” (2012), “The Master” (2012), “A Single Shot” (2013) and “The Lone Ranger” (2013). He will play Frank Prentice in an episode of the forthcoming TV series “Perception” (2012).   

    
Awards:

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