Rasa Von Werder: Ron Van Clief & Jim Brown

Chapter 13 – Two Movie Stars – Ron Van Clief & Jim Brown written 10-12-22

I mentioned Ron before – but had not yet found the pic with him. Now I found it. This from Wikipedia:

Ron Van Clief (born January 25, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American martial artist and an actor in Hollywood and Hong Kong action films. He is best known for starring in 1970s blaxploitation and kung fu films.

Ron Van Clief's first acting job came when he was selected to star in the 1974 Hong Kong film The Black Dragon (aka Super Dragon) opposite Jason Pai Piao. Some of his film roles during the 1970s were Blaxploitation films which capitalized on the then-novelty of an African-American martial artist, following in the tradition of Jim Kelly's role in Enter the Dragon. He starred alongside Leo Fong in a Filipino action film called Bamboo Trap in 1975. Van Clief's film roles earned him the nickname "The Black Dragon", and the name inspired the titles of his films The Black Dragon's Revenge (aka The Black Dragon Revenges the Death of Bruce Lee) (1975) and Way of the Black Dragon (1979). He appeared in the 1977 Italian crime film The Squeeze opposite Lee Van Cleef and Karen Black, and was also the fight choreographer for the 1985 film The Last Dragon.

My account: I Ron around 1975 when a young man who was in my circle & I went to his karate school. I was then a huge fan of Bruce Lee; all that had to do with the sport fascinated me.

We had one date at my apartment in B’klyn.

He spoke about his ambitions, was pleased at making 100k a picture & looking forward to a great career. I see from Wikipedia he got a lot of accolades.

Jim Brown, Football & Movie Star

I met him around 1968 at a mostly black club in LA called ‘Maverick’s Flats.’ I was seated alone at a table, the management placed him & his wife at my table, we chatted, he said he was working on a movie called ‘Ice Station Zebra.’

Never one to miss a chance, I called him at the studio, lol. He invited me over. Ernest Borgnine came by & sat with us a minute.

He then visited me at my house on Heather Court, Beverly Hills, where I was with my black roommate, Ginger Tubbs. If she’s around she can tell you about it.

So we had a romantic episode in my King Sized bed.

Some weeks later he called & said he was coming over with some golf buddies but they never showed.

The last time I saw him for a visit was in his hotel on Sunset Blvd. – forgot the name – many stars I knew stayed there, near the Whisky A Go Go.

I saw him one more time in a drug store on Sunset Blvd – we looked at one another but did not speak. He had just done an interview for Playboy & I had a pictorial as Miss Nude Universe in the same issue – I went into the store to get a copy – it was 1968.

This is about him in Wikipedia:

Early films[edit]

Brown began his acting career before the 1964 season, playing a buffalo soldier in a Western action film called Rio Conchos.^[29] The film premiered at Cleveland's Hippodrome theater on October 23, with Brown and many of his teammates in attendance. The reaction was lukewarm. Brown, one reviewer said, was a serviceable actor, but the movie's overcooked plotting and implausibility amounted to "a vigorous melodrama for the unsqueamish."^[30]

MGM[edit]

In early 1966, Brown was shooting his second film in London.^[31] MGM's The Dirty Dozen cast Brown as Robert Jefferson, one of 12 convicts sent to France during World War II to assassinate German officers meeting at a castle near Rennes in Brittany before the D-Day invasion. Production delays due to bad weather meant he missed at least the first part of training camp on the campus of Hiram College, which annoyed Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, who threatened to fine Brown $1,500 (equivalent to $12,500 in 2021) for every week of camp he missed.^[32] Brown, who had previously said that 1966 would be his last season, the final year of a three-year contract,^[33] announced his retirement, instead.^[24][25][29]

Brown went on to play a villain in a 1967 episode of I Spy called "Cops and Robbers".

Dirty Dozen was a huge hit and MGM signed him to a multi-film contract. His second film for the studio was Dark of the Sun (1968), an action movie set in the Congo where he played a mercenary who was Rod Taylor's best friend.

Ice Station Zebra (1968) was also for MGM, an expensive adventure movie based on a novel by Alistair MacLean where Brown supported Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, and Ernest Borgnine.

Leading man[edit]

MGM cast Brown in his first lead role in The Split (1968), based on a Parker novel by Donald E. Westlake. He was paid $125,000 for the role.^[34]

Brown followed it with Riot (1969), a prison film for MGM. Both it and The Split were solid hits at the box office. Biographer Mike Freeman credits Brown with becoming "the first black action star", due to roles such as the Marine captain he portrayed in the hit 1968 film Ice Station Zebra.^[35]

Brown went to 20th Century Fox for 100 Rifles (1969). Brown was billed over co stars Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds and had a love scene with Welch, one of the first interracial love scenes.^[36] Raquel Welch reflected on the scene in Spike Lee's Jim Brown: All-American.

Brown had a change of pace with Kenner (1969) at MGM, an adventure film partly set in India where Brown plays a man who befriends a young boy. For the same studio, he starred as a sheriff in ... tick ... tick ... tick ... (1970) which was another hit.

Brown appeared in The Grasshopper (1970), a drama for National General Pictures where he played an ex-football player who becomes the lover of Jacqueline Bisset. More typical was El Condor (1970), a Western shot in Spain by John Guillermin, also for National General.

Brown starred in several of the blaxploitation genre: Slaughter (1972), a huge hit for AIP; Black Gunn (1972) for Columbia; Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973); The Slams (1973), back at MGM; I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973); and Three the Hard Way (1974) with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly. He spoofed his own image in the role of "Slammer" in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) and Hammer, Slammer, & Slade, a television pilot released as a made for television film.

He did a spaghetti Western with Williamson, Take a Hard Ride (1975). The popularity of blaxploitation ebbed in the mid-70s and Brown made fewer films.

Late 1970s through to present day[edit]

Brown appeared in Fingers (1978), the directorial debut of James Toback.

His 1980s appearances were mostly on television. Brown appeared in some TV shows including Knight Rider in the season-three premiere episode "Knight of the Drones". Brown appeared alongside fellow former football player Joe Namath on The A-Team episode "Quarterback Sneak".^[37] Brown also appeared on CHiPs, episodes one and two, in season three, as a pickpocket on roller skates.

He appeared opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987's The Running Man, an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, as Fireball, and had a cameo in the spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).

Brown appeared in Mars Attacks! (1996) and Sucker Free City (2004) and played a defensive coach, Montezuma Monroe, in Any Given Sunday (1999).

This is scary – I’m glad I got away – I had no idea he could be like this

Personal life and legal troubles[edit]

Brown married his first wife Sue Brown (née Jones) in September 1959.^[52] She sued for divorce in 1968, charging him with "gross neglect." Together they had three children, twins Kim and Kevin (b. 1960), and a son, James Jr. (b. 1962).^[53] Their divorce was finalized in 1972.^[54] Brown was ordered to pay $2,500 per month in alimony and $100 per week for child support.^[55]

In 1965, Brown was arrested in his hotel room for assault and battery against an 18-year-old named Brenda Ayres; he was later acquitted of those charges.^[52] A year later, he fought paternity allegations that he fathered Brenda Ayres' child.^[56]

In 1968, Brown was charged with assault with intent to commit murder after model Eva Bohn-Chin was found beneath the balcony of Brown's second-floor apartment.^[57] The charges were later dismissed after Bohn-Chin refused to cooperate with the prosecutor's office. Brown was also ordered to pay a $300 fine for striking a deputy sheriff involved in the investigation during the incident. In Brown's autobiography, he stated that Bohn-Chin was angry and jealous over an affair he had been having with Gloria Steinem, and this argument is what led to the "misunderstanding with the police".^[58]

In 1970, Brown was found not guilty of assault and battery, the charges stemming from a road-rage incident that had occurred in 1969.^[59]

In December 1973, Brown proposed to 18-year-old Diane Stanley, a Clark College student he met in Acapulco, Mexico, in April of that year.^[60][61] They broke off their engagement in 1974.^[62]

In 1975, Brown was convicted of misdemeanor battery for beating and choking his golfing partner, Frank Snow. He was sentenced to one day in jail, two years' probation, and a fine of $500.^[63][64]

In 1985, Brown was charged with raping a 33-year-old woman.^[65] The charges were later dismissed.^[66]

In 1986, Brown was arrested for assaulting his fiancée Debra Clark.^[67] Clark refused to press charges, though, and Brown was released.^[68]

Brown married his second wife Monique Brown in 1997; they have two children.^[69] In 1999, Brown was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats toward his wife. Later that year, he was found guilty of vandalism for smashing his wife's car with a shovel.^[70] He was sentenced to three years' probation, one year of domestic violence counseling, and 400 hours of community service or 40 hours on a work crew along with a $1,800 fine.^[71] Brown ignored the terms of his sentence and in 2000 was sentenced to six months in jail, which he began serving in 2002 after refusing the court-ordered counseling and community service.^[72] He was released after three months.