Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy", by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 68-69. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Bowling Green State University dedicated one of its three theaters to him (the one in which he appeared in "Harvey" in the 1950s) as The Joe E. Brown Theatre.
Comedian.
He and his wife renewed their wedding vows on December 24, 1940. His oldest son Don gave away the bride, second son Joe was best man, and the daughters were flower girls. Daughter-in-law Virginia Newport Brown was the maid of honor.
He had four children: two sons, Don Evan (b. December 25, 1916) and Joe L. Brown, and two daughters, Mary Katherine Ann (b. 1930) and Kathryn Francis (b. 1934). Both daughters were adopted.
His comical face and satchel-sized mouth seemed to overshadow the fact that Brown was a remarkably gifted athlete and had an almost deceptively ripped physique, which he maintained throughout his entire life.
His son Don, a member of the air corps, died in World War II in a plane accident.
His sons were both UCLA athletes.
In 1944, his daughter Mary Katherine was injured in a car accident and near death. There were so many other car accidents that night that there were not enough doctors at the hospital to care for her. Brown ran around the hospital trying to find someone to help him until finally a doctor, tired and ready to go home, recognized Brown and agreed to help his doctor. He treated her for seven hours, saving her life.
In 1948, won a special Tony Award for the touring production of "Harvey," cited for "spreading theater to the country while the original performs in New York".
In December 1939, his daughter Kathryn suffered a skull fracture when she was thrown from a horse. Three days later, Brown was in a car accident in where his car rolled over several times and fell down a 35 foot embankment. He ended up breaking his back and collapsing a lung. His heart stopped during surgery and he was clinically dead for 40 seconds.
Interred at Forest Lawn (Glendale), Glendale, California, USA. Specific interment location: Sunrise Slope, just south of the Great Mausoleum.
Joe E. Brown's son Joe L. Brown became a baseball executive and is best known for being the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the period when they won the World Series in 1960.
OH-18 in Holgate, Ohio, his birthplace, is renamed Joe E. Brown Ave.
Playing the flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Brown ad-libbed, "I won't play any more" when thrown into a lake. It always got a good laugh, but it is said to be the only non-Shakespeare bit of dialogue in the film.
The cartoon character Peter Potamus was modeled after Brown.
When his oldest son was born, Brown got sick and passed out in the delivery room.