The March 18 death of 85-year-old Fess Parker, a TV icon for baby boomers, first as “Davy Crockett” and later as “Daniel Boone,” is a reminder to some Wacoans of another golden age of television personality with local roots.

James E. “Lefty” Brown (1920-92) was born 90 years ago this week in Desdemona, once an Eastland County oil boomtown located east of Abilene.

Brown, who went on to fame in the 1950s on the ABC western series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” was a product of the Waco school system, as his family returned to Central Texas sometime before 1924.

Tennis beginnings

Brown, a left-handed tennis player, won the 1937 University Interscho- lastic League state doubles title. A 1938 graduate of Waco High — as well as Baylor University — he enjoyed a brief professional career in his chosen sport before launching a 40-year career as an actor with an appearance in the movie “Wake Island” (1942).

As an athletic Texan with ruggedly handsome features and skills on horseback, Brown was cast in numerous Westerns and several heroic military roles, as well as a variety of comedies and dramas.

He landed roles in more than 40 films, including “Going My Way” (1944); “Air Force” (1943); “The Fabulous Texan” (1947), “Sands of Iwo Jima,” with John Wayne (1949); “The Charge at Feather River” (1953); “Five Guns to Tombstone” (1960) and “Gun Street” (1961).

Brown, who acted under several variations of his name — James L. Brown, J.B. Brown, James Bowen Brown, Jim L. Brown, Jimmy Brown and Jim Brown — also appeared in numerous television shows, including “The Lone Ranger” (1949); “The Adventures of Superman” (1952), “Gunsmoke” (1955), “Route 66” (1960), “The Virginian” (1962), “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (1960-1962), “Daniel Boone” (1964), “The FBI” (1965), “Starsky and Hutch” (1975), and a seven-episode story arc as Detective Harry McSween on “Dallas” (1981). His last TV appearance was on “Murder, She Wrote” (1988).

Best-known series

But it was as the handsome hero of “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin” show, which ran for seven seasons on ABC-TV (1954-59), on which many baby boomers may recall seeing Brown.

He starred as the strong, charismatic Western military hero Lt. Ripley “Rip” Masters of 1880s Fort Apache, Arizona Territory.

Masters was given charge of young Rusty (played by Lee Aaker, born in 1943), a boy orphaned when his parents were killed in an Indian raid. With only his trusty canine companion, Rin Tin Tin, surviving the massacre with him, the lad is adopted by the 101st Cavalry, also known as “The Fighting Blue Devils,” and promoted to honorary corporal.

Role reprisal

Brown appeared in all 166 episodes of the series, which was sponsored by Nabisco and Milk Bone Dog Biscuits, but only 52 episodes survive for posterity. The show was rereleased in 1976, hosted by Brown, who reprised his Rip Masters character for the program’s opening and closing segments.

Two episodes of the “dog and pony” show featured Brown’s musical talent, with him singing “Forward Ho” in one episode and “The White Buffalo” in another. His baritone was backed by the “Trailwinders” when he recorded for MGM records.

Brown died April 11, 1992, after a long bout with lung cancer. 

Sources: CowboyPals.com, TexasEscapes.com, TVrage.com, RinTinTin.com, TVacres.com, TV.com