Robert "Reb" Brown (born April 29, 1948 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American football player who later went on to become an actor known for his roles in various low budget action movies. He is most famous for his role as David Ryder in Space Mutiny which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
He seems to have only two settings as an actor. On one hand, you have the emotionally sappy everyman Reb Brown who just wants a normal life (as caretaker of his mentally handicapped friend in Cage, a soldier telling a little Vietnamese boy about Disneyland in Strike Commando, or a wandering artist who just wants to see America in Captain America (1979)). Then you have the insane berserker Reb Brown who breaks loose, screams like a madman and BLOWS SHIT UP! It's not uncommon to see both performances in the exact same movie.
A popular subject on The Spoony Experiment. Though he loves poking fun at the films, Noah "Spoony" Antwiler has said that he really does love Reb as an actor and thinks he could have been one of the big action stars if only he'd had better roles. Reb Brown himself has stated that he loves Spoony's Rebruary videos.
His movies include:
- Cage
- Cage II: The Arena of Death
- Captain America (1979)
- Captain America II: Death Too Soon
- Death Of A Soldier
- Firing Line
- Howling II: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch
- Last Flight To Hell
- Mercenary Fighters
- Night Claws (his most recent film)
- Robowar
- Space Mutiny
- Sssssss
- Street Hunter
- Strike Commando
- Uncommon Valor
- White Ghost
- Yor: The Hunter from the Future
His TV appearances include:
- Emergency! (In a fourth season episode, as a fraternity pledge that nearly chokes to death in a prank, and has to be saved by Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto)
- The Love Boat
- Miami Vice (in the episode "Viking Bikers from Hell")
Tropes associated with Red Brown and his characters:
- Bond One-Liner: After pinning an enemy soldier to a wall with a thrown knife: "Don't move." A running joke on The Spoony Experiment has Spoony repeatedly pointing out that Reb's characters always follow up a major kill with unremarkable non sequiturs rather than bad-ass one-liners."These Russian dentists... they do good work."
- Euphemistic Names: In the Firing Line, Reb Brown plays a character called Major Hardin. Unfortunately, the first character to refer to him as this during his interrogation scene has a heavy accent, and so it sounds like the character's name is "Major Hard On."
- Jerk Jock: One of his first roles was in the B-horror movie Ssssssss! He plays a football player with severe anger issues who runs afoul of a Mad Scientist with a collection of venomous snakes, one of which he introduces to Reb while he's showering. Cue the Oh, Crap! and the manly screaming.
- The Mockbuster: Some of his films have been low budget foreign knockoffs of Hollywood films, such as Strike Commando for Rambo: First Blood Part II and Robowar for Predator.
- More Dakka: In Robowar, he and his team (the Big Ass Motherfuckers) fire randomly into the woods... every six minutes or so.
- It happens again in some of the other films, like Strike Commando and Mercenary Fighters.
- Rated M for Manly: His films, and the roles he plays, can be pretty full of testosterone.
- In Yor he cuts up mutant dinosaurs with an axe, and even used a giant bat as a hang glider to fly into a bad guy's lair and drop kick him.
The Spoony Experiment: "Warning: What follows is the most awesome thing ever recorded on film. Your head may explode."- In Mercenary Fighters, he uses an artillery grade machine gun with just one hand, while screaming in rage.
The Spoony Experiment: What follows is the manliest thing ever recorded on film. Your balls may drop off in shame at the mere knowledge that you will never in your entire life do something half as manly. - Say My Name: As part of his shouting, he does this with character names as well.
- From Strike Commando: "JAKODAAAAAAAA!" and "RADDDICK!"
- From Cage: "BILLY!"
- Screaming Warrior: Reb's signature move is to unleash a primal scream at a climactic moment. His scream is often high-pitched and shrill for a beefy action star, and other times it can be deep and growling.Spoony: There really is no middle ground in Reb Brown's acting, is there? He's either barely awake or HOWLING LIKE A BERSERKER!
- Shouting Shooter: If he has a gun, he will likely shout as loud as the gunfire, especially if he's pissed.
