- Was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War I.
- Directed 10 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore, Norma Shearer, Marie Dressler, Beulah Bondi, Charles Boyer, Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere, Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. Barrymore and Revere won Oscars for their performances in one of Brown's movies.
- At six, he holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Director without a win. He was nominated for Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), A Free Soul (1931), The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1944) and The Yearling (1946).
- Had one daughter, Adrienne (sometimes given as Arabella), by his first wife in 1917.
- Brown is on record as stating that the happiest working conditions of his career were at 20th Century-Fox where he made the only non-MGM picture during the last 25 years of his career on double loan-out with Myrna Loy.
- Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 63-66. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
- The governor of Tennessee declared May 27, 1970, as Clarence Brown Day with the start of the inaugural film festival in the 626 Clarence Brown Theater on the campus of the University of Tennessee.
- Graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1910 at age 19 with a double degree in mechanical and electrical engineering.
- After seeing that many of the finest pictures were produced by World Pictures and Maurice Tourneur, he found his way to Fort Lee, NJ--World Pictures' headquarters--and introduced himself to the director. The studio was looking for an assistant and hired him. Tourneur took him on and Brown remained with him for seven years.
- He has directed three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Last of the Mohicans (1920), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and National Velvet (1944). He has also edited one film that is in the registry: The Blue Bird (1918).
- Amongst all the top directors Billy Wilder had the most Oscar nominations with 8 Fred Zinneman 7, Frank Capra 6 David Lean 6, Clarence Brown 5, John Ford 5, King Vidor 5 George Stevens 5 Alfred Hitchcock 5 George Cukor 5.
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