Tom Brown(1868-1919)
- Actor
A veteran actor, comedian, minstrel and musician, Tom Brown started in show business as a member of a number of traveling minstrel shows starting in the mid-1880s. He developed his impersonations of various ethnic group, soon being known for his Chinese impersonations, although he was able to do Hebrew and Italian characterizations. He worked with nearly all of the major African-American actors of the late Nineteenth Century; with his first wife, a beautiful young dancer named Siren Navarro, he had a successful comedy dance act that played the Keith Circuit. Brown also played with Ernest Hogan in the show "Rufus Rastus" and with Bert Williams in his solo show "Mr. Lode of Koal." Brown also was a member of the Pekin Theatre stock company of Chicago, and of the Lafayette Players in Harlem. He died in Chicago, but is buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.