William H. Brown Jr.
William H. Brown Jr. (William Herbert Brown Jr.) was an American television director and producer, a radio dramatist, and a composer. He was born on June 23, 1917, in Portland, Maine, and died on June 8, 1982, in Portland.
Brown studied music at Bowdoin College, earning a BA in 1939. He started as a music critic and wrote radio plays before moving into television. He made his TV directing debut in 1949 on The Hank Ladd Show, then worked on Goodyear Revue and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. He helped launch the TV debuts of Ann Sothern and Polly Bergen in the early 1950s.
In 1954 he joined CBS, directing Life With Father and the premiere of Climax!, “The Long Goodbye.” The episode was praised for its imaginative and vigorous direction. In 1955 he moved to Studio One, directing episodes such as Donovan’s Brain and The Conviction of Peter Shea. In 1956, Studio One featured The Landlady’s Daughter, with Brown’s direction noted for its atmosphere.
Starting in 1960 he served as executive producer of Shirley Temple’s Storybook. Brown was married to Janet Pierce Johnson on June 9, 1941, in Boston, and they had three sons. He died in Portland on June 8, 1982, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:54 (CET).