Neville Brand was born in Griswold, Iowa, of Belgian, Dutch and Welsh ancestry. He was born to Leo and Helen Brand as one of seven children. Leo, an electrician and bridge building steel worker, and Helen were originally from Illinois, and Neville was raised in Kewanee, Illinois. After high school, he helped support the family while employed as a soda jerk, waiter, and shoe salesman in Kewanee. He entered the Illinois Army National Guard on October 23, 1939 as a private in Company F, 129th Infantry Regiment. Enlisted as Corporal Neville L. Brand infantryman on March 5, 1941, he was listed as being six feet tall and weighing 169 pounds.
He trained at Fort Carson, and served nine months and nineteen days in the U.S. Army in World War II seeing action with the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division (Thunderbolt Division) in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. Brand, a sergeant and platoon leader, was wounded in action along the Weser River on… read more
Neville Brand was born in Griswold, Iowa, of Belgian, Dutch and Welsh ancestry. He was born to Leo and Helen Brand as one of seven children. Leo, an electrician and bridge building steel worker, and Helen were originally from Illinois, and Neville was raised in Kewanee, Illinois. After high school, he helped support the family while employed as a soda jerk, waiter, and shoe salesman in Kewanee. He entered the Illinois Army National Guard on October 23, 1939 as a private in Company F, 129th Infantry Regiment. Enlisted as Corporal Neville L. Brand infantryman on March 5, 1941, he was listed as being six feet tall and weighing 169 pounds.
He trained at Fort Carson, and served nine months and nineteen days in the U.S. Army in World War II seeing action with the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division (Thunderbolt Division) in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. Brand, a sergeant and platoon leader, was wounded in action along the Weser River on April 7, 1945. His upper right arm was hit by a bullet, and he nearly bled to death. He was discharged from service in October 1945.
He worked on a 1946 U.S. Army Signal Corps film with Charlton Heston, and next settled in Greenwich Village and enrolled at the American Theater Wing, working off Broadway, including Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Victors”. He also attended the Geller Drama School in Los Angeles on the G.I. Bill.
According to the IMDb, the claim that he was the fourth most decorated soldier (actor Audie Murphy being the first) is often repeated but is incorrect, though that same article does list many decorations that he did receive. These include a Silver Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with three Service Stars), American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, one Service stripe, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
In a November 1979 interview with author William R. Horner for his book Bad at the Bijou, Brand related that he was a highly decorated soldier in World War II, winning a Silver Star, but that he wasn’t the fourth most decorated. He attributed it to someone in Hollywood, and said that when he would deny it people thought he was just being modest.
Brand started his big screen career in D.O.A. (1950) as a henchman named Chester. He became well known as a villain when he killed the character played by Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender. He played the villain in so many movies, his self-image became affected, culminating in a television interview on Entertainment Tonight with the actor moving about in agitation repeating, “I’m a loser. I’m a loser.”
However, Brand played a very romantic lead in the movie Return from the Sea with Jan Sterling and a heartwarming character who was brain damaged and misunderstood in an episode of the TV show Daniel Boone. He played Hoss Cartwright’s (Dan Blocker) Swedish uncle “Gunnar Borgstrom” on Bonanza in the episode “The Last Viking”. He also played U.S. Navy Lieutenant Kaminsky, ignored as he tried to warn his commander of the opening skirmish in Tora! Tora! Tora!, who later waves his arms at the Pearl Harbor carnage, exclaiming to a shocked Captain John B. Earle (Richard Anderson) “Sir, THERE’S your confirmation!”
Of the hundreds of roles he played, he is probably most well known as Al Capone in the TV show The Untouchables and the movie The George Raft Story. The characterization caused an outcry from the Italian American community over stereotypes.
Many will remember him as Bull Ransom, the prison guard of Birdman of Alcatraz, and as the antagonistic and untrusting, yet dedicated POW, “Duke”, in Stalag 17.
Known also for his cowboy roles, he appeared twice on the long running TV western The Virginian, he then went on to star as Reese Bennet in the television series, Laredo, with William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey. Laredo was a spinoff series from The Virginian. One of the most heart-rending scenes on television showed Brand’s character, Reese waiting in torment when he realizes he has been stood up by the love of his life. In another episode, the gruff and dusty Reese has an immaculate and proper lookalike that confounds the other Texas Rangers. The producers suspended Brand from Laredo due to his heavy drinking and problems between directors and co-stars. Brand admitted “I missed a lot of days I should have been on the set and wasn’t.”
Most of his roles were heavies. Brand knew this when he said “Guys like me will be around this town a lot longer than the pretty boys, because we are … one of a kind. We may produce nightmares instead of pleasant dreams, but we aren’t forgotten.” In his memoir, actor Bruce Dern said that “Neville Brand was the baddest guy I’ve ever met in the business. Second baddest was Audie Murphy”. Actress Coleen Gray described him as “the steeley-eyed, evil person of all time … he was mean.” She also said “… he was a nice person, and an intelligent person.”
Brand’s personal life was complicated. He was married three times — Jean Enfield (one daughter Mary Raymer, marriage ended in divorce in 1955), Laura Rae Araujo (married in Mexico April 6, 1957, two daughters Michelle Beuttel and Katrina, divorced in Los Angeles June 1969). His third wife was Ramona. It is possible the marriage with Laura and Ramona overlapped. Obituaries mention a wife named Mae Brand. He was survived by a brother, Bryce; and two sisters, Babara Byrne and Louise Turngren.
Brand was also an insatiable reader, who amassed a collection of 30,000 books over the years, many of which were destroyed in a 1978 fire at his Malibu home.
Neville Brand died from emphysema at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento, California in 1992. He was cremated and his remains are interred in a niche of the Morning Glory Room at East Lawn Memorial Park in Sacramento. —wikipedia
