Clancy Brown

Clancy Brown arrives as the Harbinger in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023), and there is more procedure to get through. His deep voice suits a man explaining the terms; the problem is how often the film has already explained them. We grew impatient as the conversations kept returning to the conditions of John's freedom. Brown fits the part, but another convincing authority figure is the last thing these scenes need.

The threatening parts came early, with the Kurgan in Highlander (1986) establishing him as a formidable villain. Frank Darabont gives him Captain Byron T. Hadley, a brutal prison guard, in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). His Hadley leaves room for something human without inviting us to excuse the brutality. We recommend the film for the friendship played by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, though its moral lessons are sometimes too insistent. Brown's contribution matters because he makes the guard more than an obstacle placed in their way, even when the film around him is spelling things out.

Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers (1997) uses him as Career Sergeant Zim, a drill instructor: another job for a voice accustomed to being obeyed. The substantial turn in his career came alongside the supporting film roles, rather than replacing them. From SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) onwards, his work as the voice of Mr. Krabs sits beside his Lex Luthor in DC animation. Those parts need a performance that registers without his height doing any of the work. They also give a fuller account of his usefulness than a succession of live-action heavies would.

The danger is that casting Brown becomes a substitute for writing the person he plays. In John Wick: Chapter 4, composers Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard give the rule-reading the same low musical thump as the fights, making the pauses feel more laborious. We would rather see him given more of Hadley's complexity than more regulations to recite. For Brown with a character to play, start with The Shawshank Redemption.