Nacio Herb Brown

• Name — Nacio Herb Brown • Birth Name — Ignacio Herbert Brown • Born — 22 February 1896 • Birthplace — Deming, New Mexico, U.S. • Died — 28 September 1964 • Place of death — San Francisco, California, U.S. • Occupation — Composer, songwriter • Spouse — * Ruby Porter (m.?; divorced 1931) • Jeanne Borlini Lockhart (m. 1932; divorced c. 1935)

Ignacio Herbert Brown was born in Deming, New Mexico, United States, to Ignacio and Cora Brown.[2][3] He had an older sister, Charlotte. In 1901, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Manual Arts High School. His music education started with instruction from his mother, Cora Alice (Hopkins) Brown.

Brown first operated a tailoring business (1916), and then became a financially successful realtor, but he always wrote and played music.[4] After his first hit "Coral Sea" (1920) and a first big hit, "When Buddha Smiles" (1921), he eventually became a full-time composer. He joined The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1926, the same year writing the piano instrumental "The Doll Dance". This was followed by two other Doll-based tunes, "Rag Doll" (1928) and "The Wedding of the Painted Doll", released in 1929. In 1928, he was hired to work in Hollywood by MGM and write film scores for the new medium of sound film. For his film work, he often collaborated with lyricist Arthur Freed. Their music is collected for the most part in Singin' in the Rain. He appeared in the MGM variety film The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Brown also worked with Richard A. Whiting and Buddy De Sylva on Broadway Musicals such as Take a Chance. Along with L. Wolfe Gilbert, Brown wrote the music for the children's television western, Hopalong Cassidy, which first aired in 1949.

• Illustration — Brown with third wife Anita Page in 1929 Brown was first married to Ruby Porter, with whom he had one child, Nacio Herb Brown Jr., who also became a composer. Brown and Porter divorced in 1931 after Brown had an affair with Doris Eaton.[5][6] In 1932 he married Jeanne Borlini Lockhart, but they divorced.[7] In 1934 he married actress Anita Page, but they got an annulment less than a year later after Page discovered he was not yet divorced from Lockhart.[8][9] In 1942 he married Georgeann Morris, a union that lasted until his death.[10] He had three children throughout the marriages. After an 18-month illness and a brief hospitalization at UCSF Medical Center, Brown died of cancer on September 28, 1964, in San Francisco, California, at the home of two of his children, Nacio Jan Brown and Candace Nacio Brown.[11]

The authorities additionally record the headings Ignacio "Nacio" Herb Brown, Ignacio Herb Brown and Ignacio Herbert Brown. His recorded language was French. He married Anita Page.