Nancy Brown

Nancy Brown (26 August 1909 – 27 October 2003) was an Australian actress, singer and songwriter. She is best known for The Sentimental Bloke, a 1961 musical for which she co-wrote the lyrics with her husband, Albert Arlen and Lloyd Thomson.

Early life and education Brown was born in New Farm, Queensland on 26 August 1909. She was the first-born child of Rita Lillian (née Collins) and manager George Earle Brown. A move to Sydney, her mother's home town, led to her studying at Brighton College in Randwick. Following her parents' subsequent separation, she went to London, at her cousin Arthur Benjamin's invitation. Her final year of secondary education was at Dorking High School, after which she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1925.

Career While still a 16-year-old student at RADA, in 1926 Brown appeared at the Savoy Theatre in The Unfair Sex, having taken over a principal role at short notice following the illness of Rosalie Courtneidge. In the same year she was in Love's a Terrible Thing. Noël Coward, however, sent her to America with Bitter Sweet in 1929 and she also toured Canada.

In 1932, after a five-month search, Brown, with no film experience, was selected for the leading role of Teresa in The Maid of the Mountains, a film adapted from the musical of the same name by Harold Fraser-Simson.

Brown returned to Australia in 1948.

In 1961, she, her husband, Albert Arlen, and Lloyd Thomson produced a week-long season of their musical version of The Sentimental Bloke. Sir Frank Tait and John McCallum saw it and a six-week season was arranged at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. The musical went on tour and took over £250,000. This production was considered by Tony Sheldon to be Australia's best-known musical.

Brown wrote her memoir, The Black Sheep of the Brown Family: A magic life!'', in 2001.

Personal Brown married twice, firstly, in 1929 to Oscar Donald Thompson, who sang as Donald Kingston. Her second marriage was to Albert Arlen in 1949. Arlen predeceased her in 1993 in Queensland. She died at Maroochydore on 27 October 2003.