Jim Brown: a life in pictures
The NFL legend, actor and social activist has died aged 87. In a football career spanning 1957 through 1965 he led the Cleveland Browns to their last NFL title and shattered league records before retiring to become an actor, appearing in more than 30 films. Here we look back at his life and career.
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Jim Brown playing for the Syracuse University Orange football team circa 1955
Photograph: The Sporting News/Getty Images
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Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown, left, with quarterback Tommy O’Connell, autograph footballs before a championship game with the Detroit Lions in Detroit in December 1957
Photograph: Julian Wilson/AP
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Jim Brown at home with his wife Sue and 19-month-old twins Kim and Kevin
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Jim Brown holds a photo of himself in action against the Chicago Cardinals
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Jim Brown runs through the Detroit Lions’ defense during a game in November 1964 at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Cleveland won 37-21
Photograph: Diamond Images/Getty Images
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Jim Brown as Sgt. Franklyn in the 20th Century Fox film Rio Conchos (1964)
Photograph: 20 Century Fox/Sportsphoto/Allstar
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Jim Brown looks on from the sidelines during an NFL game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium circa 1964
Photograph: Focus On Sport/Getty Images
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Jim Brown carries the ball against the New York Giants during an NFL game at the Yankee Stadium circa 1964. Brown played for the Browns from 1957 to 1965
Photograph: Focus On Sport/Getty Images
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Jim Brown turns the corner as a Green Bay Packer defender swings with him during a football game in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1966
Photograph: Anonymous/AP
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Jim Brown reads an October 1965 copy of the New York Daily News featuring a back-page story about him moving the ball 234 yards at Yankee Stadium in the Browns’ 38-14 romp over the New York Giants
Photograph: AP
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Jim Brown arrives at Beverly Hills municipal court in a sheriff’s bus, charged with a hit and run felony
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Jim Brown joins boxer Cassius Clay for a morning workout
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Top African American sports athletes gather at a meeting known as the Cleveland Summit to support Muhammad Ali in rejecting his draft order for the Vietnam War. Front row, left to right: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Standing behind them: Carl Stokes, Walter Beach, Bobby Mitchell, Sid Williams, Curtis McClinton, Willie Davis, Jim Shorter and John Wooten
Photograph: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images
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Jim Brown as Robert Jefferson with Donald Sutherland (right) in The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Photograph: Mgm/Allstar
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Diahann Carroll as Ellie and Jim Brown as McClain in The Split (1968)
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Jim Brown as McClain in The Split
Photograph: United Archives/FilmPublicityArchive/Getty Images
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Jim Brown and Raquel Welch take a break during the filming of 100 Rifles on a shoreline road near Almeria, Spain in 1969
Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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Jim Brown, then president of the Black Economic Union, and Leroy Kelly of the Cleveland Browns (right) confer with Anne Faulkner, 74, in her Holly Springs neighbourhood in Mississippi in 1970. Brown led about 25 black athletes to see conditions the BEU hoped to improve
Photograph: Anonymous/AP
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Jim Brown
Photograph: Peter Jones/Corbis/Getty Images
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Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef in the western El Condor (1970)
Photograph: National Gen./Sportsphoto/Allstar
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George Kennedy as Sheriff John Little and Jim Brown as Jimmy Price in crime drama Tick, Tick, Tick (1970)
Photograph: United Archives/FilmPublicityArchive/Getty Images
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Jim Brown as Gunn with Brenda Sykes as Judith in crime drama Black Gunn (1972)
Photograph: United Archives/FilmPublicityArchive/Getty Images
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Jim Brown as Curtis X Hook in prison drama The Slams (1973)
Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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Jim Brown interviewing George Foreman (left) and Don King (centre) before the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ 1974 heavyweight championship boxing match
Photograph: ABC Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television/Getty Images
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Fred Williamson as Tyree and Jim Brown as Pike in the spaghetti western Take a Hard Ride (1975)
Photograph: United Archives/FilmPublicityArchive/Getty Images
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William Shatner and Jim Brown in Anatomy of a Killing, a 1984 episode of the TV series TJ Hooker
Photograph: ABC Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television/Getty Images
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Jim Brown (with Carol Moses) outside a Los Angeles courtroom before his arraignment on charges of rape, sexual battery and assault. Brown pleaded innocent to the charges
Photograph: Wally Fong/AP
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Keenan Ivory Wayans, Bernie Casey and Jim Brown in the blaxploitation parody I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
Photograph: Ronald Grant
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Tom Jones, Annette Bening and Jim Brown in sci-fi spoof Mars Attacks! (1996)
Photograph: Warner Bros./Allstar
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Fred Williamson, Pam Grier and Jim Brown in crime drama Original Gangstas (1996)
Photograph: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock
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Jim Brown and Al Pacino in the American football drama Any Given Sunday (1999)
Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
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Jim Brown accepts a trophy presented to the members of the Cleveland Browns 1964 championship team at a ceremony in Cleveland in 2004
Photograph: Jamie-Andrea Yanak/AP
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Spike Lee and Jim Brown watch the Los Angeles Lakers play the Los Angeles Clippers in November 2005
Photograph: Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images
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Jim Brown meets fellow participants of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky in September 2014
Photograph: Timothy D Easley/AP
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Kanye West, left, and Jim Brown meet Donald Trump at the White House in October 2018
Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
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A statue of Jim Brown honours him as a Cleveland Browns Pro Football Hall of Famer outside FirstEnergy Stadium in September 2016
Photograph: David Richard/AP
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