By sunrise, Clancy Brown was ready for lunch.  His workday began during the night, spending the pre-dawn hours in Academy Award winner Sarah Monzani's makeup chair transforming man into monster, ready for an 8:30 call before the cameras.  It took five hours each shooting day for Brown to evolve into Frankenstein's clumsy first creation, Viktor, in Columbia Pictures' "The Bride," starring Sting and Jennifer Beals.  And it was another three hours at the end of the day to painstakingly remove the intricate prosthetic facial pieces and hair.

 Brown, who made his motion picture debut as Viking in "Bad Boys" and then played Rawhide in "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai," was on his way to Arizona to star as the rock 'n' roll manager in Cannon Films' "Thunder Alley" when he was called in to read for the part of Clerval in "The Bride."  But when he read the script he was fascinated by the role of Viktor.  He knew exactly how he wanted to play it but he also knew that producer Victor Drai and director Franc Roddam were looking for actors of staggering size.  Although big, Brown's 6'4" frame was shorter than they had originally envisioned for their monster.  "It was very clear to me from the start.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Franc let me read for it and asked me to do an improv.  I'd never been allowed to improvise in an audition before, although I'd always wanted to.  It was the best audition that I ever gave," he remembers.  "I'm no mutant giant.  I'm not Franc's visual statement.  But I think between what he said and what I gave, it was the best."

 "The role is wide open.  It is not unlike John Hurt in 'The Elephant Man' or Cliff Robertson in 'Charly.'  Although I'm not comparing myself to them, the honesty of the character is similar.  Viktor is very honest and straightforward.  He is naive and innocent."

 Brown developed the character from scratch.  "The big question we all though about was:  How long has Viktor been alive?  Finally we decided it didn't matter because his life didn't really begin until he left the castle.  His history happens in the picture.  You see his character grow up; you see him as a child experiencing everything for the first time.  That was the most difficult thing about playing it, trying to make everything new and wonderful and beautiful--and adjusting that not to yourself but to something as odd and huge and hideous as Viktor is supposed to be.

 "A lot of the process was the makeup," he explains.  "The visual effect of my appearance had been decided.  You know your body; you know your face.  These are an actor's tools.  Then it is suddenly superseded by latex.  It is something to get used to."

 Clancy Brown was born in the small town of Urbana, Ohio.  His father is a newspaper publisher, continuing the buisiness that his grandfather built.  "A small-town version of William Randolph Hearst," Brown muses about his late grandfather.  His mother, a Juilliard graduate, was a concert pianist before moving to Ohio.

 In high school, Brown appeared in numerous productions presented by a fairly avant-garde drama society.  His first play was Büchner's "Woyzeck."  Summers brought Ted Walsh's repertory Shakespeare and Co. to Urbana and they often hired high schoolers for some of the smaller roles.  Brown found himself in productions of "The Cherry Orchard," "The Merchant of Venice," "The Seagull" and "A Streetcar Named Desire."

 A solid athlete, he went to Northwestern University on a track scholarship as a talented discus-thrower.  After two seasons, his track coach saw him in a Northwestern production of "The Merchant of Venice" and told him that he was "a better actor than a discus-thrower."

 "I always wanted to be an actor," he admits. "I'd always kick myself if I didn't give it a try."

 His stories of life as an actor/bartender at the Irish working-class bar, Fiddlers Green, on Chicago's North Side are only rivaled by his three-week stint as the head waiter in a Jewish restaurant.  At 6'4", Brown cuts an imposing figure, but on his first night at Fiddlers Green he didn't feel quite big enough.  "I started as a bouncer.  After midnight the big guys came in.  I knew if there was trouble, I'd have to do some damage because even thrashing around they'd be deadly!"

 Brown survived the experience. "You don't fight with the bartender," he says philosopically. "He's like the doctor who fills the prescriptions.

 "Chicago is a phenomenal city," he adds. "A benevolent sort of city to new talent."

 Since "Bad Boys," Brown has moved to Los Angeles, where he shares a house in Hollywood with three roommates and his German shepherd, Jason.  He's most pleased with this latest turn in his career.  "How can you not like this part?" he asks rhetorically.  "I get the girl, don't I?"

 Columbia Pictures presents "The Bride," a Victor Drai Production of a Franc Roddam Film, starring Sting, Jennifer Beals, Geraldine Page, Clancy Brown, Anthony Higgins and David Rappaport.  Directed by Franc Roddam and produced by Victor Drai from a screenplay by Lloyd Fonvielle, based on characters inspired by Mary Sheller, "The Bride" is executive produced by Keith Addis.  Chris Kenny is the co-producer, with Lloyd Fonvielle serving as associate producer.  Music is composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre.

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