{{Short description|Canadian actress}} '''Rae Brown''' (March 13, 1913 – December 8, 2000) was a Canadian actress, best known for her longtime role as restaurateur Molly Carmody, the owner of Molly's Reach, in the television series ''The Beachcombers''.<ref name=expect>"Don't Expect to Eat at Molly's Restaurant". ''Windsor Star'', July 20, 1974.</ref>
Born in Nelson, British Columbia and raised in Vancouver,<ref name=expect/> she began her career as an actress in the 1940s with stage appearances in Vancouver,<ref name=secret>Sid Adilman, "Molly of The Beachcombers gives up her two-year secret". ''Toronto Star'', September 29, 1978.</ref> later branching out into radio, film and television.<ref name=expect/> She married fellow actor Douglas Brown in 1944.<ref name=expect/>
Her other roles included the television series ''Pacific 13'', ''Friday Island'', ''Cariboo Country'' and ''The Manipulators'', the theatrical feature films ''The Trap'' and ''That Cold Day in the Park'',<ref name=secret/> and theatrical roles including ''The Killing of Sister George'',<ref name=expect/> ''Anastasia'',<ref name=expect/> the original 1967 stage production of ''The Ecstasy of Rita Joe'' and the 1963 production of ''The Hostage'' that inaugurated the new Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company.<ref name=expect/>
Molly in ''The Beachcombers'' had originally been conceived as a younger single mother, but the producers ultimately chose to cast Brown in the role, rewriting her as a grandmother, to avoid the possibility of sexual tension developing between Molly and Bruno Gerussi's Nick Adonidas.<ref>Tony Atherton, "How Beachcombers rewrote Canadian TV". ''Saskatoon Star-Phoenix'', December 31, 2002.</ref> Brown continued in the role through the 1970s, despite suffering from arthritis so painful that she could barely walk without canes.<ref name=secret/> She remained in the role until 1986,<ref>"Rae Brown leaving Beachcombers". ''Toronto Star'', January 10, 1986.</ref> concluding in a special two-part episode in which Molly achieved unexpected success as a romance novelist, selling Molly's Reach to a new owner and leaving town to embark on an international book tour,<ref>Tina Clark, "Ninety years of laughter". ''The Province'', January 17, 1986.</ref> although Brown returned for a guest appearance in the series finale in 1990.
She died in December 2000, and was later inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{imdb name|0114459}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Rae}} Category:1913 births Category:2000 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian actresses Category:Canadian film actresses Category:Canadian stage actresses Category:Canadian television actresses Category:Actresses from Vancouver Category:People from Nelson, British Columbia