Roy Brown (clown)

Roy Thomas Brown (July 8,1932 – January 22,2001) was an American television personality, puppeteer, clown and artist best known for playing "Cooky the Cook" on Chicago's long running "Bozo's Circus" and "The Bozo Show."

Roy Brown was born in Tucson, Arizona but had lived in the Chicago area since he was a boy. Brown graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and started working on the children's series "Garfield Goose and Friends" at WBKB-TV in 1952 as a puppeteer and art director. When Garfield Goose moved to WGN-TV in 1955, Brown followed along and stayed until the show went off the air in 1976. When Ray Rayner started his morning program "Ray Rayner and His Friends" on WGN-TV, Brown was hired as art director and did puppetry for a character called "Cuddly Dudley", a large, orange dog created by WGN-TV's owner, the Chicago Tribune, as a promotional item. He stayed on the Rayner show until it went off the air in 1981.

It was on "Bozo's Circus", however that Brown had his chance to shine in front of the camera as a performer. When show producer Don Sandburg, who doubled as a clown called "Sandy the Tramp", announced in 1968 he would leave the show, Brown took one of Bozo's old red wigs, trimmed and restyled it, cobbled together some other props and wardrobe, and did his audition live on the air. The viewer reaction was positive and when Rayner, who also starred as Oliver O. Oliver on "Bozo's Circus", left the show in 1971, Cooky became Bozo's main foil until his retirement in 1994. Although Brown's Cooky outlasted Bob Bell's 24 years as Bozo by a year, Cooky's appearances during his final year were from previous shows due to health problems.

Brown won a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award in 1992 and was elected into the International Clown Hall of Fame the next year. He died in 2001 of congestive heart failure.