Rosey’s Badge of ‘Badness’ Is No Fake

While filming “The Return of Mike Hammer” recently in Los Angeles, a call went out for an actor to fill a particularly demanding tough-guy role. The character description for the part: “The biggest black man on the planet.”

So who got the call? Mr. T? William (The Refrigerator) Perry?

No. The part went to Andre (Rosey) Brown.

At 6-foot-4, 325 pounds, Brown, 29, is bigger than “The Fridge,” (who is a mere 6-foot-2, 304 pounds). And that, apparently, has made an impression on producers around Hollywood. Brown’s massive pectoral muscles and 24-inch biceps have been rippling across the screen with increasing frequency.

In a relatively short acting career, he has played a wrestler on “Hill Street Blues,” a “massive man” on “Crazy Like a Fox,” and a funny construction worker on “The New Love American Style.” He will be appearing as a bodyguard named Pearly on an upcoming episode of “Hunter” and he has already completed several movie roles and TV commercials.

Brown, who lives in Canoga Park, is an actor by day, but, when the graveyard shift rolls around, he is an Inglewood police officer.

Brown’s beat is a nasty one: street gang warfare, drug trafficking, robberies, shootings, stabbings, rapes and other forms of mayhem are all on the nightly menu. Still, he gets treated with respect. Lots of respect.

“Inglewood is one of the roughest neighborhoods,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of violence, a lot of crime. But the only guys who get violent with me are usually the guys who are on dope.

“Then, when they sober up, they usually wonder what happened to them. They wonder how they ever had the nerve to tale a swing at me.”

Brown, who lifts weights religiously and can bench press more than 500 pounds, acknowledges that there have been a few occasions when he found it necessary to lift a 200-pound miscreant over his head and shake him a few times to get his attention.

Originally from the North Side of Chicago, Brown became serious about body building while playing football at the University of Montana. He also worked his way through school playing drum for jazz groups. Brown got the nickname Rosey, he said, because he used to wear glasses and everybody said he looked just like former pro football star Rosey Grier.

After college, he spent three years as a police officer in Seattle. Then, in 1984, he transferred to Los Angeles and went through the sheriff’s academy.

“I wanted to be a cop here because one of my best friends is a police officer in L. A.,” he said. His first taste of fame, Brown said, came when he helped break up a barroom brawl that Eddie Murphy was involved in at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s.

“The next thing I know, I walked in the station and everybody was telling me that my name was in The National Enquirer,” said Brown. “Sure enough, they’d written in their story about how I helped break up the fight.”

Brown met an agent who got him an audition for a Coors beer commercial. “When I got the part (a football player), I got the buzz, I started taking acting classes and workshops, and going on auditions.”

Played a Gang Leader

His first acting role was in a yet-to-be-released movie called “The Counselor,” starring Marla Jackson and Eric Douglas, Kirk’s youngest son. Brown won the part--as a gang leader--after auditioning at a cattle call with 400 people. He also landed a role as a tough guy in a movie comedy called “Sweat,” which is slated for release this spring.

Then Rosey got tagged to play the screaming wrestler who appeared on Sergeant Yablonski’s television set in this season’s premiere episode of “Hill Street Blues.”

“The night it aired, I was on duty. My partner and I busted into this house where they were selling dope. When we charged into the living room, there were about a dozen guys sitting around the TV watching “Hill Street Blues” and doing rock cocaine. And there I was, on TV, right as I came in to bust ‘em.

“Boy, they all did a double take. I’m putting the cuffs on one of these kids and he says, ‘Man, that dude on TV looks just like you!’ I said ‘yeah, dog-breath, that’s because I am that dude on TV.’ ”

So far, Brown’s only respite from badness has been his comedic role on “The New Love American Style,” where he played a construction worker who gets beat up by a little old lady. Comedy is something he’d like to do more of, but it’s hard getting people to see beyond his bulk.

Not Complaining

But he is not complaining about being stereotyped. “I consider myself very lucky,” he said. “It may sound corny, but I just have to thank God for my good fortune. Not everybody can just walk in and do stuff like this.”

Or lead such a dual life. Once, Brown said, while working on a plainclothes vice detail, he became engaged in a conversation with a prostitute.

“Hey, I saw you on ‘Crazy Like a Fox,’ ” she told him. Secure in her knowledge that Rosey wasn’t a cop, she promptly propositioned him.

“OK,” Brown said, as she got in his car. “I just need to go to the bank teller machine. But, before we go there, we have another stop to make.”

“Oh, where to?” she asked. “You want to get something to drink?”

“No,” Rosey said, as he flipped open and showed her his badge. “You’re going to jail!”

“What? Is that a real badge?” the woman shrieked.

“It ain’t no studio prop, honey,” he replied.