When “Wedding Daze” actor Georg Stanford Brown and Tyne Daly married in the mid-60s, their marriage was taboo and illegal by US law. Theirs became a tale of resilience and courage culminating in a successful union and three beautiful daughters. Even though they later divorced, they had a good run for 24 years and built a wonderful family life.
Georg Brown and his lovely wife Tyne Daly had remarkable careers in film. However, they are also majorly recognized as the victims of racial prejudice. But even though their interracial marriage made tongues wag and heads turn, they still had an incredible 24 years together.
Born Georg Stanford Brown, the actor cemented his place in Hollywood with diverse roles as Dr. Willard in “Bullitt,” Lew Gilbert in “The Jesse Owens Story,” and Henri Philipot in “The Comedians.”
Additionally, one of his most recognized roles was his appearance as Tom Harvey in “Roots,” a mini-series that chronicles the history of an African man and his descendants sold into slavery in America. He was nominated for the role, which he reprised in the sequel “The Next Generation,” but the Academy revoked his nomination after it changed the number of nominees from six to five.
He was also one of the two characters to have played the same character in both shows. Brown is also famous for playing Officer Terry Webster, one of the stars in the 1972-1976 “The Rookies,” and bagging even more accolades throughout his time in the industry.
Born to poor West Indian parents, he was raised in Harlem. But despite growing up impoverished, his parents exposed him early to the creative stimulation of travel, books, and music. That, he says, set him on the right path:
“That gave me the vision and feeling that I wouldn’t settle for what surrounded me.”
He relocated from Harlem to Los Angeles when he was 17 and had his first taste of theatre. Nevertheless, his path to acting started as a bold choice to do something easy and not necessarily as a career of choice.
Even so, it was undeniable how much he had enjoyed theatre, and, acting instinctively, he packed up for New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). He worked as a school janitor, earning $80 a week to pay his tuition.
On the other hand, Daly took her first breath on February 21, 1946, in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in a famous family and was exposed to the art of acting pretty early in her life. Her brother Tim Daly is known for playing Joe Hackett on “Wings.” At the same time, her father, James Daly, was also a renowned actor, recognized especially for his role as Paul Lochner in “Medical Center.”
Since she was born into one of the most successful acting families in TV history, Daly’s path was carved out for her before she made a choice to be an actress herself. She discovered at 16 that she’d wanted to be an actress for almost half her life.
But it was not out of the blue that she decided she wanted to follow that path. She recalls that writers and directors were always at their house, which informed her decision pretty easily.
However, being the daughter of Hollywood bigwigs was a double-sided sword for Daly, and for her first films, she had to gauge whether people liked her for her acting or because they were fans of her parents. She told Big Issue Magazine:
“But people think you’ve inherited your talent. I got some good lessons from exposure to the business but didn’t get my talents from my dad or my mother.”
She went on to attend the AMDA in New York, and while there, she crossed paths with Brown. When they met, they were both students of the institution under the tutorage of Philip Burton, a Welsh teacher turned theatre director.
They fell in love almost instantaneously, and it did not take long to realize they wanted a forever together. They married on June 26, 1966, five months after they graduated from AMDA.
Tragically, at the time, interracial marriages were frowned upon. They were not only taboo but were also punishable by law. It would be a year of the couple dealing with racial prejudice before interracial marriage became legal across the United States.
At the time of walking down the aisle with Brown, Daly was already a household name known for playing the gun-toting working mother cop, Mary Beth Lacey, in the timeless hit show “Cagney and Lacey.”
Theirs Was a Forbidden Relationship
The two lovebirds faced so much hate for being together, but they ignored it. Brown confessed that not a day would go by without being reminded that he was a Black man married to a White woman, and while he would try to ignore it, he also said that he also felt an edge from the most unlikely place — the Black community.
They got into their roles as man and wife, and the color of their skin did not factor into how they ran their household. Brown was neat, almost to a fault, and cooked up some mouth-watering gourmet meals and loved organizing, while Daly was more free-spirited and cooked only when necessary.
Their love was so true that none of the hate they received mattered. They were so committed to each other that it was surprisingly easy to ignore the naysayers. However, Daly and Brown’s relationship was soon blown out of proportion when they appeared together on an episode of “The Rookies,” where they shared their first on-screen kiss.
An uproar followed, with network censors demanding that the scene be deleted. The “Angel in the Family” actor retold how they had been made aware that their kiss was unacceptable:
“I remember a memo coming down from the network censors saying ‘Interracial romance is still taboo. Please delete the kiss.’”
Daly and Brown remained unmoved and would hear none of it, and instead of discarding the scene, they went ahead and taped it, airing the evidence of their love for all to see.
What was most surprising about the ordeal was that their families, friends, and all those closest to them accepted them and their love. The hate often came from people that were not close to them at all.
Daly revealed that when they got married, they had on blinders about what the haters were objecting to, and their romance was purely an act of love and passion, not politics and policy:
“We just got dragged into it.”
They were incredibly proud of their union, and in a 1985 interview with The Washington Post, Daly disclosed that she did not consider her marriage to the “Stir Crazy” star interracial. She revealed that she did not like pigeonholes and had given up using categories.
She instead considered her union as being married to “another member of the human race.” She also described how fulfilling her marriage to Brown was, saying:
“I have a good and interesting marriage that has gone on for quite some time, and he’s an interesting fellow, and we have some fascinating young children.”
Daly was so against labels that for one of their daughter’s birth certificates, they filled “human” in the “race” category, put “yes” in the “sex” category, and “citizen of the world” in the “ethnic origin” category.
Even as the world frowned on their marriage, they took the time to work on their union, learning and relearning some things they knew to make their marriage work. Brown shared that living together was an insane proposition that took a lot of giving from both parties as well as plenty of understanding.
Despite the racial prejudice the pair faced at the onset of their union, they built a wonderful life together. They welcomed three beautiful daughters — Kathryne Dora Brown, Alisabeth Brown, and Alyxandra Beatris Brown.
Their oldest, Alisabeth Brown, arrived just over a year after the pair tied the knot on December 12, 1967. Like her parents, Alisabeth also chose a film career but focused on the behind-the-scenes. Her credits include working as the production assistant in the 1986 “Club Life,” three episodes of “Vietnam War Story,” and the 1992 “Sister Act.” She is also a potter.
Daly and Brown’s second baby, Kathryne Dora Brown, was born on February 10, 1971, and also followed in the family legacy. Like her parents, she also went to AMDA and later became an actress recognized for her role alongside her mother in “The Wedding Dress,” as well as “Poison Ivy II,” “The Reading Room,” and “Private Practice.”
She is also a mom of two daughters — Poppy Hope, born on May 12, 2010, and Posy Pie, born on August 2, 2012 — making Brown and Daly grandparents. “The Long Shot” actor and his wife welcomed their youngest daughter Alyxandra Beatris Brown on October 1, 1985.
Their marriage continued to thrive, as did their careers. Brown soon went into directing and even won a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Director in a Drama Series for the final episode of “Cagney & Lacey.” In 1981 he also directed episodes of “Hill Street Blues.”
Brown thought their careers complimented each other and even joked that it helped that they did not have to compete for the same jobs. Ironically, Daly confessed that when Brown would go to work and she’d remain at home with the babies, she often felt jealous of all the attention he got on his shows. “But we got through it,” she added.
Daly also appeared in numerous other films, such as “Judging Amy,” for which she won an Emmy Award. The actress has gone on to win five more Emmys as well as a Tony for her role in “Rabbit Hole.”
She was also awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 29, 1995, alongside her “Cagney & Lacey” costar Sharon Gless.
Unfortunately, despite fighting so much hate to make their union work, they divorced in 1990 after 24 years together. They cited irreconcilable differences as the cause of their split.
Even though they are long divorced, Daly has looked back and read more about the offenses of marrying someone of a different color and says she has become more appalled by the nation’s insistence on racism. She believes it’s something made up by people interested in power over others and has nothing to do with those receiving the hate.