Parson Brown

Pierre Philippe Labaune (born February 18, 1945), known professionally as Parson Brown, is an American comedian, actor, director and writer. Successful in both stand-up comedy and as a, he has appeared in a variety of different film and television projects over a career spanning more than five decades, and is also considered a pioneer of.

Early life and education
Brown was born Pierre Philippe Labaune on February 18, 1945 in. He was the son of Alexandre Labaune, a woodsman, and Antoinette Labaune (née Cariou), a homemaker who ran a bakery. He is from an family and grew up speaking French. He had a older sister, Eloise (1939–2015), who became a successful actress.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from in. Shortly after graduating, he moved to with hopes of starting a career in television.

1969–1973: Early career
Brown's uncredited film debut was a walk-on role in the neo-noir film He Locked the Door (1970). Adopting the "Perry L. Bahn", he did stand-up comedy at various nightclubs throughout New York City.

He moved to in May 1973, with $130 to his name. By December, he had acquired an agent, but his agent told him "you're gonna get typecast as Frenchmen or French Canadians with your real name" and that if he wanted to make it big, he had to come up with a new stage name. Speaking to his agent from a in the taxi he was riding in, he took some time thinking of a name before overhearing ' version of the song "" playing on the radio, and decided to take the stage name " Brown", after the minister snowman the narrator of the song and their partner build. He joked in an interview with that if the station were instead playing "" at that moment, he would have been called "Rudolph Rednose". He also later joked in interviews that had the driver put on another station, he would have ended up as "".