An exciting and skilled athlete, Brown rushed for a then-record 12,312 yards during his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, made All-Pro every year and was twice named the National Football League's Most Valuable Player. Near the end of his football days, he played a supporting role in the Western "Rio Conchos" (1964) and won some attention. When he retired in 1966, he decided to pursue acting full-time as a second career. Brown joined the all-star lineup for Robert Aldrich's cliched, incredibly unsubtle but undeniably exciting war epic "The Dirty Dozen" (1967). He held his own, and was soon getting third or fourth billing in mainstream adventures like "Ice Station Zebra" (1968) and toplining his own modest vehicles, such as "The Split" (1968). When he made the enjoyably shlocky "100 Rifles" (1969), it was Brown and not the up-and-coming Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds who got top billing.

Brown soon became a staple star of the Blaxploitation genre which exploded in the early 70s, headlining a series of largely interchangeable films such as "Black Gunn" (1972), "I Escaped from Devil's Island" (1973), "Slaughter" (1972) and its sequel "Slaughter's Big Rip-Off" (1973). Though perhaps not a really strong actor, Brown was never really given roles meant to showcase characterization or develop his range, and he certainly played his parts with gusto. He teamed with Jim Kelly and fellow athlete turned blaxploitation star Fred Williamson for the fun "Three the Hard Way" (1974), but Brown didn't make films for five years after "Fingers" and "Kid Vengeance" (both 1977). In retrospect some of his most interesting films from this period were atypical efforts like the low-key, intelligent study of prostitution, "The Grasshopper" (1970), with Brown in an unusually sympathetic role.

Early in his film career, Brown became involved in promoting black business, and he moved further in this direction. Around 1980, he became president of Richard Pryor's Indigo Productions and served in a similar capacity for the comic's The Pryor Company several years later, producing the concert film "Richard Pryor Here and Now" (1983). He also formed Vital Issues, which helps inmates in several California prisons with personal development.

In terms of acting, Brown now assumed an iconic value in his appearances. He made his TV-movie debut with "Lady Blue" (1984) and played the Stalker Fireball, the most difficult opponent for Arnold Schwarzenegger to defeat, in "The Running Man" (1987). And clearly his roles in Keenen Ivory Wayans' spoof "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" (1988), minor actioners like "The Divine Enforcer" (1992), Tim Burton's sci-fi extravaganza "Mars Attacks!" (1996) and especially a Black crime drama featuring Brown, Williamson, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal and Pam Grier back in action again, "Original Gangstas" (1996), celebrated the star persona of old.