Roscoe Lee Browne was probably more known for his mellifluous baritone than his face, although that was instantly recognizable. The venerated actor died early yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long illness. He was 81. His decades-spanning career included classical theater, John Wayne westerns, Broadway, ’80s sitcoms, and animated features, his characters all beautifully spoken as befitted the former French and comparative lit professor at Lincoln University. “Some critics complained that I spoke too well to be believable,” Browne told the Washington Post in 1972 about his portrayal of the cook in The Cowboys. “When a critic makes that remark, I think, if I had said, ‘Yassuh, boss’ to John Wayne, then the critic would have taken a shine to me.” He narrated the 1963 Broadway production of The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and the 1995 movie Babe; he won an Emmy in ’86 for a guest role on The Cosby Show and a Tony in ’92 for a supporting role in Broadway’s Two Trains Running. The son of a New Jersey Baptist minister also wrote poetry and was a world-class track star, winning a 1951 world championship in the 800-yard dash. (Source)