Who plays Salvatore Maroni in The Penguin? Exploring 'The Boss' actor's career and previous projects

Clancy Brown in The Penguin / (Image via HBO)
Clancy Brown in The Penguin / (Image via HBO)

Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III, popularly known as Clancy Brown is cast as Mob Boss Salvatore Maroni in DC’s The Penguin.

Before starring in The Penguin, Brown has featured in several other projects and is best known for voicing Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants.

Because of his deep voice, he has also worked as a voice actor in several projects besides starring in both shows and films. A number of times, he has been cast as characters who are authoritative or villainous.

Let us now explore Clancy Brown’s career and projects outside The Penguin.

Clancy Brown previous projects

Films starring Clancy Brown

HBO's "The Penguin" New York Premiere - Source: Getty
HBO's "The Penguin" New York Premiere - Source: Getty

The first mainstream film that Brown starred in was Bad Boys (1983). He was cast as Viking Lofgren alongside Sean Penn. He also starred in Highlander (1986) as the Krugan.

Clancy then acted as Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

The list of other notable films that Clancy Brown has starred in include:

  • The Bride (1985) as Frankenstein's monster
  • Extreme Prejudice (1987) as Army mercenary Larry McRose
  • Thunder Alley (1985) as a band manager
  • Shoot to Kill (1988) as Steve, a vicious killer
  • Speed Demon (1988) (a short film by Michael Jackson) as a police officer
  • Pet Sematary Two (1992) as Sheriff Gus Gilbert
  • Starship Troopers (1997) as Sergeant Zim; he reprised this role in the animated series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles
  • The Guardian (2006) as William Hadley

What’s interesting is that Brown has starred in three films with the theme of miscarriage of justice as prison officers.

This includes Byron Hadley, the tyrannical Captain in The Shawshank Redemption, Lt. Williams a sympathetic character in The Hurricane, and Lt. McMannis in Last Night.

In the hallmark version of Snow White in 2001, he played a character credited as

'The granter of wishes'

In 2007, he starred opposite Karl Urban as a Viking leader in Pathfinder. Brown was cast as an attorney in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film The Informant!, which also starred Matt Damon.

In the 2010 remake of the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street by Samuel Bayer, Brown portrayed the character of Alan Smith.


TV shows starring Clancy Brown

Clancy Brown At San Diego Comic-Con 2024 - Source: Getty
Clancy Brown At San Diego Comic-Con 2024 - Source: Getty

From 1994-1995, Brown was a regular on Earth 2, a science fiction series. He played the role of a character called John Danziger. In the HBO series Carnivàle, Brown’s role as the sinister preacher 'Brother Justin Crowe' was notable.

In the Showtime series Billions, Brown starred as United States Attorney General Jock Jeffcoat. He was the key antagonist in seasons 3 and 4.

Brown has also made guest appearances in various notable TV shows. The list includes:

  • ER, the Star Trek: Enterprise as Zobral
  • Lost as Kelvin Joe Inman
  • The Riches as Rudy Blue

Brown also appears in a recurring guest role in CW's TV production of The Flash. He is cast as the character General Wade Eiling. He has also portrayed the role of Ray Schoonover in two episodes of Daredevil and one episode of The Punisher.

In 2022, Brown joined the cast of Prime Video’s The Boys’ spinoff Gen V as Richard "Rich Brink" Brinkerhoff.


Voice-over projects of Clancy Brown

Celebrity Sightings In Studio City - June 9, 2023 - Source: Getty
Celebrity Sightings In Studio City - June 9, 2023 - Source: Getty

Brown has given his voice to both characters of video games and animated shows. In video games, he has mainly lent his voice to antagonistic characters. Brown voices several of the crystallized dragons in the PlayStation game Spyro the Dragon.

He also voiced the corrupt Baron Praxis in the PlayStation 2 video game Jak II.

His other voice over projects concerning video games include:

  • Uka Uka and Doctor Neo Cortex in a number of the Crash Bandicoot video games
  • Montross in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
  • Hades in God of War III
  • Thrall in the canceled video game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
  • Alderman Richard Hughes in the Xbox 360 game Saints Row;
  • Scourgelord Tyrannus in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

As for animated series, Brown voiced characters like Hakon, Tomas Brod and Wolf in Gargoyles. He also voiced Tanuki Gonta in the English dub of Pom Poko (1994).

In the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm Brown was the voice behind Raiden.

His other voice over works in animated projects include:

  • A Hessian trooper in The Night of the Headless Horseman (1999)
  • Maxmilian Speil, a billionaire, in Godzilla: The Series
  • Five of the six members of the Legion Ex Machina in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

Since 1999, he has voiced Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants. He has also voiced this character for the SpongeBob films, including,, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.


Projects in DC comics media previous to The Penguin

Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni in The Penguin / (Image via HBO)
Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni in The Penguin / (Image via HBO)

Since 1996, Brown has been famously voicing the villainous Lex Luthor in various animated series.

He first voiced Luthor in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), starting with Superman: The Animated Series. He also voiced Luther in the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips as well as The Batman cartoon series.

Other DC projects featuring Brown’s voice include:

  • Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow on Batman Beyond
  • Mr. Freeze and Bane on The Batman
  • Trident on Teen Titans
  • Per Degaton in Batman: The Brave and the Bold
  • Zartok in Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Marvel Projects featuring Brown’s voice

Brown has lent his voice to several animated projects from the house of Marvel too, including:

  • Red Hulk and Taskmaster on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Ultimate Spider-Man
  • Odin in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
  • Mr. Sinister on Wolverine and the X-Men
  • George Stacy, Rhino and Ox on The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Penguin starring Brown as Salvatore Maroni can be streamed on HBO.


Stay tuned to SoapCentral for more updates on shows!

comment icon
Comment
Edited by Mudeet Arora