Brown was 19 when he made his first major screen appearance in "Halls of Anger" (1970), followed by "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" (1972) and his breakthrough role as the American Civil War draft dodger Drew Dixon in Robert Benton's critically acclaimed "Bad Company" (1972), co-starring with Jeff Bridges. The publicity and promotion for this film was capped by an article in "Esquire" introducing filmgoers to the "dashing, brooding Brown" in color photographs by Chris von Wangenheim, along with a text mention of Brown's obituary collection focusing on little-known and forgotten Hollywood personalities.