Yet even with her large, vibrant role, she still “didn’t get to be as dynamic as history plays her to be,” says Lynch.Īfter the shipwreck, Brown created and chaired a survivor’s committee, helped arrange burials for the bodies that rescue workers recovered, and presented an award to the captain of the Carpathia for saving them. “There are true accounts saying that she did that,” notes Burns. In one of her most memorable scenes in the movie, she tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade her under-filled lifeboat to row back and save more people. Once the Carpathia rescued the Titanic survivors who’d escaped in the lifeboats, Brown coordinated with other first-class passengers to help the lower-class survivors. Brown became known as the “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” because of her role during and after the Titanic disaster in April 1912. One of these real-life characters was Margaret Brown, who was played by Kathy Bates in the film.