Brooke Shields

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Brooke Shields
Born May 31, 1965
New York City, New York
Occupation actress

Brooke Christa Camille Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and former fashion model.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Shields' career as a model began in the 1960s as an infant, and she continued as a successful child model throughout the 1970s. In early 1980 (at age 14), Shields was the youngest fashion model to ever appear on the cover of the top fashion publication Vogue magazine. Later that same year (at age 15), Shields appeared in controversial print and TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans. The TV ad included her saying the famous tagline, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins". By the age of 16, Shields had become one of the most recognizable faces in the world because of her dual career as a provocative fashion model and controversial child actress.

Shields's film career began in 1978 with her appearance in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby, a movie in which she played a child living in a brothel (and in which there were numerous nude scenes). Because she was only 12 when the film was released, and possibly 11 when it was filmed, questions were raised about child pornography. This was followed by a slightly less controversial, but also less notable film, Wanda Nevada (1979).

After two decades of movies, her best-known films are still arguably The Blue Lagoon (1980) (which included more nude scenes, but Shields later testified before a U.S. Congressional inquiry that older body doubles were used in some of them), and Endless Love (1981). She won the People's Choice Award in the category of Favorite Young Performer in four consecutive years from 1981 to 1984.

Shields put her film career on hold to attend Princeton University from 1983 to 1987, graduating with a degree in French literature. Her senior thesis was titled The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, "Pretty Baby" and "Lacombe Lucien." It was here at Princeton where she spoke openly about her sexuality and virginity. During her tenure at Princeton, Shields was a member of the Cap and Gown Club.

Shields has appeared in a number of television shows, the most successful being the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, in which she starred from 1996 until 2000 and which earned her a People's Choice Award in the category of Favorite Female Performer in a New Television Series in 1997.

Shields has appeared in many on-stage productions, mostly musical revivals, including Grease, Cabaret, Wonderful Town and Chicago on Broadway; she also performed in Chicago in London's West End.

Shields made a couple of guest appearances on That '70s Show. She played Mrs. Burkhart, Jackie's (Mila Kunis) mother, who later was briefly involved with Donna's (Laura Prepon) father (played by Don Stark). Shields left That '70s Show when her character was written out. Shields recently recorded the narration for the SONY/BMG recording of THE RUNAWAY BUNNY, a Concerto for Violin, Orchestra and Reader by Glen Roven. It was performed by the Royal Philharmonic and Ittai Shapira.

[edit] Personal life

Shields, whose middle name Camille is the name she adopted at her first communion at age 10, was born in New York City into a well-known American society family with links to Italian nobility. Her father was Francis Alexander Shields, and her mother was Teri Shields (né Maria Theresia Schmonn). Shields' parents divorced when she was a child, and her father later married Diana Lippert Auchincloss, the former wife of Thomas Gore Auchincloss (a half-brother of Gore Vidal and a stepbrother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis). The actress has three half-sisters: Marina (who married Thomas William Purcell), Olympia, and Christiana Shields. Also, she has two stepsiblings, Diana Luise Auchincloss and Thomas Gore Auchincloss Jr.

Her paternal grandparents were Francis Xavier Shields, a tennis star of Irish descent, and his second wife, Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, a half-Italian, half-American socialite who was a sister of Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi, the husband of Infanta Beatrix of Bourbon-Battenberg (an aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain). Shields is a first cousin once removed of the actress Glenn Close. Shields's great-grandmother Mary Elsie Moore (wife of Don Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince di Civitella-Cesi) was Close's great-aunt, a sister of Close's maternal grandfather, Charles Arthur Moore.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Shields's romantic relationships were the subject of many tabloid articles. Among the celebrities she dated were Ted McGinley (her high school prom escort), Dean Cain (her Princeton roommate and the first man with whom she had sex, according to an article published by the Associated Press)[1], John F. Kennedy Jr., Michael Bolton, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Michael Jackson (his date to the 1984 Grammy Awards).

Shields was married from April 19, 1997 to April 9, 1999 to professional tennis player Andre Agassi; their marriage was annulled. Since April 4, 2001 she has been married to television writer Chris Henchy. They have two daughters: Rowan Francis (b. May 15, 2003) and Grier Hammond (b. April 18, 2006). Coincidentally, Shields' second child was born on the same day and in the same hospital as the first child of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.

[edit] Postpartum depression

Brooke Shields on the cover of Guideposts (2005).
Enlarge
Brooke Shields on the cover of Guideposts (2005).

In the spring of 2005, Shields spoke to magazines (such as the Guideposts shown here) and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to publicize her battle with postpartum depression, an experience that included depression, thoughts of suicide, an inability to respond to her baby's needs, and delayed maternal bonding. The illness may have been triggered by a traumatic childbirth, the death of her father three weeks earlier, stress from in vitro fertilisation, a miscarriage, and a family history of depression, as well as the hormones and life changes brought on by childbirth. Her book, Down Came the Rain, discusses her experience. [1]

In May 2005, Tom Cruise, a Scientologist whose religion frowns on psychiatry, condemned Shields both personally and professionally, particularly for both using and speaking in favor of the antidepressant drug Paxil. As Cruise said, "Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman, you look at [and think], where has her career gone?" Shields responded that Cruise's statements about anti-depressants were "irresponsible" and "dangerous." She said he should "stick to fighting aliens", (a reference to Cruise's starring role in War of the Worlds as well as (perhaps unknowingly) some of the more exotic aspects of Scientology doctrine and teachings), "and let mothers decide the best way to treat postpartum depression." The actress responded to a further attack by Cruise in an essay published in The New York Times on July 1, 2005, in which she made an individual case for the medication (see [2]). On Thursday, August 31, 2006, according to USAToday.com [3], Cruise privately apologized to Shields for the incident, and Shields accepted, saying it was "heartfelt". Three months later, she and her husband attended the wedding of Cruise and Katie Holmes in November 2006.


[edit] Filmography

[edit] Film

Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby (1978), her breakthrough film role.
Enlarge
Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby (1978), her breakthrough film role.

[edit] Television

[edit] Publication

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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