Jean Brooks
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| Jean Brooks | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ruby M. Kelly December 23, 1915 Houston, Texas |
| Died | November 25, 1963 (aged 47) Richmond, California |
| Occupation | actress |
| Years active | 1935 - 1948 |
| Spouse(s) | Richard Brooks Thomas H. Leddy |
Jean Brooks was an American film actor who appeared in over 30 films. She was born Ruby M. Kelly in Houston, Texas on December 23, 1915 (publicity materials and death certificate claim 1916) and died November 25, 1963. She was raised in both New York and Costa Rica, and was fluent in both English and Spanish. She never achieved major stardom in Hollywood, though she landed a number of prominent roles in the early 1940s. She eventually disappeared from Hollywood and died of complications from alcoholism.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Jeanne Kelly and Robina Duarte
Brooks began her professional career as a singer at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. She adopted the name Jeanne Kelly for her entertainment career. (According to Jean's cousin, Gloria White, the name Ruby Kelly was abandoned for being too similar to Ruby Keeler.)
With the help of Erich von Stroheim, whom Brooks had met while working at the Waldorf-Astoria, she began her acting career. Her first screen role was in the Arcturus Pictures release Obeah, a film about voodoo curses. After a couple of bit parts, she starred alongside von Stroheim in The Crime of Dr. Crespi. Brooks parted ways with von Stroheim some time after Crespi. She then acted in the New York stage melodrama Name Your Poison.
In 1938, Brooks attempted to get back into film acting. After a failed screen test with 20th Century Fox, and the collapse of Major Productions (who had signed Brooks three weeks before going out of business), she signed a contract to star in Spanish language films for Paramount Pictures. She landed two starring roles with Paramount, acting under the stage name Robina Duarte.
After the Paramount contract, Brooks spent another year taking bit parts. In 1940, she landed a contract with Universal Studios. After more bit parts and small roles, Brooks was awarded with her first leading role in a feature film, playing "Laura" in The Devil's Pipeline in 1940. Her performance was not well received: Variety described her as "flat." Universal never gave her star treatment, preferring instead to cast her in small roles and B-movies.
[edit] Jean Brooks
In 1941, Jean met and married writer and future film director Richard Brooks. (Though this is known to have been her second marriage, there is no information on her first. It is rumored to have been to Erich von Stroheim.) Shortly thereafter, Universal dropped Brooks' contract. She spent most of 1942 working bit parts, now performing under the name Jean Brooks. It is likely that she adopted her husband's name as a stage name due to the fact that dancer Gene Kelly began acting in films in 1942.
In 1943, she signed a contract with RKO Radio Pictures. At RKO, Brooks was to achieve her greatest success, though stardom eluded her. She appeared in six The Falcon mystery movies, and was cast in two of Val Lewton's horror classics, as the heroine Kiki Walker in The Leopard Man, and as the depressed devil-worshipper Jacqueline Gibson in The Seventh Victim, this latter role being the one for which she is most widely remembered today.
[edit] Depression, Alcohol, and Disappearance
It is a sad coincidence (and perhaps part of the film's success) that, while portraying the depressed Jacqueline, Brooks' own life was falling apart. During the filming of The Seventh Victim, Brooks had separated from her husband. She and Richard Brooks divorced in 1944. It was also widely rumored that she had begun drinking heavily. (Cecilia Maskell, the daughter of Brooks' cousin, Gloria White, has remarked that alcoholism runs in the family.)
Though Brooks continued to land prominent roles with RKO throughout 1944, most notably The Falcon and the Co-Eds and Lewton's juvenile delinquency film Youth Runs Wild, her career unraveled. RKO began casting her in smaller and smaller roles, and she was noticeably gaining weight. She arrived at the September 1945 premiere of First Yanks in Tokyo drunk. In other personal appearances she would pass out in public.
Though RKO was angry with her, Brooks reportedly tore up her contract before they could fire her. She never made another film. Apparently, no one in Hollywood had contact with her again.
In the mid-1950s, Brooks met and married Thomas H. Leddy in San Francisco. She died in 1963. Her death certificate listed her as having suffered from "nutritional inadequacy" for 15 years, probably from alcoholism. She also suffered from Laennec's Cirrhosis in her final five years of life. She was buried at sea the following year. Her burial was reported in the papers in Costa Rica, though there were no obituaries, and apparently no knowledge of her death, in Hollywood.
Sadly, none of her old Hollywood associates knew anything of her life or her condition. On August 7, 1990, 27 years after Brooks's death, the following appeared in The Hollywood Reporter: "Anyone know the whereabouts of Jean Brooks? Once married to director Richard Brooks, thus her name, she was aka Jeanne Kelly and under contract to both Universal and RKO in the 1940s...Even Richard B. and several of the actress' former pals say they've lost all contact with her whereabouts."
[edit] Filmography
- Obeah (1935) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Frankie and Johnnie (1935) (uncredited)
- Tango-Bar (1935) (uncredited)
- The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Wedding Yells (1938) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- El Trovador de la radio (1938) (as Robina Duarte)
- El Milagro de la calle mayor (1939) (as Robina Duarte)
- The Invisible Killer (1939) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Miracle on Main Street (1939) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- The Invisible Man Returns (1940) (uncredited)
- Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) (uncredited)
- Son of Roaring Dan (1940) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- The Devil's Pipeline (1940) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Buck Privates (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Meet the Chump (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- A Dangerous Game (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Too Many Blondes (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- For Beauty's Sake (1941) (uncredited)
- Riders of Death Valley (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Man from Montana (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Badlands of Dakota (1941) (uncredited)
- Fighting Bill Fargo (1941) (as Jeanne Kelly)
- Klondike Fury (1942)
- Boot Hill Bandits (1942)
- Boss of Big Town (1942)
- The Falcon Strikes Back (1943) (uncredited)
- The Leopard Man (1943)
- The Falcon in Danger (1943)
- The Seventh Victim (1943)
- The Falcon and the Co-eds (1943)
- A Night of Adventure (1944)
- Youth Runs Wild (1944)
- The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)
- Two O'Clock Courage (1945)
- The Falcon in San Francisco (1945) (uncredited)
- The Falcon's Alibi (1946)
- The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
- Women in the Night (1948)
[edit] References
- Mank, Gregory William. "The Mystery of Jean Brooks: Angel in a Cleopatra Wig." Midnight Marquee (Winter 1994), p. 6-17.
