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| Birth Name(s) : Mary Louise Brooks |
Date of Birth: November 14, 1906 |
| Status:
N/A
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Louise Brooks Biography
Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. She began dancing at an early age (with the Ziegfeld Follies) but would become one of the most fascinating and alluring personalities ever to grace the silver screen. She was always compared to her Lulu role in PANDORA'S BOX, which was filmed in 1928. Her performances in A GIRL IN EVERY PORT and BEGGARS OF LIFE, both filmed in 1928, proved to all concerned that Louise had real talent.
She became known, mostly, for her bobbed hair style. Thousands of women were attracted to that style and adopted it as their own. As you will note by her photographs, she was no doubt the trend setter of the 1920's with her Buster Brown-Page Boy type hair cut, much like today's women imitate stars. Because of her dark haired look and being the beautiful woman that she was, plus being a modern female, she was not especially popular among Hollywood's clientle. She just did not go along with the norms of the film society.
Louise really came into her own when she left Hollywood for Europe. There she appeared in a few German productions which were very well made and continued to prove she was an actress with an enduring talent. Until she ended her career in film in 1938, she had made only 25 movies. After that, she spent most of her time reading and painting. She also became an accomplished writer, authoring a number of books, including her autobiography. On August 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in Rochester, New York. She was 78 years old. |
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Additional Louise Brooks Biography
Louise Brooks (14 November 1906 – 8 August 1985) was an American dancer, showgirl, and silent film actress. She became, at the end of her life, a writer and critic of the silent film era.
Born Mary Louise Brooks in Cherryvale, Kansas, she was a daughter of a lawyer who was usually too busy with his practice to discipline his children, and an artistic mother who determined any "squalling brats" she produced could take care of themselves. Although she inspired her children with a love of books and music--she was a talented pianist who played the latest Debussy and Ravel for Louise--Myra Brooks failed to protect her eldest daughter from childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a neighborhood predator. This single event was a major influence on Louise's life and career, causing her to say that she was incapable of real love, and that she always had "a passion for some kind of bastard".
Signing with Paramount Pictures, where she stayed for most of the remainder of her American film career, her screen debut was in the silent The Street of Forgotten Men, in an uncredited role in 1925. Soon, however, she was playing the female lead in a number of silent light comedies and flapper films over the next few years, starring with Adolphe Menjou and W. C. Fields, among others. She was noticed in Europe for her pivotal vamp role in the Howard Hawks directed silent "buddy film", A Girl In Every Port in 1928.
It has been said that her best American role was in one of the last silent film dramas, Beggars Of Life (1928), as an abused country girl on the run with Richard Arlen and Wallace Beery playing hoboes she meets while riding the rails. Much of this film was shot on location, and the boom microphone was invented for this film by the director, William Wellman, who needed it for one of the first experimental talking scenes in the movies.
At this time in her life, she was rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, and was a regular guest of William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, Marion Davies, at San Simeon, being close friends with Marion Davies's niece, Pepi Lederer. Her distinctive bob haircut, which became eponymous and still recognised to this day, had started a sensational trend, as many women in the Western world cut their hair like hers. Soon after the film Beggars Of Life was made, Louise, who loathed the Hollywood "scene", refused to stay on at Paramount after being denied a promised raise, and left for Europe to make films for G. W. Pabst, the great German Expressionist director.
Paramount attempted to use the coming of sound films to strongarm the actress, but she called the studio's bluff. It was not until 30 years later that this rebellious move would come to be seen as arguably the most savvy of her career, securing her immortality as a silent film legend and independent spirit. Unfortunately, while her initial snubbing of Paramount alone would not have finished her in Hollywood altogether, her refusal after returning from Germany to come back to Paramount for sound retakes of The Canary Murder Case (1929) irrevocably placed her on an unofficial blacklist. As mentioned in the documentary Louise Brooks: Looking For Lulu, actress Margaret Livingston was hired to dub Brooks' voice for the film and the studio claimed that Brooks' voice was unsuitable for sound.
Brooks is considered one of the first naturalistic actors in film, her acting being subtle and nuanced compared to many other silent performers. The close-up was just coming into vogue with directors, and her almost hypnotically beautiful face was perfect for this new technique. Brooks had always been very self-directed, even difficult, and was notorious for her salty language, which she didn't hesitate to use whenever she felt like it. In addition, she had made a vow to herself never to smile on stage unless she felt compelled to, and although the majority of her publicity photos show her with a neutral expression, she had a dazzling smile. By her own admission, she was a sexually liberated woman, not afraid to experiment, even posing nude for "art" photography, and her liaisons with many film people were legendary, although much of it is speculation.
For her Oscar-winning film role in the 1972 movie musical Cabaret, Liza Minnelli was coached by her father, Vincente Minnelli, to fashion her character's appearance on Louise Brooks.
In 1991, the synth-pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released "Pandora's Box (It's a Long, Long Way)", and the collage-pop band Soul Coughing released "St. Louise Is Listening" in 1998, both inspired by Brooks' life.
In 1995, the Louise Brooks Society was formed to promote a greater awareness of the life and films of this celebrated actress, dancer, and writer.
In 1999, the rock band Marillion included on their 1999 album Marillion.com a song inspired by her called Interior Lulu.
In 2007 on reality television series Cycle 9 of America's Next Top Model, contestant Saleisha received a bob haircut for her makeover, which was said by Tyra Banks to be inspired by Brooks' hair. |
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Louise Brooks Quote(s)
| Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter. |
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