Jean Brooks

Known for ActingBorn 1915-12-23Died 1963-11-25Houston, Texas, USA

Fluent in Spanish, Jean Brooks began professionally by singing with Enric Madriguera and Orchestra in New York. She had a small role in the New York City-filmed The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) and the second lead in a Broadway play, "Name Your Poison" (1938), with Lenore Ulric, all under her real name of Jeanne Kelly. She was signed by an independent film production company that had gone under by the time she got to Hollywood. She spent several years at Universal as a leading lady in "B" pictures, including several Johnny Mack Brown westerns, but her option was dropped in late 1941. By this time she had married writer (later director) Richard Brooks and, with a certain Broadway hoofer having just signed at MGM, dropped the Kelly and became Jean Brooks. She signed with RKO, where film buffs know her for her three appearances for cult producer Val Lewton, particularly her stunning performance as a haunted devil worshiper in The Seventh Victim (1943). Her clipped delivery and intense, forceful acting style made her a promising bet for stardom, but RKO lost interest in her by mid-'44 and her roles got gradually smaller until she was dropped in 1946. She and Brooks divorced (his later studio biographies omitted her name as one of his ex-wives). For many years she was listed as a "Lost Player" championed in several magazine articles by writer Doug McClelland. She was eventually located in San Francisco, where she had moved after her film career petered out, and was employed as a classified ad solicitor on the "San Francisco Examiner" newspaper. She had married a printer called Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 was due to nutritional problems caused by alcoholism, a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally. Date of Death 25 November 1963, Richmond, California (extreme malnutrition & alcoholism)Read more

Movies & web series

Man from Montana

Son of Roaring Dan

Tango Bar

A Dangerous Game

Meet the Chump

Fighting Bill Fargo

The Devil's Pipeline

A Volta do Besouro Verde

Obeah

Riders of Death Valley

Buck Privates

The Falcon and the Co-Eds

The Leopard Man

Junior G-Men

The Seventh Victim

Frankie and Johnnie

Two O'Clock Courage

The Invisible Man Returns

The Falcon in Hollywood

The Boss of Big Town

Badlands of Dakota

The Falcon in Danger

Boot Hill Bandits

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

The Bamboo Blonde

Miracle on Main Street

The Falcon's Alibi

Klondike Fury

The Crime of Doctor Crespi

A Night of Adventure

Youth Runs Wild

The Invisible Killer

Women in the Night