Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks

  • Birthday: 1906-11-14
  • Deathday: 1985-08-08
  • Place of birth: Cherryvale, Kansas, USA
  • Also know as: Mary Louise Brooks

Biography

Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career. Brooks began her career as a dancer. While dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City, she came to the attention of Walter Wanger, a producer at Paramount Pictures, and was signed to a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928). Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in seventeen silent films and eight sound films. After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became a paid escort. For the next two decades, she struggled with alcoholism and suicidal tendencies. Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78. [preceding biography, edited, from Wikipedia]

Filmography

Pandora's Box

1929

As Lulu

Diary of a Lost Girl

1929

As Thymian Henning

Miss Europe

1930

As Lucienne

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood

1931

As Betty Grey

Lulu

1996

As Lulu

1001 Films

1989

As (archival)

Louise Brooks

1986

As Herself (Archival Footage)

Lulu in Berlin

1984

As Herself

The Canary Murder Case

1929

As The Canary

Rolled Stockings

1927

As Carol Fleming

Beggars of Life

1928

As The Girl (Nancy)

A Girl in Every Port

1928

As Marie / Mam'selle Godiva

It's the Old Army Game

1926

As Mildred Marshall

Empty Saddles

1936

As Boots Boone

A Social Celebrity

1926

As Kitty Laverne

Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu

1998

As Herself (archive footage)

Love 'Em and Leave 'Em

1926

As Janie Walsh

The City Gone Wild

1927

As Snuggles Joy

Just Another Blonde

1926

As Diana O'Sullivan

The Show Off

1926

As Clara

Overland Stage Raiders

1938

As Beth Hoyt

Now We're in the Air

1927

As Griselle and Grisette

Evening Clothes

1927

As Fox Trot

It Pays to Advertise

1931

As Thelma Temple

The American Venus

1926

As Miss Bayport

Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films

2011

As Herself (archive footage)

The Love Goddesses

1965

As (archive footage)

The Casting Couch

1995

As (archive footage)

God's Gift to Women

1931

As Florine

The Street of Forgotten Men

1925

As A Moll (uncredited)

Video Diary of a Lost Girl

2012

As Self (Archival footage) (uncredited)

Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl

1999

As Self (archive footage)

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