Brooke Shields
New York City’s Famous Celebrities
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields is the daughter of minor actress Teri Shields and the grand-daughter of Frank Shields, a good-looking and flamboyant amateur tennis champion who had some movie parts in the mid-1930s. She is also a second cousin of Glenn Close. Through her grandmother, Marina Torlonia, Brooke is descended from the notorious Lucrecia Borgia, King Henri IV of France, and many other historical figures.
Her screen career began with a TV commercial for Ivory soap, and her first movie was Alice, Sweet Alice (1977) but she first became famous as a Calvin Klein model and for her role as Violet in Pretty Baby (1978).
Brooke Shields is a Princeton graduate in French Literature. She added ‘Camille’ to her names when she was ten, and is a vegetarian. She was named as Time magazine’s ‘Face of the Eighties’.
Former boyfriends include Dean Cain (when they were both at Princeton), Michael Bolton, John F. Kennedy Jr, Liam Neeson and Michael Jackson. She was married to the tennis player Andre Agassi from 1997 to April 1999, and was a close friend of the actor David Strickland (Todd in Suddenly Susan), who hanged himself in 1999. The marriage to Agassi was later annulled, enabling Brooke to marry screenwriter Chris Henchy in the Catholic church on 4 April 2001. They now have one daughter, Rowan Francis, born in May 2003.
Brooke Shields’ career as a model began in the mid 1960s when she was an infant. Her first job was for Ivory Soap, shot by Francesco Scavullo. She continued as a successful child model with model agent Eileen Ford, who, in her Lifetime Network biography, stated that she started her children’s division just for Brooke. In early 1980 (at age 14), Shields was the youngest fashion model ever to appear on the cover of the top fashion publication Vogue magazine. Later that same year, Shields appeared in controversial print and TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans. The TV ad included her saying the famous tagline, "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."
By the age of 16, Brooke 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. TIME magazine reported, in its February 9, 1981 cover story, that her day rate as a model was $10,000. In 1983 Shields appeared on the cover of the September issue of Paris Vogue, the October and November issues of American Vogue and the December edition of Italian Vogue.
Brooke Shields’ first major film role was her 1978 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 a number of nude scenes between teenage lovers on a deserted island (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.
Brooke 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 and two Golden Globe nominations.
Shields made a couple of guest appearances on That ’70s Show. She played Pam 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. She also appeared in one episode of the popular comedy sitcom Friends playing Joey’s stalker. Shields 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. Earlier in 1980, Shields was the youngest guest star to ever appear on The Muppet Show, in which she and the Muppets put on their own version of Alice In Wonderland. She has also starred in episodes of Hannah Montana as Miley Stewart’s mother. She is currently playing Wendy Healy in the television series Lipstick Jungle on NBC.
Brooke 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.
