Brooke Shields — Movies, TV Shows & Roles

Producer · Actor

1965-05-31 · New York City, New York, USA · Female

53 series in the catalog

Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and current president of the Actors' Equity Association. Shields began modeling at 11 months old, and gained widespread notoriety for her leading role in Louis Malle's film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she appeared in nude scenes shot when she was 12 years old. She continued to model into her late teenage years and starred in several dramas in the 1980s, including The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).
In 1983, Shields suspended her modeling career to attend Princeton University, where she subsequently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Romance languages. In the 1990s, Shields returned to acting and appeared in minor roles in films. She also starred in the NBC sitcoms Suddenly Susan (1996–2000), for which she received two Golden Globe nominations, and Lipstick Jungle (2008–2009).
In 2017, Shields returned to NBC with a major recurring role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the show's 19th season. Shields voiced Beverly Goodman in the Adult Swim animated series Mr. Pickles (2014–2019) and its spin-off Momma Named Me Sheriff.
Early life and ancestry
Shields was born in Manhattan, New York City, on May 31, 1965, the daughter of actress and model Teri Shields (née Schmon) and businessman Francis Alexander Shields. Her mother was of English, German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent, while her father had English, French, Irish, and Italian ancestry.
According to research by William Addams Reitwiesner, Shields has ancestral links with a number of noble families from Italy, in particular from Genoa and Rome. These are namely (in chronological order of descent from 1355 to 1965) the Gattilusi-Palaiologos-Savoy, Grimaldi, Imperiali, Carafa, Doria, Doria-Pamphili-Landi, Chigi-Albani, and Torlonia dynasties. Her paternal grandmother was Italian noblewoman Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, who was the daughter of an Italian prince and an American socialite. Her great-uncle was the Italian Prince Alessandro Torlonia, the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain. In a 2010 episode of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Shields discovered she is a descendant of Victor Amadeus I of Savoy and his wife Christine of France (a daughter of King Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici) through the Torlonia dynasty.
When Teri announced that she was pregnant, Francis's family paid her a sum to terminate the pregnancy. Teri took the money, but violated the agreement and gave birth to Brooke. Francis married Teri, but they were divorced when Shields was only five months old. She has two stepbrothers and three half-sisters. When Shields was only five days old, her mother openly stated she wanted her to be active in show business, saying: "She's the most beautiful child and I'm going to help her with her career." Growing up, Shields took piano, ballet, and horse-riding lessons.
Shields was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. For her confirmation at age 10, she took the name Camille, after Camillus de Lellis. While attending high school, she resided in Haworth, New Jersey. Shields has stated that her first encounter with the paparazzi was in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria New York at the age of 12, stating that she "stood like a statue wondering why they were all hired to photograph me" and that she "debuted at the Waldorf."
Shields was close childhood friends with actress Laura Linney. She attended the New Lincoln School in New York City until eighth grade. She graduated from the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1983.
Career
1966–1977: Modeling and career beginnings
Shields began her career as a model when she was 11 months old in 1966. Her first job was for Ivory Soap, when she was photographed by Francesco Scavullo. She continued as a successful child model with model agent Eileen Ford, who, in her Lifetime biography, stated that she started her children's division just for Shields. Ford said of her: "She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one."
After appearing in the 1974 TV adaptation of Arthur Miller's play After the Fall, Shields made her feature film debut in the New Jersey–shot horror film Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), portraying a young girl who is murdered during her first communion. She was cast in the part after director Alfred Sole had seen her in a print advertisement for Vogue magazine. The film was later re-released in 1981, capitalizing on Shields's rising fame at the time. Next, Shields worked with director Woody Allen in his 1977 film Annie Hall, but her role was cut out of the final edit of the film.
Shields and her mother Teri appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1977 issue of New York Magazine, in a cover story about her modeling career. The main headline on the cover read, "Meet Teri and Brooke Shields" while the subtitle read, "Brooke is twelve. She poses nude. Teri is her mother. She thinks it's swell".
Although the September 26, 1977 issue was listed in a 2008 collection of classic covers on the New York Magazine website for its 40th anniversary, unlike the other listed issues, there is no link to the cover story about Shields' career as a nude model.
1978–1979: Breakthrough film work
The 11-year-old Shields was cast as the lead in French director Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978), in which she played a child named Violet who lived in a brothel, the daughter of a prostitute played by Susan Sarandon. There were numerous nude scenes in the film, including those in which Shields appeared naked. Her appearance in the film spurred significant controversy, as public worry regarding child sexual abuse had begun to rise at the time of its release. Gossip columnist Rona Barrett called the film "child pornography", and director Malle was described as a "combination of Humbert Humbert and Roman Polanski". Her scenes in the nude also caused the film to be banned in Argentina, South Africa, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. The film's ban in Ontario was lifted in 1995.
She appeared on the cover of the May 29, 1978 issue of People, which bore the headline "Brooke Shields, 12, stirs furor over child porn in films."
She or her body double also appeared in a dorsal nude scene in the 1979 release Just You and Me, Kid, which co-starred George Burns. In the movie, Shields also appeared in a scene where she apparently is naked, covered only by a deflated car tire inner tube while lying in the trunk of Burns' vintage automobile. Shields also was portrayed as nude in a third scene where she was being held hostage. For her work in the movie, she was paid a fee of $250,000 (equivalent to $940,000 in 2024 dollars), plus six percent of the profits.
Just You and Me, Kid received poor reviews. Critic Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times newspaper review, gave the film two out of four stars, calling the film "a charming disappointment." On his Sneak Previews TV show with Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel, both Ebert and Siskel gave the film a thumbs down. Siskel said, "Brooke Shields is not very interesting when she's on the screen," and called her a model "who just can't act." Siskel's newspaper review further stated that her part in the film had "no substance, and she is incapable of appearing fresh. It's a stilted, nervous performance from a teen-ager who has not had a single acting lesson and could use a dozen."
Other movies Shields appeared in, in the wake of Pretty Baby, were Wanda Nevada and Tilt, both of which were released in 1979.
1980–1981: Modeling and more movies
In 1980, 14-year-old Shields was the youngest fashion model ever to appear on the cover of Vogue. 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." Despite the controversy, the campaign was hugely…