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Jean Brooks

Jean Brooks

Birthday: 1915-12-23 | Place of Birth: Houston, Texas

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)

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1948
Women in the Night

as    Maya

1946
The Falcon's Alibi

as    Baroness Lena

1946
The Bamboo Blonde

as    Marsha

1945
Two O'Clock Courage

as    Barbara Borden

1944
A Night of Adventure

as    Julie Arden

1944
The Falcon in Hollywood

as    Roxanna Miles

1943
The Seventh Victim

as    Jacqueline Gibson

1943
The Leopard Man

as    Kiki Walker

1943
The Falcon and the Co-Eds

as    Vicky Gaines

1942
The Boss of Big Town

as    Iris Moore

1941
A Dangerous Game

as    Anne Bennett (as Jeanne Kelly)

1941
Riders of Death Valley

as    Mary Morgan (as Jeanne Kelly)

1940
Son of Roaring Dan

as    Eris Brooke (as Jeanne Kelly)

1940
The Devil's Pipeline

as    Laura Larson (as Jeanne Kelly)

1936
Frankie and Johnnie

as    Cabaret Girl

1935
The Crime of Doctor Crespi

as    Nurse Gordon (as Jeanne Kelly)