1. Jean Brooks began her career as a club singer and guitarist in New York City before being cast in several minor walk-on parts in films.
24 Facts About Jean Brooks
1. 2.
In 1942, Jean Brooks signed a contract with RKO and appeared in multiple films by the studio, including Jacques Tourneur's The Leopard Man, Mark Robson's horror noir The Seventh Victim, and drama Youth Runs Wild, as well as several films in the Falcon series.
3.
Jean Brooks died in 1963 of complications resulting from her alcoholism.
4.
Jean Brooks was born Ruby Matilda Kelly on December 23,1915 in Houston, Texas, the fourth child of Horace and Robina Kelly.
5.
Jean Brooks spent her early years in Texas but after her father's death during her childhood, she and her mother relocated to Costa Rica, her mother's native country.
6.
Jean Brooks began her professional career as a singer at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she sang and performed as a guitarist in Enric Madriguera's orchestra.
7.
Jean Brooks adopted the name Jeanne Kelly for her entertainment career, so as not to be confused with actress Ruby Keeler.
8.
Jean Brooks parted ways with von Stroheim some time after Crespi.
9.
Jean Brooks then acted in the stage melodrama Name Your Poison, opposite Lenore Ulric, which premiered at the Sam S Shubert Theatre in Newark, New Jersey on January 20,1936.
10.
In 1938, Jean Brooks attempted to get back into film acting.
11.
Jean Brooks landed two starring roles with Paramount, acting under the stage name Robina Duarte; her fluency in Spanish allowed her to effectively play the parts.
12.
Jean Brooks was awarded with her first leading role in a feature film, playing Laura in the adventure thriller The Devil's Pipeline in 1940.
13.
In 1941, Jean met and married writer and future film director Richard Brooks.
14.
Jean Brooks spent most of 1942 working bit parts, now performing under the name Jean Brooks.
15.
At RKO, Jean Brooks was to achieve her greatest success, though stardom eluded her.
16.
Jean Brooks appeared in six of The Falcon mystery movies before being cast as the heroine Kiki Walker in the Val Lewton-produced horror film The Leopard Man, directed by Jacques Tourneur.
17.
Two years later, Jean Brooks made her final screen appearance in the William Rowland-directed exploitation drama Women in the Night.
18.
Jean Brooks married screenwriter Richard Jean Brooks in 1941; they divorced on September 13,1944 in Los Angeles.
19.
In 1946, Jean Brooks met newly returned Marine Corps veteran, William Douglas Lansford, and they married.
20.
In 1956 Brooks wed San Francisco Examiner editor Thomas H Leddy, to whom she was married until her death.
21.
The couple resided in San Francisco, where Jean Brooks worked as a solicitor for classified ads.
22.
In November 1963, Jean Brooks was admitted to Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital in Richmond, California, suffering from complications from Laennec's cirrhosis, which she had lived with her last five years.
23.
Jean Brooks was buried at sea the following year, on September 10,1964.
24.
Jean Brooks's burial was reported in the papers in Costa Rica, though there were no obituaries, and apparently no knowledge of her death in Hollywood.