Jean Brooks(1915-1963)
- Actress
The fourth and youngest child of Horace and Robina Kelly, Jean Brooks spent her early years in her native Texas before relocating to Costa Rica with her mother after her father's death. Her time in Costa Rica enabled her to become fluent in Spanish, and she began her professional career as a singer with
Enric Madriguera and Orchestra
in New York City. She had a small role in the New York City-filmed
The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935)
and the second lead in a state play, "Name Your Poison" (1938), with
Lenore Ulric. 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
La Septième Victime (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 named Thomas Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 of complications resulting from cirrhosis marked a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally.
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 named Thomas Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 of complications resulting from cirrhosis marked a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally.
