Hazel Brooks
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Hazel Brooks | ||
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Background information | ||
Other names: | Hazel Brooks Ross Hazel Brooks Gibbons | |
Died | Sep 18, 2002 - age 78 Bel Air, Los Angeles, CA USA | |
Spouse(s): | Cedric Gibbons 1944-1960, died Rex Ross 1967-1999 died | |
Occupation: | Actress | |
Years active: | 1943-1955 | |
Hazel Brooks (✦September 8, 1924 – †September 18, 2002) was an American actress.
Early years
The daughter of a sea captain, Brooks was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her father died when she was three years old, and she moved with her mother to Brooklyn, New York. Her mother remarried and then divorced, resulting in custody battles over Brooks' half-brother. Brooks described her childhood as "very unhappy", noting that she attended 14 schools.
Career
Brooks became a model for Harry Conover when she was 16. A talent scout picked her and five other models to appear in the film "Du Barry Was a Lady" (1943). Billed under her real name, Hazel Brooks, she made a series of pictures at the studio during the 1940s, culminating with a lead role in 1947 "Body and Soul" with John Garfield.
She had captured almost as much attention three years earlier in 1944 when, at age 19, she married the long-time head of her studio's fabled art department, Cedric Gibbons, then 54. The wedding occurred on October 25, 1944. Although the age difference inspired a certain amount of winking in the gossip columns at the time, the marriage proved a strong one and lasted until Gibbons' death in 1960. Brooks subsequently married Dr. Rex Ross (1908-1999), a surgeon and founder of the Non-invasive Vascular Clinic at Hollywood Hospital.
According to long-time friend Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper's daughter, Ross in the years after her retirement from films became a skilled still photographer.
She also worked actively for a number of children's charities.
She had subsequent roles in "Arch of Triumph" and "Sleep, My Love" in 1948, as well as "The Basketball Fix" (1951) and "The I Don't Care Girl" (1953).
- Hazel Brooks appeared in YANK magazine on 22 December 1944
Death
Brooks died in 2002, aged 78, in Bel Air, a residential district of Los Angeles.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1943 | "Du Barry Was a Lady" | Miss June | Uncredited |
1943 | "Girl Crazy" | Showgirl | Uncredited |
1944 | "Rationing" | Information Girl | Uncredited |
1944 | "Meet the People" | Show Girl | Uncredited |
1944 | "Marriage Is a Private Affair" | Bridesmaid | Uncredited |
1944 | "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" | Girl in Officers' Club | Uncredited |
1945 | "Without Love" | Girl on Elevator | Uncredited |
1945 | "Ziegfeld Follies (film)" | Dancer | Uncredited |
1946 | "The Harvey Girls" | Dance-Hall Girl | Uncredited |
1947 | "Body and Soul" | Alice | |
1948 | "Sleep, My Love" | Daphne | |
1948 | "Arch of Triumph (1948 film)" | Sybil | Uncredited |
1951 | "The Basketball Fix" | Lily Courtney | |
1953 | "The I Don't Care Girl" | Stella Forrest |
References
External links
- Hazel Brooks at the Internet Movie Database
- Hazel Brooks at All Music Guide
- Oscars Obituary Page
- Hazel Brooks at aenigma
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