Brooke’s first job was as a model for Ivory Snow when she was a baby. She mostly had modelling jobs (she was a Breck girl, not to mention in ads for “Charlie” perfume with Shelly Hack of “Charlie’s Angels” fame) until a TV movie entitled “After the Fall” in 1974, when she was nine. Her first film role was in “Alice, Sweet Alice” (1976), a psychological thriller in which she played a bit part (freaky film which can still be found on Ebay).
Her big break, however, was in the first American film by French director Louis Malle entitled (as already mentioned) “Pretty Baby”, also starring Susan Sarandon and Keith Carradine. She plays the child of a prostitute (Sarandon)in a New Orleans brothel during WWI, and becomes the love interest of Carradine. It was scandalous due to her youth (12ish), the pedophilic undertones, the fact she does nude scenes, and the fact that her mother got her the part.
This film part was landed by virtue of the nude photo shoot she did with photographer Karl Gross at the insistence of her mother, who felt it would be a good career move (argue with her or not: she was right–Brooke made it to front page status overnight). Prints of this photo portfolio can still be ordered from the photographer, and are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She’s of course been in many films since (and is–as always–visually stunning), but I’ve never personally been impressed with her acting. In “Pretty Baby”, however, she was perfect.
“I’ll love you once, I’ll love you twice;
I’ll love you more than beans and rice.”
–Violet, “Pretty Baby”
(Re: links to the portfolio–do a search. Don’t want so suffer the “Wrath of Mods.” They are on the web, however; legal, beautiful, and prints are available for purchase, if you’re so inclined.)
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