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Louise Brooks
Cherryvale, Kansas, USA
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and fl…
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Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career. Brooks began her career as a dancer. While dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City, she came to the attention of Walter Wanger, a producer at Paramount Pictures, and was signed to a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928). Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in seventeen silent films and eight sound films. After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became a paid escort. For the next two decades, she struggled with alcoholism and suicidal tendencies. Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78. [preceding biography, edited, from Wikipedia]
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Away with Words
Movie Louise Brooks
- 2012
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2011
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Movie Herself (archive footage)
- 2010
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2007
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1999
Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1998
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu
Movie Herself (archive footage)
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1998
Mysteries and Scandals
TV show Self (archive footage)
-
1995
The Casting Couch
Movie
-
1989
1001 Films
Movie (archival)
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1986
Louise Brooks
Movie Herself (Archival Footage)
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1984
Lulu in Berlin
Movie Self
-
1980
Hollywood
TV show Self
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1976
Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture
Movie Self - Interviewee
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1938
Overland Stage Raiders
Movie Beth Hoyt
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1937
When You're in Love
Movie Specialty Ballerina in Chorus
More credits
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1936
Empty Saddles
Movie Boots Boone
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1931
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
Movie Betty Grey
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1931
God's Gift to Women
Movie Florine
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1931
It Pays to Advertise
Movie Thelma Temple
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1930
Miss Europe
Movie Lucienne
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1929
Diary of a Lost Girl
Movie Thymian Henning
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1929
The Canary Murder Case
Movie The Canary
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1929
Pandora's Box
Movie Lulu
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1928
Beggars of Life
Movie The Girl (Nancy)
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1928
A Girl in Every Port
Movie Marie / Mam'selle Godiva
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1927
The City Gone Wild
Movie Snuggles Joy
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1927
Now We're in the Air
Movie Griselle and Grisette
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1927
Rolled Stockings
Movie Carol Fleming
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1927
Evening Clothes
Movie Fox Trot
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1926
Just Another Blonde
Movie Diana O'Sullivan
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1926
The Show Off
Movie Clara
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1926
It's the Old Army Game
Movie Mildred Marshall
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1926
A Social Celebrity
Movie Kitty Laverne
-
1926
Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
Movie Janie Walsh
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1926
The American Venus
Movie Miss Bayport
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1925
The Street of Forgotten Men
Movie A Moll
