Louise Brooks
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]
Photos
Films (35)
Away with Words
2026 · Louise Brooks
Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess
2012
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
2011 · Herself (archive footage)
Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
2010
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
2007 · Self (archive footage)
Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl
1999 · Self (archive footage)
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu
1998 · Herself (archive footage)
The Casting Couch
1995
1001 Films
1989 · (archival)
Louise Brooks
1986 · Herself (Archival Footage)
Lulu in Berlin
1984 · Self
Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture
1976 · Self - Interviewee
Overland Stage Raiders
1938 · Beth Hoyt
When You're in Love
1937 · Specialty Ballerina in Chorus
Empty Saddles
1936 · Boots Boone
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
1931 · Betty Grey
God's Gift to Women
1931 · Florine
It Pays to Advertise
1931 · Thelma Temple
Miss Europe
1930 · Lucienne
Diary of a Lost Girl
1929 · Thymian Henning
The Canary Murder Case
1929 · The Canary
Pandora's Box
1929 · Lulu
Beggars of Life
1928 · The Girl (Nancy)
A Girl in Every Port
1928 · Marie / Mam'selle Godiva
The City Gone Wild
1927 · Snuggles Joy
Now We're in the Air
1927 · Griselle and Grisette
Rolled Stockings
1927 · Carol Fleming
Evening Clothes
1927 · Fox Trot
Just Another Blonde
1926 · Diana O'Sullivan
The Show Off
1926 · Clara
It's the Old Army Game
1926 · Mildred Marshall
A Social Celebrity
1926 · Kitty Laverne
Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
1926 · Janie Walsh
The American Venus
1926 · Miss Bayport
The Street of Forgotten Men
1925 · A Moll
