Hazel Brooks
{{Short description|American actress}}
{{More citations needed |date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hazel Brooks
| image = Hazel Brooks.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|09|08}}
| birth_place = Cape Town, Union of South Africa
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|2002|09|18|1924|09|08}}}}
| death_place = {{nowrap|Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, U.S.}}
| othername = Hazel Brooks Ross
Hazel Brooks Gibbons
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = 1943–1955
| spouse = {{marriage|Cedric Gibbons|1944|1960|end=died}}
}}
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.{{cite news |last1=Dighton |first1=Ralph |title=Man Who Invented 'Oomph' To Make Hazel Brooks a Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37019462/hazel_brooks/ |accessdate=October 11, 2019 |work=The Courier-Journal |agency=Associated Press |date=June 22, 1947 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=25|via = Newspapers.com}} 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's half-brother. Brooks described her childhood as "very unhappy", noting that she attended 14 schools.{{cite news |last1=Graham |first1=Sheilah |title=Watch the Smoke Of Hazel Brooks, A Sure-Fire Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37056794/hazel_brooks/ |accessdate=October 12, 2019 |work=The Courier-Journal |date=March 2, 1947 |location=Kentucky, Louisville |page=28|via = Newspapers.com}}
Career
Brooks became a model when she was 16 and was represented by Harry Conover and Walter Thornton. A talent scout picked her and five other models to appear in the MGM film Du Barry Was a Lady (1943). She made a series of pictures at the studio during the 1940s, culminating with a supporting role in the 1947 film Body and Soul with John Garfield.
A photo of her by Durward Garyhill was voted "Most Provocative Still of 1947" by the International Society of Photographic Arts in January 1948.{{Cite web|title=Aenigma Images - Hazel Brooks|url=https://www.aenigma-images.com/articles_category/hazel-brooks/page/5|access-date=2021-06-04|website=www.aenigma-images.com}}
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.{{cite news |last1=Hopper |first1=Hedda |title=Cedric Gibbons marries actress Hazel Brooks |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37020051/hazel_brooks/ |accessdate=October 11, 2019 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=October 27, 1944 |location=California, Los Angeles |page=13|via = Newspapers.com}}
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).
Death
Brooks died in 2002, aged 78, in the Bel Air residential district of Los Angeles.{{Citation needed |date=April 2024}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Du Barry Was a Lady | Miss June | Uncredited |
| 1943 | Girl Crazy | Showgirl | Uncredited |
| 1944 | Rationing | Information Girl | Uncredited |
| 1944 | Patrolling the Ether | Taxi Driver | 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 | Dancer | Uncredited |
| 1946 | The Harvey Girls | Dance-Hall Girl | Uncredited |
| 1947 | Body and Soul | Alice | |
| 1948 | Sleep, My Love | Daphne | |
| 1948 | Arch of Triumph | Sybil | Uncredited |
| 1951 | The Basketball Fix | Lily Courtney | |
| 1953 | The I Don't Care Girl | Stella Forrest |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0112014}}
- [http://photos.oscars.org/listanevent.php?events=112 Oscars Obituary Page]
- [https://www.aenigma-images.com/2015/07/hazel-brooks-the-human-heatwave/ Hazel Brooks] at [https://www.aenigma-images.com/ aenigma]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Hazel}}
Category:American film actresses
Category:South African emigrants to the United States
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
{{US-film-actor-1920s-stub}}