Phyllis Brooks
Phyllis Brooks was an American actress and model. Brooks was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho on July 18, 1915. She began her career in films at age 20, and had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl" due to her work as a model. Brooks, who had about 30 performances in films, was a B-movie leading lady during the 1930s and 1940s, with roles in such films as In Old Chicago (1937), Little Miss Broadway (1938), and the Shanghai Gesture (1941). In the late 1930s, she dated Cary Grant, who called her Brooksie, and rumors that the two would be married were circulated. Brooks, something of a socialite, also dated Howard Hughes.
Along with fellow actress Una Merkel, and accompanied by noted actor Gary Cooper, Phyllis was the first civilian woman to travel to the Pacific Theater of War during World War II, on a USO tour. She was married to Torbert Macdonald, an 11-term Massachusetts Congressman who was John F. Kennedy's roommate at Harvard, and who remained a close friend and confidante throughout his life. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts with her new husband in 1945 so he could complete his Harvard Law degree. Congressman Macdonald had been a Harvard football captain and a decorated PT boat captain in World War II. He died in office in 1976.
Phyllis continued performing in summer stock theater after her marriage, and hosted the first television interview program in Boston in the early 1950s (on WBZ-TV). She retired from public performances after that, concentrating on raising her family. The couple had four children, the eldest of whom was President Kennedy's godson. She died on August 1, 1995 in Cape Neddick, Maine at the age of 80.
Acting
Movie
The Shanghai Gesture
as Dixie Pomeroy
1941
Movie
In Old Chicago
as Ann Colby
1938
Movie
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
as Lola Lee
1938
Movie
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
as Judy Hayes
1938
Movie
The Unseen
as Maxine
1945
Movie
Ali Baba Goes to Town
as Herself
1937
Movie
Charlie Chan in Reno
as Vivian Wells
1939
Movie
Little Miss Broadway
as Barbara Shea
1938
Movie
Lady in the Dark
as Allison DuBois
1944
Movie
Slightly Honorable
as Sarilla Cushing
1939
Movie
Dangerous Passage
as Nita
1944
Movie
Sunday Night at the Trocadero
as Phyllis Brooks
1937
Movie
Silver Spurs
as Mary Johnson
1943
Movie
Another Face
as Sheila Barry
1935
Movie
Dangerously Yours
as Valerie Barton
1937
Movie
I've Been Around
as Gay Blackstone
1935
Movie
You Can't Have Everything
as Evelyn Moore
1937
Movie
The Flying Squad
as Ann Perryman
1940
Movie
High Powered
as Marian Blair
1945
Movie
Walking Down Broadway
as Vicki Stone
1938
Movie
Straight, Place and Show
as Barbara 'Babs' Drake
1938
Movie
No Place for a Lady
as Dolly Adair
1943
Movie
City Girl
as Ellen Ward
1938
Movie
Hi'ya, Sailor
as Nanette
1943